Friday, July 20, 2007

Comics and Fetishism


In a previous series of "visual postings," I presented a sort of essay on the use of fetishistic images in comics, focusing on a series of heroines and villainesses--Black Canary, Zatanna, Star Sapphire, Catwoman, and Wonder Woman.

I turn now to a particular artist--Howard Chaykin. Beginning with his seminal American Flag and continuing through the straight-forwardly fetishist Black Kiss, as well as his own versions of The Shadow and Blackhawk, right on into more recent works like City Of Tomorrow and American Century, this comics artist...influenced by everything from Eneg and Stanton to the commercial advertising art of the 1930s to colleagues such as Alex Toth...has brought the garter belt, the seamed stocking, and the red lipsticked mouth back into four-color vogue.

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