This says it all ...

[quietprofanity]

I tried watching Shock Treatment tonight, expecting either an amusing trifle or the wost movie ever made. Around the thirty minute mark I got the sudden urge to get up and clean things. I guess that's the best indicator of its quality, anyway. Especially since I haven't figured out WHY I'm not into it, despite the fact that I'm not expecting Rocky Horror by any means.

Oh well.

Okay, anyway, I also remembered this was something I was willing to do ... [steps up to the microphone, taps it] test test ...

HELLO INTERNETS!

WHY DOES TAROT SUPPOSEDLY SUCK AND EMPOWERED SUPPOSEDLY ROCK?

I mean, from my vantage-point, both comics feature goofy villains, ridiculous side characters, a heroine who often gets tied up/unclothed and aspirations to higher feminist ideals despite their pornographic nature.

Now, from the brief bits I've seen of both series, I'll totally admit that Empowered has made me giggle. (Specifically this part.) Whereas Tarot just makes me stare in open-mouthed horror.

I also have a suspicion I may like Empowered because at one point I willingly watched all I could find of Cutey Honey, even Re: Cutie Honey i.e. the animated adaption of the live action movie, i.e. the cartoon wherein the bad guy powers her evil machine with THE POWER OF 1,000 WOMEN'S ORGASMS!

Look, take away my feminist card if you must (NO! IT'S MINE!) but I have John Waters' sensibility when it comes to sex humor. Non sequiturs are my best friends.

Plus, nobody who draws bishonen Peter Parker can be bad, right?

But I want to hear your answers. If anyone will answer. HELP ME, INTERNET!

Comments

[big-wired.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Re: Cutie Honey! I still have it burned onto a DVD in my small collection, and it was great to watch, in a shameless fun poking kind of way.

Actually, Empowered was something I hated at first, but after getting it, deleting it, and then getting it again, I have to admit that it really grew on me. There's a natural character growth for Emp, and the series itself pokes fun at all the cliches of current superhero comics. The artwork too was something completely different as there's no inking involved, obviously, and it just seems to add to the... well, honest factor of it.

That just popped into my head. In a lot of ways, Empowered is honest with what it's about, and also surprisingly deep at times. Emp herself is very brave for putting up with so much just so that she can do the right thing, and from all that I've read, the realities of women facing mirrors of themselves and what society in general regards as the perfect woman is critiqued very well here.

Tarot, on the other hand... well... I don't get that sense from Tarot. From the few I've seen on Scans Daily, it just seems to be a big boob job, whereas Adam Warren knows that women actually have internal organs and not a black hole in their midsection.

And that their internal organs are not stuff in their chesticles.

Trust me, Adam Warren can deliver like few others can. He did some wonderful stuff with the Dirty Pair, which I wholeheartedly recommend as well. You won't go wrong with Empowered.

(Hey, what a neat reversal of roles. Now, I am the one informing you about why Empowered, something new, rocks, while you were telling me the good stuff about Watchmen, something old.)

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

I at one point had downloaded everything Sailor Spork had subbed of Cutey Honey. Life kind of got in the way and I hadn't watched it for awhile.

My favorite is still the original. I like watching vintage stuff to see where the new stuff evolved. And there's something kind of charming in it's crude art. I mean, it doesn't look like anything else out there. Plus, I don't think anyone can watch this and claim it isn't fun:



Of course, I like this OP for when they mixed it up as a pure girl's adventure for Cutey Honey F, even if the story itself didn't appeal to me:



My only real problem with the original series is I don't really like when Go Nagai involves kids in his sex innuendo gags. That's just ... blech. Series is fun otherwise, though.

it just seems to be a big boob job, whereas Adam Warren knows that women actually have internal organs and not a black hole in their midsection.

You know, I DID like Jim Balent on the previous Catwoman series. It was unrealistic, but not distractingly so, at least in the very early issues. Looking at the Tarot scans I think he's gotten worse over time.

He did some wonderful stuff with the Dirty Pair, which I wholeheartedly recommend as well. You won't go wrong with Empowered.

Eh I ... did not like the original Japanese Dirty Pair, unfortunately. (I watched two OVAs from the old series and found them cripplingly boring.) So I don't think that will appeal to me.

Although, who knows I haven't been impressed by a lot of the Amerimanga out there either. (I kind of like Gold Digger, but not enough to run out and buy it on my own. Ninja High School also was amusing but doesn't feel worth it.)

I am a little more willing to try this now, though, yes.

(Hey, what a neat reversal of roles. Now, I am the one informing you about why Empowered, something new, rocks, while you were telling me the good stuff about Watchmen, something old.)

I guess so ...

[47nite.livejournal.com]

That's a rather nice bonus, when you can work simple and rough and be praised for doing so, instead of painstakingly refining something only to see it panned for that very reason [/trying to say this *without* sounding snarky or bitter]

And you're on my FL now~ (chesticles indeed) ;Þ

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Warren seems to have GOOD un-inked artwork, though. I've seen some indie comics that went un-inked and they were just BAD. Mac Afro I remember the un-inked pages being very distracting.

Another good un-inked piece is Would You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed. Given the intimacy of the work (small moments in a relationship) it works -- like you're looking in on someone's sketch diary.

Sandman also did an interesting experiment in its last arc where they used someone's un-inked work but colored it in with the computer. It's really astounding.

[big-wired.livejournal.com]

Heh, thank you.

It kinda came to me as an explanation of where the internal organs went when the midsection is drawn so small.