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Rock Paper Shotgun doesn't play Skullgirls (but talks about how sexist it is)
- Thread starter DefJam101
- Start date
Machocruz
Arcane
Yeah I was referring to superhero comics being the standard for popamole designers, not trying to flame the comic medium or comic artists in general. Superhero comics seem to be the prevalent influence and art education for many young people, and some never grow or expand beyond that.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
It's a tad more complex than just popularity of the genre fiction. Superhero comics are a huge part in comics landscape and its history, including in terms of landmark works and pinnacles of the medium. Watchmen was the first comic to win the Huge Award, and a significant number of the best writers and artists in English language comics have sizable amount of acclaimed work with superheroes. Whether or not this is a good thing, history has shown us during the 90's...
... But on the other hand the reconstruction work turned out really well.
Comics are still a good subject to talk about when discussing the infuriating "video games are art" crowd, as it's probably their most direct source of inspiration and jealousy (since comics were treated in the same manner but are now seen as legitimate and have IPs with worth and recognition vastly in excess to readership). With video games the problem is really that it's more than anything a thing driven by either fanboys harboring shame or self-important egotists (our dear creators of Braid and Fez). As far as storytelling goes, it's been known for decades that video games can do just as well as any other medium. It's just that people don't really get that the only answer to "what is art" is "who gives a shit".
Machocruz
Arcane
I dunno, this may be over-complicating it. When these game artists are sitting down to draw these muscular men and bodacious beauties, I don't think they're putting much thought into the intricacies of the comic medium or its history, or why superhero comics are more popular than others. I'm positing that maybe the kind of people who fill all character roles with bodybuilders and glamour models don't know any better because they know little else of human anatomy/depiction besides what was in the pages of their Justice League or X-Men books and, I should add, 80s action films. The reason I come to this possible conclusion is because I know some of these people in the field, and have seen the work of many others, and they rarely draw any other types of human beings, regardless of audience, in their personal sketchbooks or anywhere else. It's all "The Marvel way" or post-Rambo Hollywood. I see the same stylistic quirks and 'cheats' in many video game characters' anatomy that I see in Jim Lee drawings. Superheroes is what they had access to as impressionable children.
As far as audience expectations, they're catering to the same kind of people. Funny thing is, a lot of these games keep failing, and shit like Minecraft, Mario, Amnesia and CoD (whose men are normal relative to stuff like Gears) are the sales and/or viral sensations. The audience for chesticular dudes and DD dames is a loud minority, as usual for things that the games press and forum dwellers try to push as being teh bestus true gaming.
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