August 9, 2013
Bad girl art is a superheroines art form genre coined after the analogy of ‘good girl art’ (‘girl art’ that is ‘good’) which also includes strong female characters in comic books. Bad girls are typically tough and violent superheroines.
While the ‘good’ in ‘good girl art’ refers to the art itself, the ‘bad’ in ‘bad girl art’ refers to the girls: anti-heroine characters, often portrayed as cruel, mercenary, or demonic, although it may also be intended to reflect on the crude mannerisms and exaggerated anatomy of the drawing style associated with those characters. While Good Girl Art was common in the 1940s and 1950s, Bad Girl Art arose in the comic book market of the 1980s and 1990s. During the heyday of the style, some 50 titles within the subgenre were being published, with ‘Lady Death’ as the best selling title.
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August 9, 2013
Good girl art (GGA) is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction. When cited as an art movement, it is usually capitalized as Good Girl Art.
The term describes the work of illustrators skilled at creating sexy female figure art; it is ‘girl art’ which is ‘good.’ Popular culture historian Richard A. Lupoff defined it as: ‘A cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for erotic stimulation. The term does not apply to the morality of the ‘good girl,’ who is often a gun moll, tough cookie or wicked temptress.’
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August 8, 2013
Veronica Lodge (first appearance ‘Pep Comics’ #26 in 1942) is a fictional character in the ‘Archie Comics’ books series. She is called both by her name Veronica and her nickname Ronnie. Bob Montana, creator of the original Archie characters, knew the Lodges, because he had once painted a mural for them. Montana combined that name with actress Veronica Lake to create the character of Veronica Lodge. Her character was added just months after Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Jughead Jones debuted, and just a few months before Reggie Mantle.
Veronica is the only child of Hiram Lodge, the richest man in Riverdale, and his wife Hermione Lodge. She is tall, slender and attractive with long black hair. Veronica favors expensive, up-to-the-minute fashion. In some comics, Mr. Lodge claimed that he moved his family to Riverdale in order to avoid Veronica becoming spoiled, like many of the children he knew and grew up with.
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August 8, 2013
Women have been portrayed in comic books since the medium’s beginning, and their portrayals are often the subject of controversy. Sociologists with an interest in gender roles and stereotyping have outlined the role of women as both supporting characters and as potential leaders finding limited success at being accepted as equals.
Another point of study has been the depiction of women in comics, in which, as in other forms of popular culture, body types are unrealistically portrayed.
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August 7, 2013
Guido [gwee-doh] is a slang term for a lower-class or working-class urban Italian American. Originally, it was used as a demeaning term for Italian Americans in general. More recently, it has come to refer to Italian Americans who conduct themselves in a thuggish, overtly macho manner.
The time period in which it obtained the latter meaning is not clear, but some sources date it to the 1970s or 1980s. The term is derived from either the proper name ‘Guido’ or the Italian verb ‘guidare’ (‘to drive’). Fishermen of Italian descent were once often called ‘Guidos’ in medieval times.
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August 7, 2013
Redneck is a derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States. It is similar in meaning to ‘cracker’ (especially regarding Georgia and Florida), ‘hillbilly’ (especially regarding Appalachia and the Ozarks), and ‘white trash’ (but without the last term’s suggestions of immorality).
By the 2000s, the term had expanded in meaning to refer to bigoted, loutish reactionaries who are opposed to modern ways, and has often been used to attack white Southern conservatives. The term is also used broadly to degrade working class and rural whites that are perceived by urban progressives to be insufficiently liberal. At the same time, some Southern whites have reclaimed the word, using it with pride and defiance as a self-identifier.
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August 7, 2013
Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia in the east but also the Ozarks in the center of the country. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term can be offensive to those Americans of Appalachian heritage.
Origins of the term are obscure. According to Anthony Harkins in ‘Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon,’ it first appeared in print in a 1900 ‘New York Journal’ article, with the definition: ‘a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.’
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August 7, 2013
Honky is a racial slur for white people, predominantly heard in the United States. The first recorded use of honky in this context may date back to 1946, although the use of ‘Honky Tonk’ (a type of bar common in the South) appeared in films well before that time.
The exact origins of the word are generally unknown and postulations about the subject vary. Honky may derive from the term ‘xonq nopp’ which, in the West African language Wolof, literally means ‘red-eared person’ or ‘white person.’ The term may have been brought to the US by slaves.
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August 7, 2013
Cracker is a derogatory term for white people, especially poor rural whites in the Southern United States. In reference to a native of Florida or Georgia, however, it is sometimes used in a neutral or positive context and is sometimes used self-descriptively with pride as a form of reappropriation. There are multiple suggested etymologies for ‘cracker,’ most dating its origin to the 18th century or earlier.
One theory holds that the term derives from the ‘cracking’ of whips, either by slave foremen in the antebellum South against African slaves, or by rustics to guide their cattle. Those white foremen or rural poor who cracked their whips theoretically became known as ‘crackers.’ Another whip-derived theory is based on Florida’s ‘cracker cowboys’ of the 19th and early 20th centuries; distinct from the Spanish ‘vaquero’ and the Western ‘cowboy.’ Cracker cowboys did not use lassos to herd or capture cattle. Their primary tools were cow whips and dogs.
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August 6, 2013
Master Mold is a fictional character, a robot supervillain in the Marvel Universe. Since his primary purpose was to act as a portable Sentinel-creating factory, and the Sentinel robots were primarily used to hunt mutants, Master Mold has almost exclusively appeared in the ‘X-Men’ and related, mutant-themed, comic books.
The Master Mold first appeared in ‘X-Men’ #15 (1965), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the 1960s, out of fear of a race of superhuman mutants that could dominate the whole world and enslave normal human beings, Dr. Bolivar Trask makes Master Mold, a supercomputer, in the shape of a giant Sentinel robot, that will control and facilitate the construction of the Sentinels (mechanical warriors that are programmed to hunt and capture all superhuman mutants.)
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August 6, 2013
Sentinels are a fictional variety of mutant-hunting robots, appearing in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they first appeared in ‘The X-Men’ (vol. 1) #14 (1965). Sentinels are programmed to locate mutants and capture or kill them using energy weapons and restraining devices; they are capable of flight, and can detect mutants at long range. Several groups of the robots have been created or led by a single, massive Sentinel, called Master Mold.
Because Sentinels are designed to hunt mutants (who often represent the protagonists of Marvel stories) they are usually employed as supervillains or as the tools of other villains. While many are capable of tactical thought, only a handful are self-aware. In the ‘Days of Future Past’ story, which takes place in an alternate future, the ‘Omega Sentinels’ have advanced technologically and become the de facto rulers of the United States. The most powerful among them is Nimrod.
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August 6, 2013
Bolivar Trask is a fictional character appearing in publications by Marvel Comics. He is a military scientist who is well known as the creator of the Sentinels (mutant-hunting robots). His appearance is modeled on that of Walt Disney. Bolivar Trask was an anthropologist who saw the rise of mutants as a threat to humanity. Bolivar was also the father of Larry Trask, who ironically is revealed to be a mutant precognitive. When Bolivar realized this he gave his son a medallion which suppresses his power.
Bolivar’s other child, Tanya, was also a mutant and her ability to travel through time causes her to vanish. Tanya would be rescued by Rachel Summers in a far future and become a part of the Askani under the alias Madame Sanctity. Tanya’s travels through time would result in property damage to Trask’s land. This mysterious situation would only further cement his attitudes.
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