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What's with "bondage" covers?

Started by Rob,

42 posts in this topic

Rob

Rob

Posted
Posted

OK, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but am I the only one who takes issue with the fascination of bondage covers? Part of my love for comics (silver and golden age DCs, to be specific) is the innocence and fight for justice. I guess I'm a comic purist at heart. But when I see a nice G-rated golden age Batman on eBay, and Robin is tied up on the cover, and the seller mentions "bondage cover" in the title, I can't help but picture an old pedophile at home bidding, because he gets a hard on when he sees teenage boys tied up.

 

On adult titles, I can understand. A bondage cover of Vampirella, I don't have a problem with. But when did my innocent golden age comics turn into fetish material?

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Rob

Rob

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But when did my innocent golden age comics turn into fetish material?

 

Umm...in the early 1940s? Bondage covers have been around for a LONG time.

 

Yeah, I didn't assume golden age comics had bondage covers applied to them recently. I'm just commenting on the realization of the fetish factor to it.

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JiveTurkeyMoFo

JiveTurkeyMoFo

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But when did my innocent golden age comics turn into fetish material?

 

Umm...in the early 1940s? Bondage covers have been around for a LONG time.

 

Yeah, I didn't assume golden age comics had bondage covers applied to them recently. I'm just commenting on the realization of the fetish factor to it.

 

I think that "fetish" factor has always been there, afterall, they wouldn't have kept drawing scantily-clad women in bondage on SO many GA covers, if previous bondage covers didn't sell well. The bondage term may have been applied retroactively decades later, but in reality it's just a delayed acknowledgement of a practice that has existed in the comics field for 6+ decades.

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skybolt

skybolt

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I would think it's more of an attraction to sexy female covers.

 

That's the way I view it. I have a huge good girl art collection. Some of them have bondage covers and some don't. I don't view it as a fetish thing, it's more like a nice female cover drawn by some great artists like Baker, Kamen and Schomburg.

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

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I think you have a good point and I agree with you. The term "bondage cover" has been taken to a ridiculous extreme. Are there really collector's of bondage covers? I would think it's more of an attraction to sexy female covers.

 

Yes. grin.gif But not male bondage. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Posted
But when did my innocent golden age comics turn into fetish material?

 

Umm...in the early 1940s? Bondage covers have been around for a LONG time.

 

Yeah, I didn't assume golden age comics had bondage covers applied to them recently. I'm just commenting on the realization of the fetish factor to it.

 

I think that "fetish" factor has always been there, afterall, they wouldn't have kept drawing scantily-clad women in bondage on SO many GA covers, if previous bondage covers didn't sell well. The bondage term may have been applied retroactively decades later, but in reality it's just a delayed acknowledgement of a practice that has existed in the comics field for 6+ decades.

 

Bondage has been around a long time. Check out the pre-GA pulp covers. It probably reached its height with the work of Irving Klaw in the 50's. Bettie Page was often featured in Klaw's bondage photos.

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rob_react

rob_react

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OK, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but am I the only one who takes issue with the fascination of bondage covers? Part of my love for comics (silver and golden age DCs, to be specific) is the innocence and fight for justice.

 

Outside of DC, there was a LOT of not-so-innocent stuff on the shelves in the Golden Age. Lots and lots of it. Big fat piles o lurid, wonderful culture grin.gif Sex, violence, mayhem, nazis, ghouls, nazi ghouls, craven hussies, notorious gangsters gangsterizing, heroes dishing out justice at the end of a machine gun, scantily clad jungle girls galore, etc., etc. cloud9.gif

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted
OK, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but am I the only one who takes issue with the fascination of bondage covers? Part of my love for comics (silver and golden age DCs, to be specific) is the innocence and fight for justice.

 

Outside of DC, there was a LOT of not-so-innocent stuff on the shelves in the Golden Age. Lots and lots of it. Big fat piles o lurid, wonderful culture grin.gif Sex, violence, mayhem, nazis, ghouls, nazi ghouls, craven hussies, notorious gangsters gangsterizing, heroes dishing out justice at the end of a machine gun, scantily clad jungle girls galore, etc., etc. cloud9.gif

 

fight50.jpg

 

jungle85.jpg

 

jungle90.jpg

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precodekeith

precodekeith

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But when did my innocent golden age comics turn into fetish material?

 

I'm not sure you can positively state that pedophiles are out there collecting GA Robin covers. How would one know, anyway?

 

Weren't the critics of comics crying "homosexual overtones" about Batman and Robin as far back as the 1940's? confused-smiley-013.gif

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rjpb

rjpb

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While there is definetly a market for GGA bondage covers, I'm not sure there is anyone out there who only collects Batman covers where Robin is tied up,but one never knows - perhaps it's sexist of me, but when I see the notation "bondage cover", I generally assume it refers to a female, and usually one who is fairly prominent on the cover. I think they often are fetishistic, and the appeal is that this particular fetish was so regularly exploited in 1940s & 50s "kids" comics, in direct contradiction to the idea that so many have today that those were more "innocent" times.

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