This topic
came to my mind during school tutorials, regarding my project. I was describing
personality of my character and how it affects her appearance. My explanations
weren’t sufficient for my tutor and one question kept flowing out of his mouth
“Why does she look so sensual?”. I kept telling this is my style of drawing,
which is based on a comic books style and for this character, goading clothes
are sign of the rebellion and self assurance. That were good reasons for me but
not for a tutor, the answer was: “Why”. I went home with the same question
clouding in mind, thinking of the answer. Why does she look that way? I kept
asking myself - Because she’s representing an archetype of a strong woman; Why
is she sexy? – Because it’s a comic book style; Why is it typical for comic
books? -------------I don’t know? But I will find out. That was the trail I walked
to wake up the curiosity and desire to explore topics. I was really curious
about the answer and actually, I spotted very interesting facts.
Evolution of women in comics
In
so called “Golden Era” of comics, outstretching from 1930s to 1940s, artists
let their imagination free. There were various topic talked about, coming out
as comics. Women were also included but, if appeared in a story, they were
visualized rather as secondary roles, supporting the main character’s
performance. 
There were some heroines, usually connected somehow to the male, main character superhero and mainly as lovers or girlfriends. Fitting the secondary role, female figures and their costumes had nothing unusual in a design. They were not supposed to attract that much attention, as their role was just to accompany.
That was at
the beginning, but historical facts had it’s mark left in mentality of people.
Historical influence
After World
War II another types of personality started to be promoted. Women who had to
work and support male fighting in a field, couldn’t expect help from anyone but
themselves. It had a global aspect, women were encouraged to work in a
factories, supplying heavy industry. It was time when all men were involved in
fighting a war and with shortage of human source, authorities decided to
involve both genders in a play. I had a
chance to research this topic a little bit, while visiting Museum of Transport
in Coventry. There was an additional exhibition, presenting work in industries
during World War II. Some points were dedicated the work of females, who
supported factories, replacing men on their jobs. 
The new
mentality was born and women started to feel their price and abilities. They
were not only predicted to procreation and housekeeping but could serve higher
purposes as well. It created some bases for feminism, women started to fight
for their rights. This phenomenon, visible in society, had an impact on
creation of female characters in comics.
First
superheroines
New type of women, gave the artists an idea for
creating female characters for their comics. As the author of an article “Role
of women in comics” said “This…..created the ‘femme fatale’, who was a sexually
aggressive woman.” Looking at dictionary definition of “femme fatale”, it
describes type of woman who’s using her position in society or personal
attributes to use males, with harm for them. For this definition definitely has
negative meaning, it doesn’t mean all superheroines are bad. As we can see on
example of first Wonder Woman creation, she is the symbol of good. I would say,
the same attributes used in service of evil can be used for purposes of
goodness as well. The only thing that changes are enemies. In other words, we
can have very attractive woman, who’s the positive character, and who uses her
attributes to defeat evil. Wonder Woman was one of the first ever heroines who gained
bigger attention of the audience and she was created by William Moulton Marston.
It was unusual in comics to give superpowers to a woman and let her play a leading role in a story, while only male had those abilities before. The best explanation for this character is given by it’s creator: "America's woman of tomorrow should be made the hero of a new type of comic strip. By this, I mean a character with all the allure of an attractive woman, but with the strength also of a powerful man. There isn't enough love in the male organism to run this planet peacefully. What women presently lack is the dominance or self-assertive power to put over and enforce her love diaries. I have given Wonder Woman this dominant force, but kept her loving. It is my hope to make this strip as appealing to adults as it has proved to kids.”
Although a
superhero, Wonder Woman was always showed bounded. Specialists explain that it
could have a symbolic meaning of achieving freedom, the feminist equal rights.
But facing the truth, for readers it was understood as sexual aspect. Also her
costume design was different to her predecessors. It’s form emphasized female
shape but wasn’t much revealing and could be described as a good taste.
Changes in
comics industry
Comics
developed in 30’s and 40’s and people had some freedom of self expression. Unfortunately, authorities felt that some
things are getting too far. Comics always had to deal with some restrictions,
but there was time, when situation got really tense. Dr. Fredric Wertham was a psychiatrist who researched dependence
between environment’s influences and tendency to criminal behavior among young
people. The final hit came in 1954 with releasing a book “Seduction of
Innocent” where it’s author proved that comic books are filled with sex, crime,
murder, sadism and other unacceptable actions and have a negative influence on
the young age readers.
Comic
publishers had to rescue their companies and, in cooperation, in 1954 set up a
Comic Code Authority (CCA). It had very strict and clear rules regarding content
of comics: no
“
profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols, that have acquired
undesirable meanings….., vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and
werewolfism, …….., nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue
exposure, …….. suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is
unacceptable.”
These were
rules the companies had to follow if they still willed to publish. Each
magazine had to have a sticker of approval and without it, there was no chances
of publishing, selling and storing.
Underground
As we know,
people don’t like any restrictions limiting their rights and forbidden ground always brings much more joy.
The same thing happened with comics. Artists who didn’t follow the rules, still
created their own stories but in hideout. It was gaining popularity, even
though considered as illegal.
Revolution
In 1960’s
situation started changing. Artists who worked in the underground brought out
all “taboo” topics and set up their own networks and publishing companies.
Period from 1960 to 1980 was time, when Comic Code started collapsing. Private
publishers grown very successful, going over the restrictions. It wouldn’t work
out without customers. People were hungry of things that were forbidden for so
long, and as it usually happens, when you loose dog from the leash, the need
for new prohibited stuff grow really fast. 
Until
1960’s, female characters showed up in comics just as a supporting role for the
main male character. They played role of a lover or heart breaker. Due to
restrictions, female figure was drawn “natural” without any exaggeration. It
was made on a purpose, as to avoid restricted topics. In 60’s and 70’s, when
revolution slowly started, artists tried to give more important role to females
and turn them into heroines, like Sue - The Invisible Girl .
She
was treated as not strong enough and her role was mainly to meddle in romance
story. But she was part of the team and female position started growing. So far
female characters weren’t popular enough to perform alone, they were always a
visiting roles in a main comics.
In 1979 a
Black cat showed up for the first time in The Amazing Spiderman comic. She was
a stronger female character than her predecessors and her suit design is based
on a cat look, what brings more sexual thoughts to mind. These were the stages
when female posture started changing.
In 1980’s
Female characters developed and evolved to the strong image and self stating
heroines, finally. They were given more wisdom, more self assurance and most
importantly the powers as strong as their male colleagues.
From that moment on, female figure started
changing rapidly. That was the result of upgrading women position in comics but
also reflection of a changing world. Sexuality has always been part of human
being ,but was treated quite secretly and personal. For many years it was a
topic of taboo, something what shouldn’t be talked about. The best example for
that is the Comic Code and it’s restrictions.
As time
past, more topics become acceptable and free to talk about, and nowadays,
sexuality is something common and most attracting attention. That’s why comic
books now look this way.
 |
| Bettie Page 1950 |
Another reason is different perception of
beauty. For example, Bettie Page, who was a famous model back in 50’s, was
considered as very attractive and Dave Stevens (comic artist) used her
appearance as base for the character in Rocketeer. Nowadays different styles
are promoted as attractive and artists change styles of drawing to gather bigger
audience.
 |
| Mila Kunis 2013 |
Another
reason explaining current look of female characters is their promotion to the
superheroines. Once that happened, the changes had to made to make them fit
other characters. All male characters in DC and Marvel comic are stylized onto
idyllic gods of perfection and their bodies grow to enormous shapes. This is
all part of exaggeration to make those “super” figures flawless. Automatic
response goes to female bodies. All attributes considered as feminine gain on
sizes and shapes. To expose those features, females are drawn in very flexible,
cat – like positions, just to make them perfect and attractive.
As we can see, in comparison to previous years
, heroines costumes changed as well. They got more revealing with years, and
the less covered character became better. That’s another connection to times
we’re living in. Nudity and skimpy clothes are promoted in each media, round
every corner and as much as we would like to deny it, it is simply true. That’s
something which attracts attention easily and bigger audience means bigger sell
for comic books. It’s not for the artists but for the customers. Just don’t
understand me wrong, I don’t mean to promote nudity, I just point out the fact
existing around us, and if it’s something ordinary, why not follow the same
path and gain benefits.
The last
reason is the target audience. Yes, in modern times there is still growing
number of women who read comics, BUT still the great majority of readers are
men. It has always been, and stays for now up, trade running around guys. This
is them for whom artist work so hard on characters details, to make them ideal
for the viewer. It’s supposed to be something they will love and want to see
more, and don’t tell me that looking at very attractive women, running in
skimpy clothes and fighting the enemies isn’t something they wouldn’t like too
see. As Scott McCloud said in his book “Comics need to appeal to basic human
needs and desires – offering a view of the world worth returning to”. This is
the most important factor, shaping your final designs for characters – target
audience. 
Conclusion
Those
research gave me the whole reasonable explanation of creating characters for
comics and explained that all the aspects are dictated by society, history,
breaking revolutions, and current trends. As sexual knowledge and confidence
started growing, comic characters, considered as ideal, started to change their
appearance. Modern models of beauty and confidence are portrayed as very
attractive women who feel confident about herself and her body, and that’s why
they don’t avoid skimpy costumes.
Reference
books:
Scott
McCloud; Reinventing Comics: How
Imagination and Technology are Revolutionizing an Art Form; Harper Collins;
2000; ISBN 0-06-095350-0
Tim
Pilcher; Erotic Comics 2: A Graphic
History from the Liberated ‘70s to the Internet; Abrams ComicArts; 2009;
ISBN 978-0-8109-7277-3
Les
Daniels, Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear; The
Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days; New York ; Harry N. Abrams; 2004; ISBN
0-8109-4969-5
Marvel Comics;Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Volume ; Marvel; 2012, ISBN 0785163808
;Marvel Firsts: WWII Super Heroes; Marvel; 2013, ISBN
0785167919
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