What is it with the excessive foul language you get in some comics any more? I tried reading Northlanders when it first came out, but every other word out of every characters mouth was a swear word or derogatory slang for reproductive anatomy. Needless to say I dropped the mag very quickly.

Similarly, I picked up Ignition City, looking for the retro sci-fi story I'd seen it billed as. It has single handedly made me swear off all Warren Ellis work. It wasn't a sci-fi book, it was an experiment in seeing how crass you can be and still get someone to read your book. Why on Earth would you ever want to watch someone using the bathroom, then spend pages commenting on it? Everyone on the planet can't string together a complete sentence without making even a sailor's ears burst into flame?

Is it just me, or does this really bespeak a lack of creative talent? It's like listening to a little kid who has just used a dirty word, and every time he says it he chortles over it.

Some swearing I can handle (don't necessarily care for), but page after page of never ending verbal filth? My money can go elsewhere.

I'm not so sure it's a problem that's limited to comics.

In some cases, it seems to reflect the characters quite well, though in general I haven't really read many comics where it became a serious issue so I haven't quite noticed this. However, I'm bothered by any type of dialog that doesn't at least try to be a little more diverse, or at least more reflective of the way a person would talk. I can buy one or two characters who seem to speak in cycles of certain phrases, but when you've got your entire cast using certain phrases, it gets irritating.

Profanity can work, when used in the right framework. In the series 'Deadwood" it seemed like seasoning to a great steak, but when people like Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis use it, it comes off as "look what I can get away with! Ain't I a curmudgeon?"
I have to confess that I curse all the time, especially when I'm drunk or angry. But when you do it as a written word, it should be a reflection of artistic merit and not there just because you can't resist being naughty.

I lost a ton of respect for Kevin Smith when I read a letter written to Mage by him that was peppered with profanity. You have to be forcing it when you have to write those words down. Profanity is a spontaneous thing and generally used when you are in a conversation where you aren't picking your words carefully. Writing them in a letter means that for some stupid reason you think profanity is cool.

I think that's what I'm driving at, here and there it's not so bad. When it's constant though it shows you are being extremely deliberate.

Like movies, occasional swearing is okay, but constant swearing tends to pull me out of the film.

I admit, I swear sometimes (I wish I didn't, and I do try to control it), but that doesn't mean it's cool or hip.

Intermittant control results in unusual situations. I tend to curse more frequently around specific friends (or my brother) than others. Case in point, I have a friend I had known for years. We were hanging out during my freshman year of college, and for some reason, I ended up dropping the F Bomb. She turns to me and starts chuckling, and asks me to repeat myself. I do so. "Again." Okay. "Do it again!" Umm...why?

Turns out, she had never, ever heard me drop the F Bomb before, and thought it was REALLY funny coming out of my mouth.

Glad you brought this up. I got somewhat annoyed with this on FCBD. The Bendis Avengers title that they handed out to all the little kids had the word "damn" in it as a curse about three times. I don't think that these kid's eyeballs are going to explode when they read it, but I do think that many many families would prefer to not have their 7-11 year old children reading Peter Parker swearing. I can see some parents who would read the swearing and throw away the book, shutting off a potential purchaser of Avengers or Spider-Man. Would it have been so hard to simply have deleted the "damns'" for this FREE book?

I, too, have been bothered by this (especially after reading the first issue of Marvel's new Destroyer series in it's MAX line). Not because I have any great moral objection to swearing but, as others have suggested, because I find it to be the crutch of bad writing/scripting (and bad writers/scripters). An occasional F-bomb once in a blue moon can be very effective, emphasizing a point or underscoring emotion. But when you overuse it, it loses its potency. In essence, it becomes filler when you can't think of anything else to say, like when people insert "um," "like," or any other verbal filler when making a presentation.

Moreover, it homogenizes dialogue - the more characters swear, limiting themselves to a subset of the language (even when that swearing is replaced by the ol' @#$*!s), the more they sound the same. To me, if you're a good scripter, you should have command of a full range of language, and use that command to make different people sound different from one another (this is, in some sense, a corollary of my "Fanboy Dialogue" complaint, but that's probably a rant for another day).

I'm glad to see I'm not the only yahoo around these parts who's a little irked by this.

I'll address Hultquist first, since I read his post most recently. You were bothered by cussing in a MAX book? Fo rizzles?

There is nothing wrong with swear words aside from the stigma attached to them. Nothin'. They are as much a part of the English language as anything else.

Maniac, if you were offended by swearing in a Warren Ellis comic, you just shouldn't be reading Warren Ellis comics. Typically speaking, Ellis writes characters that are jaded outsiders with some kind of a loner complex. His characters swear because it is in character for them to do so. (For the sake of countering an argument that hasn't been made yet, Doktor Sleepless rarely if ever swears because he's a crazed optimist and it's not in character for him to do so.)

Asking Brian Wood to clean up the language in Northlanders would be like asking Jason Aaron or Ed Brubaker to clean up the language in Scalped and Criminal. They shouldn't, it really, really works there. (Heck, asking Brian Wood to clean up the language in Northlanders would be like asking Brian wood to clean up the gore in Northlanders [the book is about Vikings ####ing murdering people])

Kevin Smith swears a lot. He just does. Kevin Smith swears like Snoop Dogg rocks the sheng phenomenon.

For quite a few of us cussing is part of our common vernacular. It just is. Saying we can't swear would be like telling a Cajun they can't speak French.

I swear a lot. I just do, but I don't feel the pathetic need to put it in a letter as a means of communication. When I swear in speech it's too late, regrettable but can't be fixed, I have to suffer the consequences whatever they may be. Swearing in a letter you wrote is a different situation and means you don't care one way or other. No regrets. Ergo my lack of respect for the man.

That you think Kevin Smith's cussing is a thing he feels compelled to do as opposed to his common vernacular astounds me.

Of course Kevin Smith doesn't ####ing care about his usage of the English language. Why should he?

Do you disrespect the English because they use silly words like knickers and rubbers? I'd hope not.

I kinda agree with PaxZRake - though I haven't read any of the comic books mentioned in this thread.

If it fits the characters and the tone of the story, I have no problem with it. The way characters speak is part of the characterization (of both the characters and the universe depicted).

I get the feeling you read what you wanted to in my posts. I never said he felt compelled to do anything. The fact that the words are offensive to many and he doesn't care and in fact attempts to wave it in your face. If I drop a curse word and someone asks me to tone it down for instance. I have enough respect for the other person to try to tone it down, not shove it in their face more. And if you're astounded then that appears to be a pretty easy reaction to get out of you.

And maybe Kevin Smith should care because there are people out there who don't want to hear it. Just because he's rich and Hollywood doesn't mean he gets special rules to live by.

"Feel the pathetic need" and "feel compelled" are, in context, so ridiculously similar I don't feel the need to argue that you said what I said you said.

I've already made my other points regarding swearing, so in lieu of repeating myself I'll leave off with a tangential caveat that you brought up.

Yes, people who are rich and Hollywood get special rules. Welcome to the world sir. It is what we have made it.