Monday, August 29, 2005

BOOB WAR: a definition

What is Boob War? It is not a compare/contrast between Tomb Raider and Power Girl.* I am base and crude, yes, but I would like to think that I have some female readers, and I don’t want to go down that road. Put simply, Boob War is a style of comic book that features that magical confluence between sex and violence.

Actually, Boob War comics don’t feature sex at all – then they would just be called Avatar Comics. Rather, Boob War offers titillation, the alluring promise of sex married with the satisfying release of violence. These comics are designed for boys of all ages, and I firmly believe that Boob War will be around for as long as we have comics. The principles of Boob War easily translate into video games as well, but that’s another topic.

What makes a comic a Boob War comic? It has to have these two elements:

a) violence perpetrated by females
b) those females have to be drawn in a titillating way.

It’s that simple.

--------
"Boob War is a style of comic book that features that magical confluence between sex and violence."
--------

Boob War is defined by intention. Does the creative team (writer or artists) intend to titillate, to arouse? If the answer is yes, chances are you’ve got yourselves a Boob War.

Granted, Boob War is a subjective term, and often depends on one’s point of view. A comic can alternate between Boob War and non-Boob War, sometimes on a monthly basis.

Let me give you an example. Catwoman, an ongoing series from DC Comics, has veered in an out of Boob War territory. Artist Jim Balent was on Catwoman for years and he drew a very, um, buoyant version of the character. Regardless of who the writer was during the Balent run, these books solidly fall into the Boob War category, because a) there was violence, and b) the intent to titillate was there. However, when artist Darwyn Cooke took over the book, Catwoman was no longer a Boob War book. Cooke’s slinky, mod rendition of the character was not intended to arouse the reader, merely to serve the story.

Don’t agree with me? Get your own damn blog. Ha ha! I kid. I kid because I love.

Okay, now that we have the definition of Boob War, let’s take a long, lingering look over some stand-out entries in the field. First stop: Lady Death, or as I like to call her, Lady Def.

*Just for the record, Power Girl wins.

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, that's good, as it means we won't have to see MODAM's or Orca's boobies again. Never have I seen such a horrifying combination of two such cool things as Modok and boobies.

Will you do Sojourn? How about Crimson Plague? That certainly had violence perpetrated by women (namely, the main character was destroying entire cities with her blood), and it was certainly intended to tittilate, however just plain wrong that is. You promised some time earlier that you would do that book eventually. Are you man enough to take it on?

David Campbell said...

Crimson Plague is in the queue! Sojourn, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Crimson Plague is the kind of book blogs like Dave's were invented for.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

IRANIAN judges have been given approval to carry guns and to use them if they feel threatened...
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David Campbell said...

Wow, you found my Boob War post inspirational??? Thanks Spam Comment person!

Anonymous said...

This is a excellent blog. Keep it going. Here's a subject that interests many; how to buy & sell poppy seed on interest free credit.

David Campbell said...

You're right, buying and selling poppy seeds on interest free credit is something everyone is interested in! Tell me more!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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DougBot said...

I think Blogger has implemented captchas, for what it's worth.

Though man, now I want to grow seeds at home while I homeschool my kids and Make.Money.Fast.

David Campbell said...

I've been resisting implementing the word verification thing because I find them annoying and think that people might not bother to comment if I put them up, and I loves me the comments. Maybe I should...

Anonymous said...

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Edward Liu said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Edward Liu said...

Is Frank Thorne's Ghita of Alazaar in the queue for Boob War? It just about defines the concept, with tons of sex, tons of violence, and no apologies for either. It's everything that Thorne couldn't get away with on Red Sonja.

None of which makes it a good comic book, but it does fit the bill here.

(Spammers die die die.)

Anonymous said...

I suggest you cover Greg Horn's J.U.D.G.E. (I know you 've indulged me on that -- May the seven shades of the Serapheim and all that) or any other comic by him and rename this event as B.O.O.B. WAR.


PS Great job on the VM blog as always

PPS It would rock if these spammers were using the '1963' English course style:

Hi,

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Kevin Church said...

Dave.

Implement the fucking word verification.

This. I. Command.

Mark W. Hale said...

I'm glad you defined this, 'cause I thought maybe you were going to talk about tit fight comics. Or maybe knocker brawl comics. Or maybe jug tussle comics.

etc.

thekelvingreen said...

I think that post about judges carrying guns might actually ahve been broadly appropriate, since Judge Dredd is a judge who carries a gun, and he appears in comics.

However, he does not have boobs.

Shon Richards said...

Boob War may be the greatest thing to hit comic blogs EVAR.

I remember being about three years old when we visited a friend's family. Their little girl was my age and for some reason, her parents had bought her Red Sonja comics. I flipped through her comics dazzled by the art. Later when I saw Red Sonja in a Conan comic I was terribly excited and perplexed. What kind of childhood involves Red Sonja at that age?

Batiduende said...

Other candidates for Boob War comics could be:

Gen 13 - practically any version, except maybe the Arcudi one.

Vertigo´s Project Knockout?

Phantom Lady for some 40s Boob War.

Anonymous said...

The Boob War concept just reminds me of all the Avenglyne issues I still own in my collection that I've been trying to sell off for years. Man did I buy some crappy stuff in the nineties.


Great blog by the way, I think I wasted hours on end just going through all the prior posts. Inspired me to dig through my collection just to remember just how bad some of the issues mentioned here were, lol.

DougBot said...

I'm guessing Chyx is going to make an appearance, if I had to guess.

The endless Tomb Raider / Witchblade / Hello Kitty crossovers, maybe.

Winterteeth said...

If this Boob War is so justified, how come we haven't found the Nipples of Mass Destruction? Answer that!

Also, apparently spammers are drawn to boobies just like real humans...go figure.

Mark W. Hale said...

They've been hidden by the Nipple Magician, duh.

Mark W. Hale said...

Also, I posted a perfect boob war cover here.

[end cheap plug]

Kitty said...

Boob War! Yes! Christ, that makes my week. I LOVE YOU DAVE SO MUCH.

Anonymous said...

Just to add my vote here, I am WAY less annoyed by verification than I am by such valuable comments as "dood ur bolg is cool chekc out my site its' motsly about gardenig and needlepoint its at grandmaporn.net"

Chris Arndt said...

Activate the word verification or I'll either lead a boycott towards this blog or sacrifice you to my enemies.

Whichever threat is more believeable.

Marionette said...

However, he does not have boobs.

He would if he was drawn by Liefeld

David Campbell said...

OK, I have activated the word thing. Thanks for your input, everybody and sorry about any inconvenience.

Chris said...

Dave,

The worst thing about you implementing word verification? No more snarky remarks about how you can GET AN INTEREST FREE MORTGAGE AT MY BLOG!

Just kidding. Good move.

Also, does Joe Bennett's Hawkgirl fit into Boob War? Ah, maybe I'll just hold out for Hiney War!

Seriously, you just made my week,

Anonymous said...

Power Girl wins! Wooooo!

James Meeley said...

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooobs!!!!

Well, someone had to say it. ;)

So, the boobs wars are strictly about the characters and how they are drawn? I guess that's cool.

Although, based solely on the name, I was going to nominate John Byrne, Rob Liefeld and Alan David Doane. Those are the biggest boobs I know of. ;)

Bring on the boobs wars! :)

Anonymous said...

Sorry this is off-topic (and I'd have sent an email but couldn't find your address). At least it's not as off topic as poppy seeds and free software.

But... where is the Velvet Marauder!? It's not so much that I'm in suspense (well maybe a little) as I think I figured out who Quentin/Clarke/Bradbury were around January (you gave some really nice hints). Of course, those hints could have been clever misdirection...

I just love the writing. It's clever, funny, and a very nice twist on most blogs/fan fiction.

So, please more VM if and when you can! You could always explain the absence (if you're not desperately hurt) as being knocked into the tesseract in June and emerging in September a mere few seconds later (to you).

Again, sorry for the off-topic (and if you've mentioned VM-status elsewhere on this blog other than that you're late getting to it, which I did see).

Oh and the word verification (for posting) seems a good idea. I didn't mind it.

Jones

David Campbell said...

Re: VM -

I fell behind a few months back, and instead of making up some reason to jump ahead chronologically, I figured I could catch up. I'm stupid that way.

So although the last VM post appears to have been made in June, I actually wrote it on August 28th. So fear not! Another post is coming within 48 hours. I'm glad you like it.

Hate Filled Poster said...

Hi I'm from the center for word verification studies and I think you'd be interested in my site. Comment spam is a serious problem and is crippling economies in the Middle East and other countr...Holy Crap! It's Boobies! Boob War! Wooooooo Hoooooo!

For a while comment spam was funny in it's off topicness, but three in one comment section is annoying.

joncormier said...

Wow, a comic blog that's examining comics and not complaining about super summer event. This is fun. I'm glad you're out there David.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, keep up the good work Dave. This is my new favorite blog.

I could forgive the spammers if it wasn't for the fake "Your blog is great! I read it!" stuff.

Anonymous said...

Boob War needs some Warrior Nun Ariela (or however you spell that thing).

I've never read a Warrior Nun comic but I always point to it as the height of absurdity in the Boob War (nee "Bad Girl") prevalence of the 1990s... and it seems to be calling, nay, shouting for the Long Box treatment.

Also, I was reading the Marvel Star Wars #48 a few weeks ago and it needs a right DLB spanking...

Anonymous said...

Darwyn Cooke's Catwoman was not intended to arouse the reader?

Blimey, just because it's subtle and doesn't involve GGG busts and square feet of exposed skin doesn't mean it isn't there.

In fact, I'd say Cooke's Catwoman is more erotic than anything you've scanned this week.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I wasn't drinking chocolate milk when I started reading these comments, as the term "jug tussle" would have surely resulted in twin Nestle geysers jetting from my nostrils.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting! Seems like there is a bit of femdom involved.
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