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[Abounder]

Even though this comment doesn't work since they're kindergartners, I more or less agree with these words when it comes to the "style" seen in the OP:

Rule of thumb: If you have to age up the character by ten years in order to not make it pedophilia, just stop now and rethink what you're doing.

It also doesn't help that they're in shiny boob-tight latex dresses that belong in Austin Powers.

Anyway pulling the cover was both justified and an overreaction. It's not worth the trouble to battle the pedophilia label for a brand like Powerpuff Girls (thus dropping the cover), and they get attention in the process anyway. The artist was commissioned for another cover, and the comic book shop guy and co. doesn't have to see it on the stands

 

[tiggerkiddo]

Art is terrible to be honest. Don't see the cover as controversial, it's just bad.

 

[border]

Shock and awe, girls who wear short skirts and high socks largely don't mean to be sexually provocative. I'd like to see some of your faces if you opened up a trendy fashion mag for young girls.

In a world where schoolgirls have been so heavily fetishized, I suppose the line between cute and sexy has become kind of vague and arbitrary. A Catholic schoolgirl uniform that would have been modest 40 years ago now carries some sexual connotations.

At the same time, there's a reason thigh-highs are not considered appropriate for a work environment or a formal environment (while regular stockings are generally quite normal). And you'd be hard-pressed to find a girl's magazine that dresses 10 year olds like that. Or find a parent that wouldn't be mortified to see their pre-teen in an outfit like that.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

IDW should have seen this one coming, jeez.

You go to the artists facebook and it's boundless sketches of perky breasts and erect nipples.
I think the cover is scandalous, as they look like hookers but are like 8 years old....but at the same time, IDW must have know who they hell they were hiring and what her artstyle was like.

 

[Zoe]

At the same time, there's a reason thigh-highs are not considered appropriate for a work environment or a formal environment (while regular stockings are generally quite normal). And you'd be hard-pressed to find a girl's magazine that dresses 10 year olds like that. Or find a parent that wouldn't be mortified to see their pre-teen in an outfit like that.

My PT was just telling me the other day about how her young daughter is obsessed with knee/thigh high socks.

 

[akira28]

Aren't they supposed to be kindergarteners

Not on that cover, no.

vv: they rape you with their eyes.

 

[meltingparappa]

Someone drew a picture of adult women wearing fairly normal clothing? A WOMAN drew them no less?

What sick filth.

Thank god I'm a comic retailer.

 

[The Technomancer]

My PT was just telling me the other day about how her young daughter is obsessed with knee/thigh high socks.

Does she wear them with four inch long skirts?

 

[border]

Someone drew a picture of adult women wearing fairly normal clothing? A WOMAN drew them no less?

What sick filth.

Thank god I'm a comic retailer.

Skin tight latex dresses and thigh-high boots are fairly normal? Outside of a strip club?

I'm opposed to the cancellation of this cover, but at the same time I can't pretend like it's that innocent.

 

[akira28]

They are not dressed like strippers. OR sluts.

I won't claim it's completely innocent, but I'm not scandalized a bit by this. I mean, if you look closely enough for something, you might find it.
But the words skin tight latex slut child with bed room eyes weren't the first thing to pop into my head. I thought it was a little cheeky, but that's it.
This is not rubbing cards on handhelds.


vv: well it was a limited edition alternate cover, not the standard one, so it's possible that very few young girl subscribers would have found it in their boxes. And if they did, they probably wouldn't be getting all of the hidden messages that some people seem so afraid of anyway. If the point was rule 34 porn, then yeah, go to rule34.com and have your mind blown with all sorts of sick deviant yet tastefully done fanart to rot your soul and make you lose faith in humanity. But that wasn't the point of the cover. Personally I didn't care until I read what the artist said, so now I'm Team Mimi.

It is silly, but I'm on the 'people should lighten up' side this time.

 

[wenis]

I would've pulled it for the art alone. Not seeing what the huffing and puffing is about, but my attention span for a powerpuff comic book is severely limited.

i guess if all those young girl subscribers walked into their lcs and picked up their pull list they'd certainly be shocked, but those dudes that still read these and feel a slight tingle in their pants could easily go to a rule 34 website and find all the mojo on professor on the blue powerpuff girl porn they'd ever dream of in a matter of moments.

I don't know, it all seems silly.

 

[Staccat0]

Yes. The interior art uses the same style as the TV show.

Gonna have to call overreaction on this one. Nothing really sexual about outside of maybe Blossom showing a little too much thigh. It's more creepy than anything.

I'm gonna have to call "poorly worded opinion" on this one.
It's not sexualizing characters children! It's just creepy!

 

[lednerg]

They're looking seductively at the viewer, and Blossom's giving us a peek up her skirt. Yes, this crossed a line.

I personally don't give a shit, but I see what they're saying.

 

[Mona]

looks fine to me, but then im not very invested in the powerpuff girls

i kind of like it when characters are depicted in different styles for these off projects

 

[Kitsunebaby]

If that's considered sexualized, then Powerpuff Girls has had sexualized characters since its inception.

And considering the number of adult jokes and references in the original series, the idea that this cover is supposed to be scandalous is downright silly.

 

[Dai101]

If that's considered sexualized, then Powerpuff Girls has had sexualized characters since its inception.

http://i.imgur.com/y7HPQNt.gif[IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/VoQF3wP.gif[IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cho1Po5.gif[IMG]

And considering the number of adult jokes and references in the original series, the idea that this cover is supposed to be scandalous is downright silly.[/QUOTE]

Pretty much, along with the rest of the Cartoon Cartoons of the same era.. But hey, let's bitch and outrage a bit more.

 

[EloquentM]

Kindergarten children with boobs! Just how many years were they held back!!!? The outrage. Grab my pitch fork.

Spoiler

I know they're aged in this variant cover.

 

[Zaptruder]

If this is sexualized, then what's Sailor Moon?

 

[Dai101]

If this is sexualized, then what's Sailor Moon?

A miserable pile of love and justice?

 

[UrbanRats]

The avatars you guys are using don't exactly mask your obvious bias for sexualised female cartoon characters.

Regarding the picture in the OP, not only have the girls been sexualised physically (long slender legs, shapely and largish breasts) they've had any real expression stripped from them and replaced with dead features including lustful eyes. They even all share the same expression/features apart from their clothes/hair/accessories. Powerpuff Girls was all about showing how girls could be tough, full of character, unique, varied and bad-ass in equal measures to boys and most importantly so without being objectified - that image doesn't exactly support it and I'm glad it's not being run on an official publication. I do however think this image is fine as a fan-art piece that won't be put in front of already established younger fans.

I'm a little disappointed and surprised to see nobody else in the thread feels this image leaves a bad taste in the context it was chosen for. It's incredibly off brand in a way that could effect young girls negatively.

Good post, aside from the stupid avatar quip, i agree, not enraging or anything, but kind of shallow and actually against the show's core personality.

If this is sexualized, then what's Sailor Moon?

I remember that i and most of my school friends were kind of drooling over it, as kids.

But now that i think about it, we were also all over the pink ranger, and i really can't call the Power Rangers sexualized in any way.

 

[border]

They are not dressed like strippers.

Outside of strippers, fetish models, and porn stars, who else wears latex dresses and thigh-high boots?

It is silly, but I'm on the 'people should lighten up' side this time.

The main reason I think the cover should be permissible is because the issue is going to be in comic book shops only. Any kid that goes into a comic store to buy it will have seen 50 pairs of immaculately drawn and detailed tits by the time they pick up their copy of PowerPuff Girls #6. Crying about the sexualization of the characters seems pointless, because in the world of comic books sexualized characters are the norm. To protest a single cover seems pointless, when all the other covers are going to be either violent or sexual in nature. Just entering a comic book shop is going to be more damaging to a young girl's sense of self than buying this particular issue. It's re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, for lack of a less cliche metaphor.

 

[Meus Renaissance]

you guys are crazy if you don't think this is over sexualized. not appropiate at all for the age group it's aiming at. glad they took it down.

Absolutely. I'm surprised it's even debatable

 

[Carcetti]

Terrible cover. Those staring, inhuman Bratz child faces combined with latex dresses, jeez.

 

[Wiktor]

It always surprises me how much effort some people are putting into finding things they can be offended about these days.

 

[Roastbeef]

well, the Cover is ugly as fuck, so it being pulled is not all bad.

but to y'all clamoring about slutty kindergartners, chill the fuck down: these fugly pictures clearly show the ppg aged up and clad more modestly than most teenage superheroines. you kind of remind me of jon lajoie's "Miley you're a good girl": it seems to me that you're masquerading your discomfort about the notion that all children do eventually grow up and start thinking about sexual stuff by claiming that you're worried about them being "corrupted" by the slightest hint of skin.

 

[Loofy]

Do little girls really read this comic though? Its probably teens and the brony crowd.

If it does sell to little girls I can see where the retailer is coming from. I doubt parents would buy this for kids and at the end of the day its all about $$$.

 

[EVOL 100%]

Are they supposed to look like aliens?

 

[Vice]

Do little girls really read this comic though? Its probably teens and the brony crowd.

If it does sell to little girls I can see where the retailer is coming from. I doubt parents would buy this for kids and at the end of the day its all about $$$.

Kids comic books do appeal to kids. I covered a panel for the Adventure Time comic for a website and it was filled with boys, girls and their parents.

 

[jaxword]

It always surprises me how much effort some people are putting into finding things they can be offended about these days.

This is like 50% of Neogaf.

And most forums.

And most of the internet.

 

[Zelias]

That cover is awful artistically and creepy as hell. Glad they pulled it.

 

[Kanyon]

On the real, this comes off as someone who's never had something they grew up re-interpreted by alternate artists; the outrage being so hot but misplaced. It brings me back to the reboot redesigns when that show had rumblings of being restarted a few years ago and how vocal and vitrolic the feedback was.

That looks freaking awesome... Been a fan of Reboot for years and would have loved to have seen this interpretation!

 

[siddx]

Huh, I just took the cover to be an artist's interpretation of what they would look like as teenagers, I didn't sense anything remotely sexual about it. I guess I need to retune my outrage detector so I can feel entitled to gnash my teeth in anger at meaningless shit too.

If anything the distributor who saw the image and immediately thought "sex!" is the pervert here, since aparently all it takes to make him think something is sexualized are girls who have hit puberty.

 

[Kinyou]

Outside of strippers, fetish models, and porn stars, who else wears latex dresses and thigh-high boots?

Superheroes

 

[Hitokage]

Angst over characters originally existing as children is rather strange considering that every woman you will ever meet was once a young girl. Thing is, they aren't anymore. That's the point of growing up.

 

[dan2026]

Superheroes

Perfect counter.

This cover looks like the most inoffensive thing I have ever seen.
If it offends you, you should probably give up popular media forever.

 

[Jill Sandwich]

Ban this filth.

 

[Zaptruder]

Huh, I just took the cover to be an artist's interpretation of what they would look like as teenagers, I didn't sense anything remotely sexual about it. I guess I need to retune my outrage detector so I can feel entitled to gnash my teeth in anger at meaningless shit too.

If anything the distributor who saw the image and immediately thought "sex!" is the pervert here, since aparently all it takes to make him think something is sexualized are girls who have hit puberty.

Guy basically got a guilt chubby and decided to externalize it.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Girls grow up and get nice boobs, legs, and butts? They can wear similar clothes...

 

[Hitokage]

Huh, I just took the cover to be an artist's interpretation of what they would look like as teenagers, I didn't sense anything remotely sexual about it. I guess I need to retune my outrage detector so I can feel entitled to gnash my teeth in anger at meaningless shit too.

If anything the distributor who saw the image and immediately thought "sex!" is the pervert here, since aparently all it takes to make him think something is sexualized are girls who have hit puberty.

To be fair, puberty is the process of biological sexualization, but again, part of growing up. It happens.

 

[GorillaJu]

Ban this filth.

Slutty high boots, skin tight clothing, and holy shit those eyes are begging for the D. Plus she's not even 8 years old so how can she possibly appeal to 8 year old girls as a character?

I'm appalled and if I were her parent I'd be mortified.

 

[Pyramid head]

Ban this filth.

Oh my GOD! Thigh high latex boots on a teenage character! How scandalous. Is she supposed to be some sort of lolita stripper?

 

[zeopower6]

It's kinda like bad Audrey Kawasaki.

 

[Platy]

It's kinda like bad Audrey Kawasaki.

THAT was what was bothering me with the drawing !

I KNEW that style looked familiar =P

 

[Stet]

Don't care to argue about whether or not it's oversexualization or the tiny little boobs she's given them too much, but I am kind of offended that she's just copied and pasted their eyes and nose and head and done a palette swap. That's laziness in a 'hand-drawn' cover.

 

[meltingparappa]

It's kinda like bad Audrey Kawasaki.

I hope they replace the cover with one of hers.

Then after Dennis Barger SENIOR complains, get Tom of Finland to do one.

 

[The Technomancer]

Do little girls really read this comic though? Its probably teens and the brony crowd.

If it does sell to little girls I can see where the retailer is coming from. I doubt parents would buy this for kids and at the end of the day its all about $$$.

...does the fact that this sentiment actually rings somewhat true strike anyone else as really really weird?

 

[Hitokage]

...does the fact that this sentiment actually rings somewhat true strike anyone else as really really weird?

Nerds gonna nerd. Pretty normal if you ask me.

 

[The Technomancer]

Nerds gonna nerd. Pretty normal if you ask me.

I just...I dunno, the closest thing I can think of is when the first Thor movie came out and some reviewers seemed surprised that the movie about the space viking and his magic hammer was more of a kids film then they had expected

 

[Hitokage]

I just...I dunno, the closest thing I can think of is when the first Thor movie came out and some reviewers seemed surprised that the movie about the space viking and his magic hammer was more of a kids film then they had expected

Too used to mature films about a guy running around in a bat costume, I guess.

 

[2San]

I agree with the sentiment that the major problem is that the art is bad.