I Worked Really Hard To Make This Visceral And Horrible - Tumblr Posts

scribjellyfish submitted:                        

this dead woman from Spawn is haunting me, I’ll be honest

original post: http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/post/168366096318/settlechaos711-submitted

@mauesartetc’s redraws made me think about the choices made even more, so I thought I’d try my hand at a redraw.

1. I, personally, really didn’t like this outfit and thought a little reincorporation of elements throughout would’ve been a quick way to give it a little more… something. I do like ridiculous studded stuff tho…

2. I think the blacking out of the face is supposed to actually be blacking out of the throat? It says in-panel her throat has been ripped out, and I somehow doubt despite the gratuitousness of the posing that they were aiming for that level of goriness. However, blacking out the face entirely might make it seem too impersonal/make it too obvious she’s an object, so I think the face elements were added back in to be “haunting”. I thought this could be more easily accomplished via a conveniently placed shadow - cheesy, maybe, but it provides censorship, allows the face for some impact, and symbolically cuts her head off. And comics aren’t strangers to convenient placement anyway.

3. I almost think a more realistic, straight-faced dead lady is more edgy than this sex-and-death mix at this point? Maybe I’ve got the benefit of hindsight, but I dunno.

Thanks for the redraw & commentary.  I think you’re right that showing the violence more realistically and dead on would be more bold and dark.  The murder of sex workers is already used as a lazy trope in fiction a lot and to use it as a pseudo-pin up panel too is even more gratuitous.  At least your way doesn’t distance the reader from the horror.

(CW: murder and violence against sex workers below cut)

Keep reading