Gunmurder

September 4, 2012 9:27 AM

Edgy Comics Bingo (NSFW, rape references.) [via]
posted by griphus (42 comments total)

Pretty sure that's just Tosh bingo
posted by kenaldo at 9:33 AM on September 4, 2012 [3 favorites]

Cathy Leamy is one of the best.

I actually want to play this. My friend gave me a copy of Mark Millar's CLiNT magazine as a joke so I think I need to dig that back out, if I still have it around. I'm sure I'd get BINGO pretty quickly, though.
posted by darksong at 9:34 AM on September 4, 2012

This makes me want to read Johnny Ryan comics. That guy is a national treasure.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 9:36 AM on September 4, 2012 [4 favorites]

Hmm... I mainly have the violence end of the spectrum covered, with some drugs and sexytimes stuff.

Ive somehow managed to do comics for years without doing much in the way of racial slurs or sexual violence... I dunno, maybe I am not edgy.
posted by Artw at 9:38 AM on September 4, 2012

Pretty sure that's just Tosh bingo

Or Frank Miller bingo, although it's missing a "Musulmans!" square.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:40 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mark Millar

I could say a lot there, but Good on him for this.
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on September 4, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is perfect, and perfectly encapsulates why I can't take Frank Miller and his ilk seriously.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 9:43 AM on September 4, 2012

Cathy's a friend, so I'm biased, but I like that this is funny on top of making a point.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 9:46 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cathy Leamy is the best!
posted by Legomancer at 9:47 AM on September 4, 2012

Also, I don't suggest anyone try to play this with vol. 1 of The Authority because damn.
posted by griphus at 9:48 AM on September 4, 2012

Ive somehow managed to do comics for years without doing much in the way of racial slurs or sexual violence... I dunno, maybe I am not edgy.

What do you read? Even mainstream DC and Marvel books feature rape sometimes (for example, DC's Identity Crisis).
posted by Sangermaine at 9:50 AM on September 4, 2012

Artw writes comics.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:58 AM on September 4, 2012

Oh hey Garth Ennis and Michael Terracino
posted by Snyder at 9:58 AM on September 4, 2012

Well, I *write* for 2000AD mostly. Yeah, I see all that stuff when reading comics.

This is perfect, and perfectly encapsulates why I can't take Frank Miller and his ilk seriously.

Heh. I have pretty much the entire rub of Sin City, and yeah, it's ALL of this. Somehow it bothers me less in Miller's ridiculous hyperbole setting than it does plopped down into the middle of Justice League.
posted by Artw at 10:00 AM on September 4, 2012

Somehow it bothers me less in Miller's ridiculous hyperbole setting than it does plopped down into the middle of Justice League.

But how else will the Occupy protesters learn that they're wasting their time when there are Muslims afoot?
posted by Sangermaine at 10:04 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Pre-9/11 Miller with talent also bothers me a lot less than post 9/11 Millwr who lacks both that and sanity.
posted by Artw at 10:05 AM on September 4, 2012

Artw: If you were edgy, you'd be on Reddit, not Metafilter. (Or so the cool kids tell me.)
posted by cthuljew at 10:20 AM on September 4, 2012

Heh. I post the odd thing to /r/comicbooks, but on balance they have terrible taste in comics, and seem like they're actually in the market for Justice League comics with this crap dropped in. That, I guess, is an eye opener in itself.
posted by Artw at 10:34 AM on September 4, 2012

This is perfect, and perfectly encapsulates why I can't take Frank Miller and his ilk seriously.

...Here's the deal. Write a story with a female character who is not a prostitute, and you leave here alive.
posted by zamboni at 10:50 AM on September 4, 2012 [7 favorites]

Oh, edgy comic books. I was thinking, how does this have to do with stand-up?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:54 AM on September 4, 2012

It's actually about a US soccer team named the Comics from Edgy, WV.
posted by griphus at 10:57 AM on September 4, 2012

It's actually about a US soccer team named the Comics from Edgy, WV.

As you can see, they have something of a checkered history.
posted by kafziel at 11:00 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seems like you could pretty much bingo out something like the Unfunnies in less than an issue.

I really don't know where I stand on Millar. At times he does really great work (Red Son, Superior, Superman Adventures) and then he does really over the top "edgy" comics that just seem to be pandering to the lowest common denominator. Sometimes I want to appreciate his work as an over the top deconstruction of the iron age of comics (Authority and Ultimates feel this way) and then sometimes I think he's just going for what will get a movie deal the easiest.
posted by vuron at 11:33 AM on September 4, 2012

He's a smart guy, but he panders like a motherfucker and lacks the redeeming qualities of an Ennis or an Ellis.
posted by Artw at 11:35 AM on September 4, 2012

That's my sense as well Artw but I didn't know if I was being too uncharitable or not charitable enough.
posted by vuron at 11:42 AM on September 4, 2012

Morrison also had a hand in a lot of his earlier stuff, and things like Wanted follow on from their splitting up.
posted by Artw at 11:47 AM on September 4, 2012

I remember a blurb on the back of the Wanted trade read "EDGY DIALOGUE! WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF COMICS!" or something like that from Wizard Magazine. The writing in that comic might as well have just been the word "fuck" everywhere text goes: speech, thought bubbles, captions, sound effects, signage, creator credits.
posted by griphus at 11:50 AM on September 4, 2012

THIS IS MARK MILLARS FACE AS YOU ARE BUYING HIS COMIC.
posted by Artw at 11:54 AM on September 4, 2012 [5 favorites]

As you can see, they have something of a checkered history.

That's the referee. He's supposed to look like that.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:11 PM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Needs more torture. (The bingo card, not comics.)
posted by Zed at 12:35 PM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Probably also one for Lipstick Lesbianism.
posted by Artw at 12:45 PM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

To be fair, Jaime Hernandez could also fill a number of these squares, particularly considering the events of the latest Hoppers chapter in New Stories #4. Of course both the Hernandez brothers are amazingly talented storytellers who are doing the opposite of pandering to 15-year-old straight white boys.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:03 PM on September 4, 2012

So far my entire comics oeuvre, plus stuff I plan to do in the future, doesn't have a bingo on this card. I think that means I win.

I also think I wanna work "ride the blue meerkat" into something someday...
posted by egypturnash at 5:51 PM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

While I do have some respect for Millar speaking up about that Internet troll, the fact is plenty of women in the comic book industry had been dealing with him for years but only when a man says it's a problem, do people care. And I'm sure Millar is a nice human being, but when you're calling a pre-teen girl a "bitch" (even if she is a pre-teen girl who's killed a bunch of people), maybe you need to own up to your own contributions to misogynist culture. And you know, calling your magazine CLiNT (although I know the word that looks like has slightly different connotations in the UK).

I get Millar's work is not aimed at me. I am not a 15-year-old boy nor have I ever been. But I think the whole "sex and violence and boobies and swearing!" "edgy" concept is tiresome. I hope he enjoys his money but I don't mind picking on him for that.

And certainly, there are other creators, like the Hernandez Brothers, as The White Skull pointed out, that tread this ground but are telling good stories in the meantime (and before he went completely wacky, I did like Frank Miller). But I don't think that's what Leamy is getting at. There are way too many comics where there's no depth beyond the "edgy" elements and they're tiresome.

Leamy did say she's going to try to bring some kind of printed form of this with her to Small Press Expo (Sept. 15-16! North Bestheda Marriott! Across from the White Flint Metro stop. It's bigger and better and going to be ridiculous this year!) and I'll be happy to pick one up.
posted by darksong at 6:08 PM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

To be fair, Jaime Hernandez could also fill a number of these squares, particularly considering the events of the latest Hoppers chapter in New Stories #4. Of course both the Hernandez brothers are amazingly talented storytellers who are doing the opposite of pandering to 15-year-old straight white boys.

It's almost like snarky checklists have no meaningful evaluative properties. Next you're going to tell me the Bechdel Test is arbitrary and pointless.
posted by kafziel at 6:56 PM on September 4, 2012

Well, hell.

I'm glad I finally decided that what I'm doing is not "comics", because I'm pretty sure I haven't covered even one square.

posted by mmrtnt at 7:49 PM on September 4, 2012

To be fair, Jaime Hernandez could also fill a number of these squares

As tvtropes says, there are no good or bad cliches, just people who use them well or not.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:17 AM on September 5, 2012

You people are crazy! This stuff is gold!
I'm going to write and draw my own comic using each and every one of these winning plot points (thinly-veiled Muslim Terrorists from Takistan will take the place of the free square).

Finally, the world is ready for my grimdark re-telling of the true origins of Uncle Marvel!
posted by Mezentian at 2:08 AM on September 5, 2012

I browsed through some long forgotten book as a teen in the 90s that mentioned how swearing and Serious Themes were unsuccessfully added to comics to make them more "adult". This was illustrated with a mock superhero exclaiming "Oh shit! I've got Space AIDS!"

If anyone can name that book I will personally send you a crude drawing of Aquaman dying of a heroin overdose.
posted by dgaicun at 5:09 AM on September 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone at Boing Boing said that they got a bingo just from Preacher alone. Sounds about right.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:41 AM on September 5, 2012

Also, WRT some of the primary offenders (Ennis, Ellis, and Millar most prominently, although Daniel Way is also a repeat offender), one of the things that devalues their work IMO is their willingness to revisit these tropes repeatedly, with ever-diminishing returns. In fact, speaking of Preacher, one of the things that struck me about the "Salvation" arc was that it so avidly recycled tropes that had already appeared in the title that it's almost tempting--almost--to read it as Ennis writing a self-parody within the title that it was parodying. How meta! Except that Ennis keeps going back to those same tropes in future titles. ("Edgy" comics of the sort described here generally don't age well, but Preacher in particular is difficult to appreciate with even a fraction of the enthusiasm that I originally had for it.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:51 AM on September 5, 2012

Using a Garth Ennis book should really require you to fill the entire board. It's just not fair otherwise.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:52 AM on September 5, 2012