Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/serpieri_pe.htm

Great artist, huge imagination, intricate detail (and cross-hatching), but I’m not a fan of how he handled his most-famous character, i.e. Druuna.

Not gonna do any moralizing here, just that I’m here to represent BD, and he’s by definition a long-time BD-master. Next…?

  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Druuna was one of the first pieces of erotica I’ve read. (I was 12 or so; I know, a bit too early for that.) And in the mind of pubescent me, it was sexy and curious, but at the same time disgusting and filthy. I felt guilt, but at the same time I still kept reading it. It attracted and repulsed me.

    I wonder if this guilt wasn’t what Serpieri was trying to evoke with the series; as if the monsters being illustrated are the ones within us, and their acts are our own. Offering you a genuine sense of sexual guilt, in contrast with the “oh, you got your end away? You’re supposed to feel bad about it, God is seeing you, mkay?” imposed by the Judaeo-Christian mores.

    • Overspark@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Agreed. If you equate Druuna to only rape you’re missing quite a lot about the story. The society it portrays is completely broken and slowly destroying itself, the repulsive sexual acts in the comics are just one way of portraying that. Playing with our emotions like that is used as a tool to manipulate the readers.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Yeah, wow. Excellent points and insight. I really like that ‘monsters inside us’ idea.

      it was sexy and curious, but at the same time disgusting and filthy.

      I get that, and felt the same reading certain stuff. As a kid with somewhat absentee parents and little religious / morality background, I was still learning about everything, including my boundaries and philosophies. A kid also with plenty of sexual curiosity, for sure. Later, as someone who mainly got in to superhero hijinks, by my late teens I was starting to get annoyed with everyone running around in colorful spandex suits, with the men sporting bodybuilder physiques, and the women typically built like sex bombs with supermodel faces. Among other things to get annoyed with upon the genre, haha.

      Too bad my dumb arse at the time didn’t realise that there was a lot more to the world of BD than stuff in the Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke category, otherwise I would have made the jump a lot sooner…

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      TBH, I don’t know how much has changed. I haven’t been to Europe (and Italy) in a long time, but from the accounts I read, in many areas it can still be downright excruciating just walking down the streets as an unaccompanied woman. Maybe not actually hazardous, but the shameless catcalls and macho approach that’s common in some areas just… leaves me ashamed, as a man. Like, how could that not instantly ruin a person’s day, especially a visitor? Still, I’m really not sure how widespread it is across Europe. (nevermind a completely crazy place like Egypt, par exemple)

      • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        Of course! it’s still alive today all around the world, I’ve experienced it first hand. I should have specified -in media- . this type of content raises more red flags today. That’s some progress I think.

        • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          Oh! 😳
          Yeah, I guess you’re right in terms of print and some other media. Meanwhile, complete morons in other media like Andrew Tate (etc) and others are actively poisoning young mens’ minds against women, as I see it.

          Eh, sorry, I’m honestly pretty freaked-out by the right-wing stuff happening in the country where I live.

          • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zipEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            Yeah, sadly the effect from that kind of discourse permeates internationally, undoing many years of progress. Are you US based? I honestly feel bad for you guys, you are going through very dark times.

            • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              undoing many years of progress.

              Sometimes I naïvely think that much of these problems are USA-centric, but the more I learn, the more I’m saddened by how pervasive anti-progressivism is across the globe, including in Europe.

              Are you US based? I honestly feel bad for you guys, you are going through very dark times.

              Based here, yes, with an international background. But yeah, unless there’s a huge reversal in the coming 2026 midterm elections, the USA is utterly lost to late-stage capitalism and right-wing petty elitism, yes. So far the election looks quite promising from a voter POV, but pretty terrible in terms of the various methods of likely vote-gaming to come.

              Anyway, I feel kind of bad about today’s post, so for tomorrow, I’m working on a review / sampler upon the life of Medea, a fascinating figure from ancient Greece. She’s not been treated very well from the two main lines of traditional mythos, but recently there was a wonderful retelling from her perspective by two Spanish-Frenchwomen creators. Look for that one at 9AM EST tomorrow (roughly 2-3PM Euro time).