Though I do not possess and have not read COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE 8, I suspect that the kind of "special recognition" it contains would not pass political muster today. But for once, I might be just as interested in the articles as in, uh, everything else.
I stumbled across this panel on Pinterest and I know nothing about whatever story had Princess Diana dressed up like a pirate. But it does seem to exemplify the position that sometimes "more clothes" makes the female form seem more desirable, if only because one would have to work to get them off.
Charlton/DC artist Dick Giordano was particularly good at drawing pretty women, but I think his depiction of a "scarlet woman" (my word), name of Roja, on the cover of SARGE STEEL #7 is his best work. Of course it's a good drawing because of the combination of Roja's attire-ensemble, her silver-white hair and her wasp-waisted figure. But the combination of the seductive body pose and the predatory expression really sell Roja as a formidable femme fatale. (Sadly, Roja only made one other STEEL appearance and then got killed, rather than mounting numerous assaults on the metal-handed hero.)
I glanced over various online repro's of Dean Yeagle's art, particularly that featuring his popular character Mandy, trying to decide if any of them were "perfect" in terms of illustrating the image of The Doe-Eyed Innocent, who may or may not be on the verge of a sexual awakening. Here's my selection.
The artist known as Nanashi has grabbed the manga world with the high school rom-com NAGATORO, and part of his success stems from his great ability to portray the titular character in many moods:
Here she is being a little bit childish while making it clear she's blossoming into you-know-what.
And here's a more penseroso moment.
Fiction House specialized in wild adventure stories, usually with lots of good girl art. But they weren't good at horror stories to judge from the eleven issues of GHOST COMICS. I could only stand to do a quick scan, but this cool cover by Maurice Whitman was the only thing I liked.
Nearly no one knows the name of artist Barry Blair today, but he was all over the place during the eighties black-and-white comics boom, and this cover to BODY COUNT-- a spoof of monster/slasher films-- successfully gives the POV characters a look of overdone drama, purely for comic effect.
I've already done one Catwoman entry but I can't pass up the comic that not only crossed her over with fellow Golden Age icon Lois Lane, but also brought the villainess back to the DC mainstream after an absence of many years.
Probably posted two of these three Nick Cardy pieces before, but they bear repeating.
Since the last two posts were so heavy on DC material, here's stuff from other companies.
Pin-up page from AVENGERS ANNUAL #1, with The Scarlet Witch taking advantage of her top-heavy talents.
Of course there's no celebrating good art girls without inviting Will Eisner for one of probably many visits.
Headlights alert.
Hand job alert.
And in the first appearance of the "Josie" bunch in ARCHIE'S PALS AND GALS #23, we see that Melody is more active asleep than awake, which probably indicated some deep psychological desires, in addition to the artist's desire to make money off cheesecake.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, DC's softcover collection COVERGIRLS has been a negative inspiration to me, since its collection of good art girls is so mediocre. But here are the only selections in that book that made my cut here.
I have no idea how far I'll get with this project, but it recently occurred to me to ask myself: what are the best depictions of feminine pulchritude in comics art, AS ART? By that I mean not just covers, but also "splash panels" and full pages of sequential art whose craft and composition is good enough to get across some major kinetic or dramatic feeling. Panel-art which includes captions and dialogue may also be able to tap into more abstract values as well.
For instance, the cover of DETECTIVE #211 is a very dull Catwoman-cover.
But the inside splash panel to "The Jungle Cat-Queen" is one of the best depictions of Green and Purple Catwoman, even if you have to believe she has access to a tiger as big as a musk ox, given the way she's riding this one.
Other examples in this series don't necessarily have to be "femmes formidables"-- though they will comprise most of the selections-- but pulchritude does mean "beauty," so no Broom-Hilda or Lucy Van Pelt, delightful as they might be in other ways.
