violence
Anyone up for a game of ‘Edgy Comics Bingo’?
Cathy Leamy's "Edgy Comics Bingo"
Just in time for New Comics Day, Cathy Leamy has posted her “Edgy Comics Bingo” card, which is part game, part commentary and all … fun for the entire family? Okay, maybe not that last part.
While many of the tropes depicted on the card are all too familiar — “Whores Who Need Saving,” “Thinly Veiled Real People” and “Whatever Fetish Was On Boing Boing Last Month” leap out — I’ve concluded I may be reading the wrong (or is that right?) comics. For instance, I can’t recall any that included “Things Going Up Butts” or “Gay Overcompensating.” That said, I’ve seen enough instances of “Knifemurder” — which presumably includes swords and/or tridents through the back — and “‘splodemurder” in comics to last a couple of lifetimes.
40 most violent comics, my Aunt Fanny
Lev Gleason, you wuz robbed
I suppose in general I agree with most of the selections in Complex Magazine’s The 40 Most Violent Comics Ever, put together by Chris Sims and John Parker. The picks tend toward the obvious though, with a decided emphasis on recent, mainstream comics of the past 20 years, making me wish they had put a bit more effort into their selection process. Garth Ennis, Frank Miller and Mark Millar are all name-checked several times and books like Preacher, Hard Boiled and Faust all put in appearances. No surprises, really.
And while I’m glad to see manga included via Lone Wolf and Cub and Blade the Immortal, but is that all they could come up with? What about Hideshi Hino? Suehiro Maruo? Shintaro Kago? Takashi Nemoto’s Monster Men Buriko Lullaby makes Faust look like a Casper comic. Kazuo Umezu’s The Drifting Classroom has elementary school kids falling to their death and being strangled by madmen and stabbed fer crissakes!
Even if we keep to North America there are still plenty of worthy entries that got the shaft for watered-down stuff like Kraven’s Last Hunt. How, for example, can you not include Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy? The underground comics of Greg Irons and Tom Veitch? Lev Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay? Friggin EC horror comics for cryin’ out loud! I demands a recount.