8 ms·

300% Increase in Boob Size on Comic Book Cover Art

remflight 4y ago
I think the peak for ridiculous boobs was over 10 years ago. On the comic book subreddit, there will be a lot of comments on how ridiculous some of the huge boobed female pics that get posted. I definitely think it’s falling out of favor, which I agree with.
imbnwa 4y ago
I remember bust size being a notable topic in comic books as a kid because of J. Scott Campbell's illustrative style on Danger Girl as well as Brian Pulido's Lady Death.
z9znz 4y ago
It's not just boobs, it's everything in life. We are now so much more exposed to content options that there's an increasing race for attention. Anywhere you look, you see these changes.
theplumber 4y ago
It's worth to note that an increase has been in real life as well as result of plastic surgery. And it's not only boob size. Same goes for men though I belive they make use of the gym& supplements. Everyone wants to look "better"/more attractive for obvious reasons(i.e better pay, better life etc)
- googlryas 4y ago
  I assumed boobs were getting bigger because more and more people are becoming obese.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - adventured 4y ago
    That is the case. A lot more people have become obese since the 1980s for example. Boob sizes would naturally go with it. "The average Americans' weight change since the 1980s is startling" "The average woman, meanwhile, expanded from 152 pounds to 169 pounds while her height remained steady at just under 5 feet, 4 inches." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-weight-gain-since-1980s-startling/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-weight-gain-since-198...
    - falcolas 4y ago
      10%, I’ve gotta be honest, isn’t huge. Especially when there are other measures like malnutrition rates falling by 13% which could account for it. BMI, as an aside, is a crap measurement tool. The body-shape preferences of a Victorian man shouldn’t be used for anything more valuable than toilet paper on the modern day.
      - bsuvc 4y ago
        Saying the difference between 152 vs 169 is only 10% more is not the right way to think about it though. Here is what I mean by that: Let's say for the sake of example that the healthy target weight for that height is 135. So then 152 is 17 pounds overweight and 169 is 34 pounds overweight. 169 is twice as overweight as 152, which is a big deal: A 100% increase in how overweight people are. It may technically be accurate to say there was only a 10% increase in weight, but we don't start measuring healthy weight at 0 pounds, so it's measuring from the wrong point.
        falcolas 4y ago
        Setting a target weight for a height is BMI. Which i still contend is a crap measurement. Have decent muscle mass, you’re obese. Live a sedentary lifestyle but hit the weight target? Perfectly healthy. So stupid.
        googlryas 4y ago
        It's crap but it works for most people. I'm not sure many people can even develop the musculature to mess up a BMI measurement unless they are trying really hard
satisfice 4y ago
It’s the boobing frog effect.
satisfice 4y ago
Seriously: don’t you have to be just a little obsessed with breast size to even notice that the depictions are getting larger? Perhaps the increase in size is all down to how little we care— the size increase is a reflection of how it takes more sex energy to get us to buy things. We’re jaded.
- ajkjk 4y ago
  No? It's really obvious and jarring.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  - yieldcrv 4y ago
    Is it objectification? If so, why is it inherently objectification and in a pejorative sense? Although real women dont have super powers, there are absolutely people that fit so-called unrealistic body standards, but it doesnt seem to matter if they do or dont
    - uneekname 4y ago
      > there are absolutely people that fit so-called unrealistic body standards This statement represents a common misunderstanding of what body standards are. Our culture is a toxic environment for women because they feel pressure to look and act in ways that are considered beautiful and feminine. I hope we can agree that women who don't happen to fit the beauty standards of the day (which is, from what I can tell, impossible anyways) should not be valued less in our society. Yet, they are: women who are traditionally beautiful are treated differently in our culture. > it doesn't seem to matter Oh but it does! Sexism is a serious issue. I'd be happy to point you to some references on the topic. One representation of a woman in media really isn't a big deal, but when they are all white, extremely skinny, have large breasts, etc. it becomes pretty cringey. Here is a summary I found that outlines some of the ways women are objectified in comic books. It talks about how they are overly-sexualized and drawn in impossible positions that female readers often find awkward and demeaning. [0] [0] https://cah.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/KWS17_Turberville.pdf https://cah.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/KWS1...
pedroma 4y ago
Curious about this except butt sizes instead.
- system2 4y ago
  Boobs are in the front side. So you won't be able to find many covers with butts.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    lol sure you will https://comicbook.com/news/catwomans-controversial-brokeback-cover-changed-for-publication/ https://comicbook.com/news/catwomans-controversial-brokeback... It’s called the “brokeback pose”. https://www.thegeektwins.com/2012/03/10-most-ridiculous-broken-back.html?m=1 https://www.thegeektwins.com/2012/03/10-most-ridiculous-brok...
    - lupire 4y ago
      *Broken back. Brokeback is something quite different.
  - smt88 4y ago
    A lot of female superhero covers twist the character into strange positions so that they can show both boobs and butts. This has become mildly controversial as some of the contortions are essentially impossible for a real human to perform. - https://i1.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/193-1.jpg https://i1.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010... - https://i2.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/220-1.jpg https://i2.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010... - https://i2.wp.com/wetalkpodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Typical-Female-Rob-Liefeld-Pose.jpg https://i2.wp.com/wetalkpodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014... - https://i2.wp.com/storage.googleapis.com/stateless-thedailyfandom-org/2020/12/7acf8464-rco001_1468875691-scaled.jpg https://i2.wp.com/storage.googleapis.com/stateless-thedailyf...
- Tao3300 4y ago
  For this we have Instagram
pram 4y ago
The title seems misleading because the boobs aren’t getting bigger, the cover composition has just changed to feature then more prominently? “Modern day covers feature busts that consume more than triple the cover space”
- gruez 4y ago
  This is supported by the the last chart[1]. Breast area has gone up, but breast to waist ratio has stayed flat, indicating that they're staying the same size relative to the body. In other words, the main characters are taking up more space on the cover, and as a result breasts are taking up more space as well. [1] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiIT0-yATvVbrtqJC5SbMOx2uE5php0IYjLQA7C7-jz9umIw64AbgOX7_dsm3Mp0-0s8Bpykaq8fRbWuHwY9wHhQDV67W9u5t5Ez4LgUYFGPdkUB-ypDURFZzrmm10t_dbjNxjYH1HzIbByARWgLQi81o0mRrBnn4dTR0ZWzkFJCM4GvHsY5ZbvQ/s1600/aggregate-all.png https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg...
  - pishpash 4y ago
    Main change in the 90's?
  - keithnz 4y ago
    I think they needed to do something like breast to head ratio, from the sounds of it the waist has got bigger, but the breast to waist ratio has stayed the same. I think if it was compared to head it would give a sense of "size" increase (if any).
  - simplicio 4y ago
    Yea, just anecdotally, I feel like comic covers have gotten less horny as the target market has moved away from being exclusively teenage boys (which isn't to say there aren't still plenty of sexually titillating covers). But at the same time, as the art has gotten more sophisticated, I feel like a lot more covers have detailed images of the protagonist, rather then more "zoomed out" action seens with more going on but less fine detail.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
ykevinator2 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
IncRnd 4y ago
The math in incorrect. It should read, 200% increase in ... From the article, "Modern day covers feature busts that consume more than triple the cover space and show twice the amount of cleavage compared to comics from the mid 20th century." And, "Busts occupy more than triple the cover space today" Going from X to X*3 is not a 300% increase but a 200% increase. But... math doesn't seem to be where the author has placed his attention.
- Arnavion 4y ago
  It's not just the author. I noticed some years ago that a lot of people have started saying the equivalent of "3 is three times larger than 1" instead of "3 is three times as large as 1" or "3 is two times larger than 1".
jihadjihad 4y ago
I know this isn't strictly OT, but I see it a lot and it bugs me. The article mentions "more than triple the cover space" while the title mentions a 300% increase. A 300% increase is a four-fold increase relative to the starting value, not 3x. This is because a 100% increase is a doubling, of course, so it's easy to get mixed up. If something went up by 1100% it's a twelve-fold increase, etc.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  I don’t think percent is ever more clear than “times”. Wish we’d just use that. But I think people like the big numbers.
  - tim333 4y ago
    Boobs up by 30,000 basis points.
thematrixturtle 4y ago
> Have illustrators hit their maximum allowable peak for racy imagery, or is there still more to come? Here's some inspiration from Japan, from a popular comic for teens called Shonen Jump (as in, this isn't even considered porn). The main pic is racy enough, but it duly censors the nipples. However, if you hold it and the following page up to a light, the illustrated "tapioca pearls" shine through in just the right place. https://soranews24.com/2019/11/06/weekly-shonen-jump-under-fire-for-naked-image-of-busty-manga-girl-with-tapioca-nipples/ https://soranews24.com/2019/11/06/weekly-shonen-jump-under-f... (NSFW, obviously)
- qzx_pierri 4y ago
  What’s so bad about some titties? I ask this seriously.
  - falcolas 4y ago
    Nothing. Seriously, nothing. It’s just that some exceptionally prude people think female nipples are so sexual that they must be hidden. Not sure why, they’re for babies, and that’s the only thing that sets female nipples apart from male nipples, which are not vilified for public exposure. Unless a suckling baby turns them on, which is totally on them. EDIT: Minor clarification
    - gruez 4y ago
      >It’s just that some exceptionally prude people think female nipples are sexual. I don't think being attracted to breasts/nipples are limited to "exceptionally prude people". source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Breasts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Breast...
      - falcolas 4y ago
        Back to what separates female nipples from male nipples? It takes a certain amount of prudishness to vilify “immodesty” in only one sex.
princevegeta89 4y ago
Lol. What a post for a sunday evening.
SeanLuke 4y ago
I'd like to point out a tragic but unfortunately relevant story surrounding what I think was probably the best book in the business for a while, a little gem in the middle of a sea of junk: the 2001 Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke reboot of Catwoman. Prior to Brubaker taking over, Catwoman had become a sexist, ridiculous fantasy character for teenage boys. It was meant to be titillating rather than good. Then Brubaker completely rebooted her, writing her as a defender of the little guy in what amounted to a comic book version of film noir, even bringing back Slam Bradley, the original "detective" of Detective Comics (DC). Accordingly Cooke utterly redesigned her look as toned down, realistic and smart, and tough: https://www.heroicgirls.com/looking-back-darwyn-cookes-catwoman/ https://www.heroicgirls.com/looking-back-darwyn-cookes-catwo... Brubaker's stories were first class and a full break from past, and even Cooke himself got to both author and draw an excellent one-off graphic novel called Selena's Big Score. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Catwoman:_Selina%27s_Big_Score https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Catwoman:_Selina%27s_Big_Score For a little while -- about three years maybe -- Catwoman was like absolutely nothing else on the shelves. It was like a throwback to the 1940s, classy and dark and smart. Then Brubaker and Cooke left for other projects, and the comic almost immediately reverted to its previous boobfest. It's kind of bounced back and forth in style since then but has never recovered. Without a visionary creative team, comics just revert to the lowest common denominator.
fellellor 4y ago
Big data is now big tata.

I think the peak for ridiculous boobs was over 10 years ago. On the comic book subreddit, there will be a lot of comments on how ridiculous some of the huge boobed female pics that get posted. I definitely think it’s falling out of favor, which I agree with.

imbnwa 4y ago

I remember bust size being a notable topic in comic books as a kid because of J. Scott Campbell's illustrative style on Danger Girl as well as Brian Pulido's Lady Death.

z9znz 4y ago

It's not just boobs, it's everything in life. We are now so much more exposed to content options that there's an increasing race for attention. Anywhere you look, you see these changes.

theplumber 4y ago

It's worth to note that an increase has been in real life as well as result of plastic surgery. And it's not only boob size. Same goes for men though I belive they make use of the gym& supplements. Everyone wants to look "better"/more attractive for obvious reasons(i.e better pay, better life etc)

googlryas 4y ago
I assumed boobs were getting bigger because more and more people are becoming obese.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- adventured 4y ago
  That is the case. A lot more people have become obese since the 1980s for example. Boob sizes would naturally go with it. "The average Americans' weight change since the 1980s is startling" "The average woman, meanwhile, expanded from 152 pounds to 169 pounds while her height remained steady at just under 5 feet, 4 inches." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-weight-gain-since-1980s-startling/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-weight-gain-since-198...
  - falcolas 4y ago
    10%, I’ve gotta be honest, isn’t huge. Especially when there are other measures like malnutrition rates falling by 13% which could account for it. BMI, as an aside, is a crap measurement tool. The body-shape preferences of a Victorian man shouldn’t be used for anything more valuable than toilet paper on the modern day.
    - bsuvc 4y ago
      Saying the difference between 152 vs 169 is only 10% more is not the right way to think about it though. Here is what I mean by that: Let's say for the sake of example that the healthy target weight for that height is 135. So then 152 is 17 pounds overweight and 169 is 34 pounds overweight. 169 is twice as overweight as 152, which is a big deal: A 100% increase in how overweight people are. It may technically be accurate to say there was only a 10% increase in weight, but we don't start measuring healthy weight at 0 pounds, so it's measuring from the wrong point.
      - falcolas 4y ago
        Setting a target weight for a height is BMI. Which i still contend is a crap measurement. Have decent muscle mass, you’re obese. Live a sedentary lifestyle but hit the weight target? Perfectly healthy. So stupid.
        googlryas 4y ago
        It's crap but it works for most people. I'm not sure many people can even develop the musculature to mess up a BMI measurement unless they are trying really hard

satisfice 4y ago

It’s the boobing frog effect.

satisfice 4y ago

Seriously: don’t you have to be just a little obsessed with breast size to even notice that the depictions are getting larger? Perhaps the increase in size is all down to how little we care— the size increase is a reflection of how it takes more sex energy to get us to buy things. We’re jaded.

ajkjk 4y ago
No? It's really obvious and jarring.
drewcoo 4y ago
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  Is it objectification? If so, why is it inherently objectification and in a pejorative sense? Although real women dont have super powers, there are absolutely people that fit so-called unrealistic body standards, but it doesnt seem to matter if they do or dont
  - uneekname 4y ago
    > there are absolutely people that fit so-called unrealistic body standards This statement represents a common misunderstanding of what body standards are. Our culture is a toxic environment for women because they feel pressure to look and act in ways that are considered beautiful and feminine. I hope we can agree that women who don't happen to fit the beauty standards of the day (which is, from what I can tell, impossible anyways) should not be valued less in our society. Yet, they are: women who are traditionally beautiful are treated differently in our culture. > it doesn't seem to matter Oh but it does! Sexism is a serious issue. I'd be happy to point you to some references on the topic. One representation of a woman in media really isn't a big deal, but when they are all white, extremely skinny, have large breasts, etc. it becomes pretty cringey. Here is a summary I found that outlines some of the ways women are objectified in comic books. It talks about how they are overly-sexualized and drawn in impossible positions that female readers often find awkward and demeaning. [0] [0] https://cah.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/KWS17_Turberville.pdf https://cah.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/KWS1...

pedroma 4y ago

Curious about this except butt sizes instead.

system2 4y ago
Boobs are in the front side. So you won't be able to find many covers with butts.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  lol sure you will https://comicbook.com/news/catwomans-controversial-brokeback-cover-changed-for-publication/ https://comicbook.com/news/catwomans-controversial-brokeback... It’s called the “brokeback pose”. https://www.thegeektwins.com/2012/03/10-most-ridiculous-broken-back.html?m=1 https://www.thegeektwins.com/2012/03/10-most-ridiculous-brok...
  - lupire 4y ago
    *Broken back. Brokeback is something quite different.
- smt88 4y ago
  A lot of female superhero covers twist the character into strange positions so that they can show both boobs and butts. This has become mildly controversial as some of the contortions are essentially impossible for a real human to perform. - https://i1.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/193-1.jpg https://i1.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010... - https://i2.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/220-1.jpg https://i2.wp.com/www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010... - https://i2.wp.com/wetalkpodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Typical-Female-Rob-Liefeld-Pose.jpg https://i2.wp.com/wetalkpodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014... - https://i2.wp.com/storage.googleapis.com/stateless-thedailyfandom-org/2020/12/7acf8464-rco001_1468875691-scaled.jpg https://i2.wp.com/storage.googleapis.com/stateless-thedailyf...
Tao3300 4y ago
For this we have Instagram

pram 4y ago

The title seems misleading because the boobs aren’t getting bigger, the cover composition has just changed to feature then more prominently? “Modern day covers feature busts that consume more than triple the cover space”

gruez 4y ago
This is supported by the the last chart[1]. Breast area has gone up, but breast to waist ratio has stayed flat, indicating that they're staying the same size relative to the body. In other words, the main characters are taking up more space on the cover, and as a result breasts are taking up more space as well. [1] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiIT0-yATvVbrtqJC5SbMOx2uE5php0IYjLQA7C7-jz9umIw64AbgOX7_dsm3Mp0-0s8Bpykaq8fRbWuHwY9wHhQDV67W9u5t5Ez4LgUYFGPdkUB-ypDURFZzrmm10t_dbjNxjYH1HzIbByARWgLQi81o0mRrBnn4dTR0ZWzkFJCM4GvHsY5ZbvQ/s1600/aggregate-all.png https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg...
- pishpash 4y ago
  Main change in the 90's?
- keithnz 4y ago
  I think they needed to do something like breast to head ratio, from the sounds of it the waist has got bigger, but the breast to waist ratio has stayed the same. I think if it was compared to head it would give a sense of "size" increase (if any).
- simplicio 4y ago
  Yea, just anecdotally, I feel like comic covers have gotten less horny as the target market has moved away from being exclusively teenage boys (which isn't to say there aren't still plenty of sexually titillating covers). But at the same time, as the art has gotten more sophisticated, I feel like a lot more covers have detailed images of the protagonist, rather then more "zoomed out" action seens with more going on but less fine detail.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

ykevinator2 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

IncRnd 4y ago

The math in incorrect. It should read, 200% increase in ... From the article, "Modern day covers feature busts that consume more than triple the cover space and show twice the amount of cleavage compared to comics from the mid 20th century." And, "Busts occupy more than triple the cover space today" Going from X to X*3 is not a 300% increase but a 200% increase. But... math doesn't seem to be where the author has placed his attention.

Arnavion 4y ago
It's not just the author. I noticed some years ago that a lot of people have started saying the equivalent of "3 is three times larger than 1" instead of "3 is three times as large as 1" or "3 is two times larger than 1".

jihadjihad 4y ago

I know this isn't strictly OT, but I see it a lot and it bugs me. The article mentions "more than triple the cover space" while the title mentions a 300% increase. A 300% increase is a four-fold increase relative to the starting value, not 3x. This is because a 100% increase is a doubling, of course, so it's easy to get mixed up. If something went up by 1100% it's a twelve-fold increase, etc.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
I don’t think percent is ever more clear than “times”. Wish we’d just use that. But I think people like the big numbers.
- tim333 4y ago
  Boobs up by 30,000 basis points.

thematrixturtle 4y ago

> Have illustrators hit their maximum allowable peak for racy imagery, or is there still more to come? Here's some inspiration from Japan, from a popular comic for teens called Shonen Jump (as in, this isn't even considered porn). The main pic is racy enough, but it duly censors the nipples. However, if you hold it and the following page up to a light, the illustrated "tapioca pearls" shine through in just the right place. https://soranews24.com/2019/11/06/weekly-shonen-jump-under-fire-for-naked-image-of-busty-manga-girl-with-tapioca-nipples/ https://soranews24.com/2019/11/06/weekly-shonen-jump-under-f... (NSFW, obviously)

qzx_pierri 4y ago
What’s so bad about some titties? I ask this seriously.
- falcolas 4y ago
  Nothing. Seriously, nothing. It’s just that some exceptionally prude people think female nipples are so sexual that they must be hidden. Not sure why, they’re for babies, and that’s the only thing that sets female nipples apart from male nipples, which are not vilified for public exposure. Unless a suckling baby turns them on, which is totally on them. EDIT: Minor clarification
  - gruez 4y ago
    >It’s just that some exceptionally prude people think female nipples are sexual. I don't think being attracted to breasts/nipples are limited to "exceptionally prude people". source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Breasts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Breast...
    - falcolas 4y ago
      Back to what separates female nipples from male nipples? It takes a certain amount of prudishness to vilify “immodesty” in only one sex.

princevegeta89 4y ago

Lol. What a post for a sunday evening.

SeanLuke 4y ago

I'd like to point out a tragic but unfortunately relevant story surrounding what I think was probably the best book in the business for a while, a little gem in the middle of a sea of junk: the 2001 Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke reboot of Catwoman. Prior to Brubaker taking over, Catwoman had become a sexist, ridiculous fantasy character for teenage boys. It was meant to be titillating rather than good. Then Brubaker completely rebooted her, writing her as a defender of the little guy in what amounted to a comic book version of film noir, even bringing back Slam Bradley, the original "detective" of Detective Comics (DC). Accordingly Cooke utterly redesigned her look as toned down, realistic and smart, and tough: https://www.heroicgirls.com/looking-back-darwyn-cookes-catwoman/ https://www.heroicgirls.com/looking-back-darwyn-cookes-catwo... Brubaker's stories were first class and a full break from past, and even Cooke himself got to both author and draw an excellent one-off graphic novel called Selena's Big Score. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Catwoman:_Selina%27s_Big_Score https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Catwoman:_Selina%27s_Big_Score For a little while -- about three years maybe -- Catwoman was like absolutely nothing else on the shelves. It was like a throwback to the 1940s, classy and dark and smart. Then Brubaker and Cooke left for other projects, and the comic almost immediately reverted to its previous boobfest. It's kind of bounced back and forth in style since then but has never recovered. Without a visionary creative team, comics just revert to the lowest common denominator.

fellellor 4y ago

Big data is now big tata.