Webcomics have wasted no time in taking advantage of the unfiltered, uncensored, and plain uncontrollable nature of the Internet. Webtoonists have also in their own small way acted out like smaller-scale rock stars, now and again trashing a virtual hotel room.

Last November, Hard, author of Sexy Losers, asked in his comic's Livejournal why women read his comic. He was asking because he had so many women writing to him, and as he put it: "…sometimes they will add 'Yes, there are females that read your comic' as if I am suddenly shocked that there would actually be females that would find sex humour at all interesting…"

It depresses the hell outta me that when I first learned that the May issue of Comixpedia would revolve around the topic of "sex and violence", I thought that it might transcend some of the old punch-drunk tits n' blood bullshit cliches and instead tackle the issue from both ends of the creative spectrum – perhaps some mock comics about "Mr. No Pants Stabbing the Mailman With His Penis" mixed with a few frank and earnest dialogues regarding the rift between the lightest of psychological violence to stark-raving sadism in comics. Instead this month’s cover seems to suggest that the content within the site may serve to propagate every goofy sex-and-violence-related comic book cliché imaginable, and that’s a shame.

Over the last twenty years, the Western world's attitude toward nudity in forms of pop culture has shifted toward a more liberal attitude at an unprecedented rate. Images of nude bodies and sexual themes that used to be confined to either underground or exploitive – i.e., pornographic – venues have today become a mainstay of most primetime programming and blockbuster cinema.

A recent Comixpedia.com discussion attempted to gauge whether the same trend can be detected in webcomics. With the advent of the Internet and its infamous gray legal waters, the passive bystander might have expected a proliferation of nude comic strip scenarios.

The last couple of columns I've written have been more like pep talks then How-To material. I must be working through some inner demons of my own or something while I write these, trying to type out things I do or want to do as some sort of record of what I'm thinking. In turn, that got me thinking...

Nudity.

It's one of the big no-nos of family entertainment.

In American entertainment, no one is ever just naked. They're having sex, or implying that they would like to be having sex, or in the shower while a homicidal killer sneaks up on them, or trying to catch the mischievous dog who's scampering away with their underwear. The revealing of the butt crack, the nipple, or the genitals serves a purpose, be it to titillate, to shock, to lampoon, or to get you to pull out your credit card. It's never just there.

Unless it's in an art museum, or in a National Geographic Magazine , or in a webcomic called Sparkneedle.

For we who inhabit the cartooning world, 2004 may well be remembered as the year of Dan Piraro.  Piraro is the Reuben-Award winning cartoonist of Bizarro (best panel three years in a row), and in a few short days, he will be attending the Reuben Awards again, this time nominated for "Best Overall Cartoonist". He’s also got a successful book out and has organized a political comedy show tour.

And when Comixtalk asked him for an interview, he was gracious enough to say yes.

Naked Field Parties and You

When I was a chipper young lad of 12 or 13, there was (as there was every year) an election for Student Council at my beloved Poughkeepsie High. One wag, running for some minor position like Sock Hop Coordinator or Master of the Punchbowl or something, applied all the intellect and graphic design skills that one could expect a 15-year-old who spent most of his time blasted at "field parties" to muster.

We like happy endings because we know in our hearts that there are almost no happy ends.