Mature Content...? (Patreon)

 Thanks to everyone who threw in their two cents on the issue of mature content (see above). Several of you hit the nail on the head, I think. The level of content in a comic (or a movie or TV show, for that matter) should flow naturally from the story and characters. For instance, there would never be anything sexy or vulgar in a Chip story. The main character has a childlike quality, plus no one wants to see a bunch of damaged and rejected gargoyles banging (although I'm sure there's an avid fetish community devoted to the subject on Deviant Art). But publishers only see the bottom line, which means they want the widest possible audience. That's fair (they're fronting the printing costs, after all), but it can compromise a story when you try to force it into a category that doesn't quite fit.  Now, sometimes working within constraints can present entertaining possibilities. In the Boneyard one-shot, "The Bigenning", Abbey wears uncharacteristically sexy boots on her date with Paris, which she refers to as "fuck-me boots". Knowing that I had to watch the language (at least in printed form), I had fun drawing bats that flew in and out of panel, their paths just happening to eclipse the offending word. But you can only turn lemons into lemonade so many times before you get sick of lemonade. And language is arguably more problematic for a creator than nudity or violence.  If a character is pissed and flipping out, "damn it!" and "what the frig?!" just aren't adequate. In the story arc where the gang had to go meet with the Illuminary, for instance, it would have been nice if I'd been free to have drugged Abbey say things as inappropriate as the things she was doing. And we all know how annoying   and unsatisfying "#@%$!" is. I hate that shit.  My former publisher actually puts out full blown (hee) adult titles, as well as books exclusively for children. They seem to have trouble with material that falls somewhere in-between, the apparently hard-to-market mature readers category. But the real issue was always the elusive brass ring potential of a TV or movie deal. Let's face it, no one's ever going to do a screen adaptation of Short Strokes. Unfortunately, Boneyard  has been optioned so many times without anything coming of it that I lost the taste for that particular carrot. (That's right, we've moved on from lemons to carrots. Keep up, people.) I don't want to compromise my vision (god, that sounds pretentious) just in the hopes that someone might come along down the road and turn it into something else anyway.  So what does all this mean? It's pretty clear: boobs. So, so many boobs. And ladies, don't worry, I'm not leaving you out. Get ready for dongs. Juicy, swingin' dongs as far as the eye can see. I can't wait!