The Pen, the Sword, and the Stiletto: 90's Comics

Now that the tournament is over, (congrats to Rogue and Wonder Woman and the other 126 Marvel and DC girls who were in the contest), I wanted to talk about the 90's comic renaissance as I saw it. I started collecting comic books when I was six, back in the early 1970's. I soon discovered that my favourites were ones with female superheroes.

Back in those days, the comic code authority ruled the content of comics so that only PG material made the pages to protect young eyes like mine (LOL). There was a limit as to what could be shown, no graphic violence, blood, nudity, sexual activity. I kept collecting anyway though to about 1982 when I felt I had outgrown them. I felt like they were getting boring. I hung onto a large collection in storage just the same. I did have a copy of Vampirella, which was not in the kids comic rack at the store, but the clerk didn't seem to have a problem selling it to a nine year old. It was my first glimpse at what sexual potential comics had. Later in the eighties, Heavy Metal magazine was my go to.

I didn't go back to the comic book rack for some time until the nineties when I started seeing a wave of adult comics hit the comic book stores, on a higher shelf of course. I fell in love with comics again to titles like XXXenophile, Cherry Poptart, Mara of the Celts, Ramba, Faust, Horny Biker Sluts, The Black Kiss (my favourite) and many more. It may have been a symptom of the wave of popularity in adult comics that mainstream comics started to make a comeback. But it wasn't Marvel and DC leading the way. The Comic Code Authority still held sway. It was lesser known labels like Darkhorse Comics and Wildstorm Comics that came out without the Comic Code stamp on them. This allowed them more freedom to sexy up the work without going full adult material. The costumes got tighter, smaller and skin was in. Characters smoked, drank, had sex, and other things normal people do. Some of my favourite mainstream titles came from this time; The Dirty Pair by Adam Warren, Gen13, DV8, Painkiller Jane included.

I feel that this new wave of comics without the restrictions of the comic code stamp finally allowed DC and Marvel to shed the stamp and delve into the world of comics aimed at older audiences. Suddenly, the costumes got tighter and smaller and sexier on all the regular superheroines. It was the start of the cheesecake era as many call it in comics. It was far more blatant in the 90's than it is now (Look back at the Captain Marvel costumes back then, compared to now.) Things got dialed back a bit but it did gives us the graphic violence of The Dark Knight, and touched on themes of rape in Jessica Jones and never mind Deadpool. It gave us Emma Frost and the women of the X-Men clad in micro bikinis, stranded on a desert isle. The door was open. Now my comic collection is a mix of adult titles and mainstream titles.

There are comics out there still designed for young kids but the majority are geared for adults. I decided to do my next set of posts, dedicated to the 90's cheesecake era with the GEN13 team and the DV8 team. I have put up some Dirty Pair posts in the past.

Do any of you have favourite cheesecake titles from the 90's or adult titles from that era?