# Realistic handling of women's anatomy in comics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908 "2010-06-20T21:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/21 "2010-06-21T12:11:47Z")
When Barry Smith (before he became Barry Windsor-Smith) started drawing Red Sonya back in 1971, she was a reasoinably-proportioned woman without huge breasts, who wore a complete chain mail shirt, shorts, and boots. It might not have been the most likely costume for a woman – even a female thief – in the mythical Hyborian Age, but at least it was a plausible woman in a plausible costume. Within a very few years, in the hands of other artists, she was a voluptuous woman wearing what looked like a bikini made out of silver dollars. And she had impossible plump and perpetually lipsticked lips. And her breasts defied gravity, in the usual fashion. Evidently fan expectation or market forces tend to drive superheroines this way. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/22 "2010-06-21T14:23:40Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > All the teen girls, except for one (the short one) had the same face and figure, in Archie and the spinoffs. Mad magazine noticed this also years ago, in “Starchie,” their sendup of Archie. See the southwest panel in the reproduction on [this page](http://fourrealities.blogspot.com/2007/04/ec-starchie-elder.html), and notice in particular Starchie’s comment about Biddy and Salonica. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/23 "2010-06-21T14:40:36Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A female artist discusses [How to Draw Breasts](http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/july02/bb_0702.shtml). I was just going to [recommend an image/artist](http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/feb01/images/0201/bb_0201_2.jpg) from a [related article](http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/feb01/bb_0201.shtml) on that very site. Puts that whole “twisted swayback” look into perspective…horrible, crystal clear, diamond bullet to the brain, “oh god the Shoggoth’s caught our scent” perspective. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/24 "2010-06-21T16:43:30Z")
**I’d** read a comic about realistically handling women’s anatomy. What? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/25 "2010-06-21T22:28:25Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Mad magazine noticed this also years ago, in “Starchie,” their sendup of Archie. See the southwest panel in the reproduction on [this page](http://fourrealities.blogspot.com/2007/04/ec-starchie-elder.html), and notice in particular Starchie’s comment about Biddy and Salonica. There was a running joke about that in Spiderman comics too, about how Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and just about any “teen girl” in the comic had the same drawing but different colored hair. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/26 "2010-06-22T23:40:43Z")
I’ve complained about this before, but Harley Quinn should be at most a B cup. She got into college on a gymnastics scholarship. Gymnasts have very low body fat and small breasts. In the Bruce Timm animated series, Harley was drawn with a gymnasts body (and the female characters had different bodies. Poison Ivy was clearly modeled after Betty Grable.) When Harley got her own comic, she was mostly drawn realistically- in the interiors. On the covers, she was a D cup or larger. Back To The OP Dave Berg (Of Mad magazine’s The Lighter Side) is justly famous for drawing realistic, yet very sexy women. His women almost never have balloon breasts, but tend to look positively edible. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/27 "2010-06-23T01:26:21Z")
Yes, there is at least one comic book artist who depicts realistic women: Greg Land. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/28 "2010-06-23T03:56:47Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > There was a running joke about that in Spiderman comics too, about how Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and just about any “teen girl” in the comic had the same drawing but different colored hair. [Could be worse](http://www.evacommentary.org/images_misc/sadamoto_nadia-shinji.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/29 "2010-06-23T06:22:04Z")
What I find amusing is that Rich Berlew, of _Order of the Stick_, manages to have at least four (and probably 5 or 6) different body types for his female characters, even though it’s stick figures and he literally copies and pastes character art. Compare, for instance, [Tsukiko](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0708.html) and [Lien](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0473.html). ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/30 "2010-06-23T06:40:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What I find amusing is that Rich Berlew, of _Order of the Stick_, manages to have at least four (and probably 5 or 6) different body types for his female characters, even though it’s stick figures and he literally copies and pastes character art. Compare, for instance, [Tsukiko](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0708.html) and [Lien](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0473.html). The only reason their bodies look different is because they’re wearing different clothes, as far as I can see. Their heads are just circles with different hairstyles. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/31 "2010-06-23T07:51:30Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > Yes, there is at least one comic book artist who depicts realistic women: > > Greg Land. Yes, he has some [technique](http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-greg-land-tracing.html). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/32 "2010-06-23T09:45:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What I find amusing is that Rich Berlew, of _Order of the Stick_, manages to have at least four (and probably 5 or 6) different body types for his female characters, even though it’s stick figures and he literally copies and pastes character art. Compare, for instance, [Tsukiko](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0708.html) and [Lien](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0473.html). The weird thing is that I find some of his characters disturbingly sexy. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/33 "2010-06-23T13:01:19Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Yes, he has some [technique](http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-greg-land-tracing.html). 😃 … Although I probably should have said they were “realistic.” Since it’s all porn starlets. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/34 "2010-06-25T07:35:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What I find amusing is that Rich Berlew, of _Order of the Stick_, manages to have at least four (and probably 5 or 6) different body types for his female characters, even though it’s stick figures and he literally copies and pastes character art. Compare, for instance, [Tsukiko](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0708.html) and [Lien](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0473.html). I would call them more stick-limbic than stick-figures… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908/35 "2010-06-25T08:11:07Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > 😃 > > … Although I probably should have said they were “realistic.” Since it’s all porn starlets. Meh, it’d be a LOT harder to find the images he swiped if it was all porn. Most of the ‘traced from porn’ ‘identifications’ are deduction, based on the pose and facial expressions, rather than actual identifications. Mainstream movies and magazines are a lot more common. As is other comic book artists’\* work. And direct lifts from ‘how to draw’ and other reference books. And occasionally himself. - I initially typed ‘other, better, comic book artists’, but, before he started tracing as a matter of course, Land actually was pretty good. I miss that Land. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-handling-of-womens-anatomy-in-comics/543908.md?page=1)