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facebook and art censorship.

If your a fan of comic book art you’re probably aware of J. Scott Campbell already. If you’re not, then go check out his dA gallery! Do it right now - then come back and read this. 

:iconj-scott-campbell:

As I write this he is doing a “Too Hot for Facebook” event. Why you ask? Because his amazing art is being flagged as inappropriate and banned from facebook. 

His art is available for purchase not only online, but also at comic book shops, book stores, pharmacies and grocery stores across North America (and no doubt elsewhere). However, apparently some of his artwork shows too much skin for the gentil world of facebook. 

Rapunzel FF 2011 - [link]
Warlord of MARS 4 Dejah Thoris - [link]

In my opinion, there is nothing obscene about this artwork. This is nothing you can’t see on primetime TV or in a PG-13 movie. Heck, I’ve seen just as much skin in some friend’s vacation photos. Don’t you have to be 13 to sign up for facebook anyway? If you walk into an art gallery you can see full nudity and any age can get in. 

What’s next? Banning his Spider-Man work because Peter Parker’s tights are a little too tight around the groin area? or maybe you can see his nipples through the spandex on a cold New York night? 

This is the same facebook that allows applications that will tell you what kind of sexual lover you are, what sex position you should try or in which public place you should have sex. Porn stars and prostitutes have facebook pages, but this artwork is apparently too obscene. 

Why should you care? 

Right now this is just about Mr. Campbell. However, if you’re an artist like I am, then you ought to be concerned that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. This could develop into a disturbing trend of art censorship on facebook. 

If you feel like doing so, I would encourage you to spread the word about this and even to contact facebook and express your concerns. Now it’s almost impossible to contact facebook via facebook (weird I know) but you can send them a quick tweet! twitter.com/facebook (@facebook). 

Will they read them? I don’t know, but it only takes a few seconds. Artists need to support one another. 

Cheers,
Matt

UPDATE! This Spider-Man cover has been deleted by facebook, and J.Scott Campbell was suspended for 30 days! This is ridiculous! Any child can buy a Spider-Man comic book! 

[IMAGE LINK] http://j-scott-campbell.deviantart.com/#/d3arc52

My thoughts on the NHL Guardian Project.

I must admit, when I heard that the legendary Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame was going to be creating a superhero for all 30 NHL teams, I was pretty excited. I grew up reading comics, I still have rather large Spider-Man collection under my bed collecting dust (and value I hope).

When you attach Stan Lee’s name to something, you automatically expect nothing but the best. You expect amazing. Let’s look at just some of the famous characters he helped create.

Spider-Man, Angel, The Avengers, Beast, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Cyclops, DareDevil, Doctor Doom, Electro, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Jean Grey, The Hulk, Ice Man, Iron Man, King Pin, Kraven, Lizard, Scorpion, Magneto, Mysterio, Doctor Octopus, Punisher, Rhino, Sandman, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Thor, X-Men and Professor X … just to name a few. 


I admit it’s hard to create a unique superhero today, believe me I’ve tried. Just as Hollywood seems to be running out of unique story ideas, the human imagination seems to be running out of new and cool superheros. 

For example, many of the NHL Guardian Project heros jump out as Marvel or DC “knock-offs”.

  • The Penguin look exactly like Cyclops in a Penguins uniform. 
  • The Hurricane clearly has the powers of Storm. 
  • The Blackhawk just screams Iron Man to me. 
  • The Sabre is a combo of Hydro Man and Silver Surfer. 
  • The Flyer is obviously Angel / Arch Angel.
  • The Lightning is a combo of Electro and Silver Surfer. 
  • The Shark is possible the coolest idea, with only a hint of DareDevil. 
  • The Canuck is also fairly unique, if not a little silly looking. Along with the Shark, he rates highly on the unique chart.  
  • The Canadien is odd. He got the powers of Rogue, the Iron Man suit, and lost an arm for some reason. 
  • The Oiler is simply Juggernaut with an oil filled super soaker.
  • The Devil is cool and looks bad-ass. The actually worked off a local legend, rather than just re-hashing Marvel heros. 
  • The giant, shape shifting Eagle known as The Capital also ranks highly on the uniqueness scale. 
  • The Red Wing and The Blue Jacket look like some Japanese mech-warrior or Transformer wanna-bes. 
  • I suppose it was tough to anything other than the Human Torch ripoff for the Calgary Flame. 
  • The Star has not only the powers of Electro, but also the same colours. 
  • While the powers may differ, could The Coyote look anymore like Wolverine? The Coyote is even a loner and drifter as well.  
  • The Avalanche just screams Mister Freeze, you can’t deny it. 
  • The Maple Leaf is some sort of Swamp Thing meets an Ent from Lord of the Rings. I don’t know why the mask is there, he’s a giant tree. 
  • The Senator and The King are just so generic it’s boring. 
  • The Panther is almost an exact copy of the Black Panther from Marvel. It gets the lowest marks for creativity. 
  • I suppose The Ranger was an obvious choice for a Captain America clone. The New York uniforms are very Americana. 
  • The Duck isn’t too bad, kind of an underwater Iron Man. Not bad. 
  • Finally, is it just me, or is The Wild, The Bruin and The Predator all the same character? One look! 

Furthermore, the art for this project was disappointing. The art is equally as important as good writing. While the character bios were lacking in creativity, great art could have really propped this project up. Instead the art was good, but not great or exceptional. 

I would like to take a moment to compare the art of the NHL Guardian Project with a couple artists who I think are the best in the biz today. 

The NHL Guardian Project



J. Scott Campbell

 
 

Todd McFarlane 
 
 
 

Jim Lee  
 
 

You can see the difference can’t you? That’s the kind of art work I was hoping for and expecting. Todd McFarlane would be a great fit for the project. Born in Calgary is a noted Hockey and Sports fan. The one time co-owner of the Edmonton Oilers also produces the popular line of Hockey figures from McFarlane Toys. I may actually have bought the graphic novel if someone of his calibre was involved.

But I guess at the end of the day, this is all for the little kids - the fans of tomorrow, not fans my age who have grown up with comics and super heros.  

MY TOP 5 NHL GUARDIANS (Based on appearance, creativity and uniqueness).  

  1. The Shark
  2. The Devil
  3. The Canuck
  4. The Duck 
  5. The Capital