![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icon_uk posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyFrom the dim depths of 1995 comes this memorable issue of Milestone Comics, a Milestone milestone if you will. Static #25, and the controversy about it's cover.
This is the cover that was released.... a guy and a gal embracing and kissing. Very cute, you might think. but it's not the cover that was originally intended.
If you want to see THAT cover, then click on the image above and you'll see the full scale image as originally planned. But we'll get back to that.
After two years of being up and running as a title, Static was in full swing, and we had a well developed character in Virgil Hawkins, the science nerd turned electromagnetically empowered hero known as Static, and a well rounded supporting cast and crop of confidantes and villains.
Those only familiar with the cartoon series might not be aware of some of the differences between the two; The two biggest are that Virgil's mother is alive and well and part of the family in the comics, and Rich Foley doesn't exist (though a similar looking character Rick Stone, does exist, he doesn't serve the same role), Virgil's primary confidante in the comics is Frieda Goren (Who knows his secret identity), who is also in the cartoon as a secondary character (who doesn't know his secret identity).
Virgil has been going out with his love interest Daisy for some time, and after a night at the movies, she is returning to the apartment she shares with her grandmother (It's a subplot that she stays there, and says her mother stays there, so she can go to the local school, which has a better reputation than the one near where her mother actually lives). I include these two pages because they are just beautifully laid out, like a screenplay. (The writer is Ivan Velez Jr, the artist is credited simply as "Wilfred", short for Wilfred Santiago (thanks tokthorjensen for that extra info).
The simplicity and power of the scene gets me every time.
Anyway, I'm skipping over a random fight scene which doesn't really do very much for the overall plot., and we now skip over a few weeks as the funeral has now taken place and Daisy is having to move back to the projects with her mother, and she's also changing schools, which no one in the gang is happy about. (The gang consisting of Virgil, Frieda, Rick (Who is, incidentally, gay, and who in his excellent coming out story had Virgil come to terms with his own casual homophobia), Daisy and Felix.. (Felix is the loud mouthed friend I suspect we ALL had (or were) at school. No one can quite work out why they're friends, but that's the way it goes)
Just as she leaves, Daisy whispers something to Virgil...
Yeah, that's pretty much Felix all over.
And as such....
If you feel your toes curl in excrutiating embarassment as you read these next panels, then I think they've done their job.
I don't believe this was expanded upon again, it's just a personal thing for her.
So Virgil goes to talk to someone else who he hopes can help. His father. Who is recovering from heart trouble and is resting at home.
This may be one of the most frank discussions on the topic I've read in any CCA approved title...
I like the fact that his father accepts the fact that it's going to happen, so the best thing he can do is make sure he knows what he's doing.
Also perhaps more information on condoms than anything outside of that Death/Constantine PSA from a while back.
I like that Virgil isn't even sure that sex is on the table, and it might be something else completely.
Also, again, a beautifully composed series of pages...
And we politely close the door on what happens next.
And as for that cover from the start of the issue.... well as outlined by the late, irreplaceable Dwayne McDuffie in the letter column of #25 itself.
Oh Mr McDuffie, alas you never made it there, and neither have we yet, alas.
The eventual solution was an elegant one; the comic came double covered, with the original cover inside the modified one. It's slightly depressing/embarassing that a solution was needed, but one has to hand it to Milestone for coming up with it
This is the cover that was released.... a guy and a gal embracing and kissing. Very cute, you might think. but it's not the cover that was originally intended.
If you want to see THAT cover, then click on the image above and you'll see the full scale image as originally planned. But we'll get back to that.
After two years of being up and running as a title, Static was in full swing, and we had a well developed character in Virgil Hawkins, the science nerd turned electromagnetically empowered hero known as Static, and a well rounded supporting cast and crop of confidantes and villains.
Those only familiar with the cartoon series might not be aware of some of the differences between the two; The two biggest are that Virgil's mother is alive and well and part of the family in the comics, and Rich Foley doesn't exist (though a similar looking character Rick Stone, does exist, he doesn't serve the same role), Virgil's primary confidante in the comics is Frieda Goren (Who knows his secret identity), who is also in the cartoon as a secondary character (who doesn't know his secret identity).
Virgil has been going out with his love interest Daisy for some time, and after a night at the movies, she is returning to the apartment she shares with her grandmother (It's a subplot that she stays there, and says her mother stays there, so she can go to the local school, which has a better reputation than the one near where her mother actually lives). I include these two pages because they are just beautifully laid out, like a screenplay. (The writer is Ivan Velez Jr, the artist is credited simply as "Wilfred", short for Wilfred Santiago (thanks to
kthorjensen for that extra info).The simplicity and power of the scene gets me every time.
Anyway, I'm skipping over a random fight scene which doesn't really do very much for the overall plot., and we now skip over a few weeks as the funeral has now taken place and Daisy is having to move back to the projects with her mother, and she's also changing schools, which no one in the gang is happy about. (The gang consisting of Virgil, Frieda, Rick (Who is, incidentally, gay, and who in his excellent coming out story had Virgil come to terms with his own casual homophobia), Daisy and Felix.. (Felix is the loud mouthed friend I suspect we ALL had (or were) at school. No one can quite work out why they're friends, but that's the way it goes)
Just as she leaves, Daisy whispers something to Virgil...
Yeah, that's pretty much Felix all over.
And as such....
If you feel your toes curl in excrutiating embarassment as you read these next panels, then I think they've done their job.
I don't believe this was expanded upon again, it's just a personal thing for her.
So Virgil goes to talk to someone else who he hopes can help. His father. Who is recovering from heart trouble and is resting at home.
This may be one of the most frank discussions on the topic I've read in any CCA approved title...
I like the fact that his father accepts the fact that it's going to happen, so the best thing he can do is make sure he knows what he's doing.
Also perhaps more information on condoms than anything outside of that Death/Constantine PSA from a while back.
I like that Virgil isn't even sure that sex is on the table, and it might be something else completely.
Also, again, a beautifully composed series of pages...
And we politely close the door on what happens next.
And as for that cover from the start of the issue.... well as outlined by the late, irreplaceable Dwayne McDuffie in the letter column of #25 itself.
Oh Mr McDuffie, alas you never made it there, and neither have we yet, alas.
The eventual solution was an elegant one; the comic came double covered, with the original cover inside the modified one. It's slightly depressing/embarassing that a solution was needed, but one has to hand it to Milestone for coming up with it
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 02:58 pm (UTC)It's amazing that this created all sorts of controversy back then. Invincible had a similar cover early into its run and nothing was thought of it. In fact, I bet a cover like that wouldn't even get anyone batting an eyelash today.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 05:38 pm (UTC)That of course leads me to one of my biggest gripes in comics, which goes back to Seduction of the Innocent, the death of EC, and the CCA's smothering of mature stories, but I think I'd be pretty much preaching to the choir here on that on. Short version, it's sad that they think that just showing naked flesh and giggling at sex is a substitution for actually mature stories on the matter, never mind the war they have on happy characters and functional relationships.
Also, I'll admit I sort of teared up reading McDuffie's column. The man had far more class, style, and vision than most ever realized, possibly more than DC deserved, and Gail Simone posted something this month on her Twitter account that just hit all the buttons on my emotional control box regarding how she met Dwayne and the impact he had on her life, so that spot's still a little tender.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-24 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 03:15 pm (UTC)Even at Image a far more permissive company than the big two I am not sure if we would see the original Static cover printed even today.
The artist is Wilfred Santiago
Date: 2014-05-22 03:43 pm (UTC)http://www.tcj.com/its-obvious-you-cant-fuck-with-cartoons-a-wilfred-santiago-interview/
Re: The artist is Wilfred Santiago
Date: 2014-05-22 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 03:47 pm (UTC)i have been meaning to read this, mainly because i loved the cartoon and i was really interested in the Rick Stone Story. I love that McDuffie carried that over (as much as he could) to the cartoon character. all the signs were there if you knew what to look for,
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 02:36 am (UTC)And keep in mind that I was straight, white, well-off, and in college at the time--about as far removed from the characters depicted in the Milestone titles as you could get--and they blew my mind. Queer characters of every sort. Diverse characters of all ethnicities. Art styles that challenged expectations without being "hawt" and "kewl" like the Image founders. Storylines that made you think.
For a few glorious years, Milestone burned brightly and kicked ass, and then it was gone, way too soon. I miss it. :(
no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 10:11 am (UTC)