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Sergio Saavedra
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Joined: 13 August 2007
Location: Spain
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

What do you think of the current tendendy to include symbols such as these %#&* to substitute obscene language in superhero comics?
I first notice this in "Alias", but being an adult comic, it did not bother me.
But today it is rare the comic book that does not include a couple of these curses in disguise. It is like watching a film with "beeps" to cover bad language. And in the case of regular superhero comic books it annoys me more and more. 
I mean, these comic books are for all ages, why the need to suggest bad words even though they do not include them? 
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Michael Casselman
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

'Current'? They've been using the symbols for decades.
Since I don't follow many current titles, I'd just assumed they'd dropped all pretense and printed out the words by now.
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Sergio Saavedra
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Joined: 13 August 2007
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Yes, those symbols have been used for decades, but only occasionally. But today I find them every week in a couple of titles at least.
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Michael Roberts
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Joined: 20 April 2004
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

 The term for the symbols representing profanity is grawlix. 


 QUOTE:
I first notice this in "Alias", but being an adult comic

ALIAS was a MAX title, and as such, just left the profanity uncensored. You might be thinking of Jessica’s move to mainstream titles like THE PULSE and AVENGERS, where they maintained the fact that she was a pottymouth with the grawlix.
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Doug Centers
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

"Furshlugginner" seemed more prevalent back in my reading days. But yeah I kinda remember the symbols too.
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

The coining of grawlix is credited to Mort Walker. 



Edited by Michael Roberts on 16 August 2018 at 5:20pm
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Eric Sofer
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Joined: 31 January 2014
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

There have been a couple of different situations.

In comic strips, the grawlix was used to show cursing or intense. In addition, a large black cloud in word bubbles or possibly scribbling was used. It seems to me that this was most often in funny strips more than dramatic, or in a humorous moment.

This obviously carried over to comic books, and as far as I know was prevalent throughout the Golden Age.

In the Silver Age, there started a trend - one I particularly noticed with Ben Grimm and Nick Fury - where pseudo gibberish* replaced the grawlix. "Git off yer butts and git a move on, ya no-good goldbrickin' shoe polishin' tin horns!" or "What the blankety-blank kinda gizmo is that, Stretcho?" This seemed to occur more at Marvel than at DC.

Then - slowly, a little cursing started slipping in. "Darn", "Heck", and "God" appeared. As the language restrictions eased somewhat in colloquial conversation, so did they in comic speech. I personally felt that this was as far as it should go in comic books... but once that first snow ball starts down the hill, it's hard to stop.

A bit later, we started seeing "Damned", "Christ", and "Hell" showing up with frequency. (Having Ghost Rider and Son of Satan kinda made it inevitable.) And as comics started getting edgier, we started seeing the Seven Words that Must Not Be Said on Television. I'm not sure of the last time I saw a grawlix in a book.

Sergio, I'm with you in that most of that language could easily be omitted in all age books. It's still all over television, movies, popular periodicals, and general conversation. But at least it's a try in the right arena to try keeping it away from kids.

* Actually, it was authentic frontier gibberish. Harrumph.


Edited by Eric Sofer on 16 August 2018 at 5:29pm
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Wallace Sellars
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Joined: 01 May 2004
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

People may not say, "Blast it!" "Cripes!" or "Curse you!" in the real world, but I was (and still am) perfectly happy with these exclamations over more profane ones. (Then again, I don't use profanity myself, so...)
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Jabari Lamar
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Joined: 18 October 2017
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Years ago in an issue of Robert Kirkman's Irredeemable Ant-Man (which, I'll note, was written as a "humor" comic) it was revealed that SHIELD agents were deliberately trained to say "Blast" and other curse-word substitutes while in on the job, so that they'd appear more professional. The joke being that this training was so ingrained that many even used those words while off-the-clock, because it had become second-nature to them.
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John Byrne

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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I got permission to have Sue say "Damn you" to Doom in a particularly fraught moment. The editor changed it to "Curse you," which produced an absurd moment.

Without consulting me, of course!

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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Honestly, part of the reason I started preferring DC to Marvel when I was 13 was because DC characters were allowed to say "damn" and "hell" but Marvel characters weren't.

Verismilitude, y'all. I can suspend my disbelief plenty in order to enjoy superhero comics, but the characters have to act and talk at least approximately like real people, and nobody in the real world says "blast it!" 

I remember Spider-Man once saying "you can rot in Hades." Right. Sure. People really talk like that. Can't say "rot in hell." Might warp a teenager's brain.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Joined: 12 February 2018
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Posted: 16 August 2018 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

My grandparents considered damn and bloody to be 'watch your mouth' words. Once an older cousin or sibling put me up to saying something really really bad where they'd overhear (sh*t, see can't even type it now) and I got to find out what soap tastes like (luckily not the lava soap our hands were scrubbed free of skin with). I would probably be someone who would use @#$%&! in a comic. Or I might go Red Dwarf and use Smeg or Battlestar Galactica and say felgercarb. You might not be the right or intended audience for anything like that I would write though. :^)

You want eleven year olds saying all the bad words? Do ya, ya lousy punks? Well, that's the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it!!! I can still taste that damn soap... thanks grandma...
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