Bannings and Battings
With this year being the tenth anniversary of SEX CRIMINALS, I’ve been on a nostalgic trip going through old files.
There’s of course the final image of our first arc:
That beautiful behind got me banned from Twitter for almost a week! And now I’ve simply self-banned from Twitter. What a world.
Censorship was definitely a thing when we started on the book. Matt and I were excited to have our issues available digitally since we knew there were certain comic shops that wouldn’t carry our filth.
But then, to our surprise, the digital versions weren’t allowed to be purchased through Apple devices! WIRED even did a story about it!
It was issue two that first received the blanket ban:
Which wasn’t even that bad! Sure, a young man ejaculates and his ejaculate freezes in mid-air, but that’s just life!
We were both quite concerned that our book wasn’t going to be available to readers and also quite delighted that our banning became a news story. It was a wild time. At one point issue two sold out and we needed a new cover. I whipped this one up:
We never used it. I can’t recall if Matt and I decided against it or if it was Image. I’m going to assume we all realized that Steve Jobs had only been dead two years so maybe it was in poor taste? This wouldn’t be our only banning as we then went on to make the American Library Associations Top Ten Most Banned Books list in 2016.
In any case, a fun time! Matt and I have talked a bit about doing a retrospective of Sex Criminals this year. We just have to find the time, since he’s ordering Godzilla around…
…and I’m telling Batman what to do.
SPEAKING OF BATMAN—
SMOOTH
Today is the first chapter of our new arc, MINDBOMB in Batman 139! I’m very excited about this one, mostly because Jorge and Tomeu make everything look so damned good, but also because I got to write some classic detective Batman, lookin’ all moooooody!
Go read it! It’s fun!
In my file digging I found this newspaper illustration I did around the time Sex Criminals was coming out about magazine airbrushing. It really set the tone for my stupid background gags in sexcrimz, so I’ll leave you with that today:
Bye!
Chip
Damn chip. Banned...over that? Clearly they haven’t done a deep dive into the profiles of “certain” accounts.
Also, damn, this week’s Batman was...wow. And yes, the good old detective dialogue was very much a highlight of this issue. Fact, lots have been saying that’s partially what they loved most about it. Me, I’m a simpler fellow. I see Batman and joker together, thrown in a twisted alternate persona that has alienated Bruce from his family in his attempts to usurp his control over the body. I am curious as to know how Joker is even aware of the other Batman down in Bruce’s head? To me knowledge, those two have never met until now.
Also, was it ur idea or Jorge’s for the callback shot to the killing joke with Joker’s throne there? Just curious.
Just how long is mindbomb planned for? This going to be roughly the same length as Failsafe and Bat-Man of Gotham, or a shorter one?
Keep it up chip! Also I can’t wait for more news to drop about Avengers Twilight!
I was wondering where they got all those amazing and definitely realistic sex tips from!