Dirty Words: Comic Book Movies Are Dead, Long Live “Velvet Sinn!”

Artists and have been making dirty doodles since pigment hit cave walls. It wouldn’t surprise us if dirty books drove the Gutenberg Revolution in printing, as hundreds of years later porn launched the video star, so it’s no shock that comic books are rife with raunch. One-hundred years ago, at the birth of the art form, popular characters like Popeye and Dagwood and Blondie were being stripped and sketched into compromising positions in what were referred to as Tijuana Bibles. 

Today comic books have successfully conquered what they had their sights on for decades: the big and small screen, not as “Batman” camp or “The Incredible Hulk” schlock, but as seriously reviewed and amazingly popular entertainment aimed at adults. It’s the fulfillment of a dream every boy secretly held, for their fantasies to be made flesh and accepted by the mainstream, but it is the ruination of both mediums.

Sales are off at the comic book publishers as producers of theatrically released comic books are exploiting franchises that attracted bigger and bigger box office. Comic books have become spec scripts to sell as screenplays. The movies have beaten the inked-stained artists and writers at their own game, often by stealing their creations, but that’s a time-honored tradition in the field. The truth is “The Fantastic Four,” as ridiculous as its plots may appear, with superhero weddings on the rooftop of the Baxter Building interrupted by cosmic world-eaters, is true to the soap-opera-in-tights sensibilities of the Marvel Universe from which they were hatched.

The superhero comic book (not the big-foot humor variety or the syndicated newspaper strips) is a childish genre that belongs in the off-register four-color newsprint rack in the back of the drug store. Sure, there are exceptions, but the rule is that there it thrives. Once taken from the hothouse environment of boyhood immaturity and stretched to the breaking point on the big screen, marketed (egads!) to grown ups, the conceit falls apart. It’s embarrassing.  

What happens when adult sensibilities are applied to the juvenile stage of comic books? Somehow it works. Comics are a cannibalistic medium, they devour all influence and make it their own. Comics are deceptively simple in execution, but a sophisticated amalgamation of prose and picture into something uniquely capable of carrying any message. Look at Japan, where manga are sold to every spectrum of society, from kids to little old ladies to businessmen to perverts. 

That brings us to “Velvet Sinn,” a new graphic novel, which is just a branding tool meant to foster legitimacy to comics they already possess. “Velvet Sinn” is the story of a porn star who fights crime, which is the logical extension of the half-naked men and women crime-fighters, who are pornographic just short of penetration and ejaculation. It’s certainly been the subtext of comics dating back to your grandpa’s time. Ask him.

As the press materials note, “Velvet Sinn” is “just like Peter Parker, but with boobs,” a Spider-Mams. Created by Dillion Harper, a five-foot, five-inch, 24-year-old brunette from Florida, who went from dental-care college to modeling nude for various adult websites, including Penthouse, Kink, Mofos, Reality Kings, Score, Hustler, Brazzers and Bang Bros. By 2012, she was performing in explicit hardcore movies for companies such as Wicked, Jules Jordan, Lethal Hardcore Productions, Evil Angel, Girlfriend Films, Girls Gone Wild, Digital Playground, Bluebird, Shane’s World, Devil’s Film, Diabolic Video and New Sensations. She's working on a website and can be found on Twitter.

“I’ve been working hard creating ‘Velvet Sinn,’” says Dillion. “She’s my badass alter ego, who isn’t ‘sugar and spice and everything nice.’ She’s tough, sexy and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. It’s been a fun outlet for me, and we are looking forward to working on the next issue.”

Drawn in a cartoony as opposed to the hyperrealistic style preferred by current superhero artists, “Velvet Sinn” happily doesn’t take itself too seriously. According to press material, “the storyline features Dillion Harper, a pretty little thing always trying to be a normal, middle-class girl. Dillion has constant visions and voices in her head about fighting crime, while using her powers of beauty to right the wrongs of people everywhere; alone in her bedroom, she keeps her secret quiet, while practicing her moves and pretending to be just like all of the other young ladies. After becoming an adult superstar for two years and amassing countless fans, Dillion can no longer hide in the shadows of her bedroom—and so, Velvet Sinn was born.”

The only problem with this 10-page comic book produced by Big Boy Studios Comics and Artist Island Management, is if some entrepreneur gets their hands on it and turns the comic book into a movie, porn or mainstream. Make sure this never happens, and if it does, don’t support it. Instead go the the Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, Last Gasp websites or your favorite comic book emporium and enjoy the wonder that can only be exhibited when pen hits page.