case in point DC cancelled Garth Ennis's "THE BOYS" due to what they are calling "A difference in creative vision" the also released a statement saying that they are cancelling any future Trade publication of this book. Now I agree that "The BOYS"
is a little graphic with it's content, But considering DC's history with Garth Ennis ( PREACHER ) they knew what they where getting and what to expect from Mr. Ennis's writing style. DC should never have green lit the project if they where going to bail on the book by issue six. I'll do a retrospective on "the Boys" soon.
Here's a great article on the subject by Julian Darius From www.sequart.com regarding censored pages from "the Authority" originally published by WildStorm Comics ( DC ). Julians a far better writer than I ( with a lot less swearing ) and he makes great observations on the subject.
At the very least it's worth A look for the unpublished Brian Hitch, Frank Quietley & Aurthur Adams Art Work:
Julian Darius
The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States of America left many Americans, and much of the world, seriously shaken and disturbed. Almost immediately, the shockwaves echoed throughout the artistic world: many speculated that Americans craved escapism and many artists experienced an existential crisis, wondering what their occupations meant in the wake of the trauma of the event. While Americans repeated the mantra that "the terrorists win" if their lives were altered because of 9/11, a simultaneous concern about being "insensitive" -- or receiving bad press -- led many companies to tone down violence in art, particularly terrorist or mass-scale urban violence. The trailers for the movie Spider-Man, for examples, featured criminals caught in a web spun between the two World Trade Center towers -- which, of course, were no longer there; the trailer was pulled and portions of the film reshot. Other films were delayed indefinitely. No artistic medium was spared from these reactions -- or perhaps overreactions -- and comics were no exception.
The Authority, then in its famously trailblazing run under writer Mark Millar, seemed an immediate target of corporate censorship. Since its inception under writer Warren Ellis, the title had been known for its "widescreen" violence on the scale of city-wide devastation. But this controversy went beyond violence into sexuality and politics. Team members Apollo and Midnighter -- analogues for Superman and Batman -- had been implicitly homosexual since Ellis had created them, but Millar had made this explicit. The team had deposed otherworldly governments under Ellis, but under Millar had moved to deposing real-world governments and opposing the U.S. government. DC (owner of WildStorm, which published the title) had censored the book at least since Millar's first issue (#13, cover-dated May 2000), including obscuring panels depicting violence and removing a kiss between Apollo and Midnighter. Reportedly, the company was concerned that the mass media would pick up that it was publishing an alternate version of Superman and Batman who were involved in a homosexual relationship, leading to a crisis within the cross-media Superman and Batman franchises. As 9/11 hit, The Authority #27 was scheduled for publication, offering the second chapter of Millar's final storyline; the first chapter had been published at the beginning of 2001, after which the storyline had faced a long hiatus (although fill-in issues were offered).
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The cover, as publshed, to The Authority #27. |
The first effect of 9/11 upon the Authority was the cancellation of The Authority: Widescreen, a special that had been scheduled to include a number of different stories -- one of which, it turned out, featured a battle in New York City with civilian casualties. The story would not have been out of character for the series, but were clearly regarded as unacceptable in the post-9/11 environment. Almost simultaneously, The Authority #27, with its long-delayed continuation of Millar's final storyline, was delayed in order to be reworked. Fans, already upset over DC's treatment of the revolutionary title, chaffed but generally prefered to see the conclusion of the storyline, even if it had to be delayed in the wake of history. The issue, pencilled by Arthur Adams, at last saw publication in December 2001.
It was only then that the real scandal hit. Rich Johnston, the comics gossip writer, broke the story that large-scale changes had been made to the issue. Apparently leaked by people at WildStorm who had been upset by DC's micro-management, many uncensored panels began appearing through Johnston. Some panels had been altered; others entirely redrawn. It soon became clear that most of the instances could not be attributed to 9/11. Many instances seemed related to sexual content and probably would have been censored anyway. Moreover, the fact that Arthur Adams had already drawn the issue prior to its censorship suggested a problem within the editorial ranks: the original version of the issue had apparently neared completion through WildStorm before being censored from further up at DC, itself owned by AOL / Time-Warner. It seemed to many that 9/11 had been used as an excuse for often unrelated censorship. All of this led to several conspiracy theories by the title's outraged fans.
Some changes were perhaps understandable from a commercial standpoint: The Authority was neither approved by the Comics Code, the censoring body established by the major comics companies in the 1950s in the wake of popular criticism (and the published theoretically sound but morally indignant articles of Dr. Wertham), nor labelled "suggested for mature readers" like DC's Vertigo line. Necrophilia, for example, just wasn't going to fly; the mere suggested desire for the same had been controvertial in Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, and even DC's Vertigo imprint had not ventured so far. DC almost certainly was not interested in publishing the corpse of the team's dead leader, star of a recent mini-series, being used as a necrophilic object.
The censorship would continue in #28, which also saw censored panels leaked to Rich Johnston -- although not as many. Arthur Adams, who had himself been an artistic replacement on the storyline, himself quit -- while writer Mark Millar moved from polite understanding for DC to outright condemnation. Additional delays only compounded the outrage of fans. The storyline would at last conclude, under other artists, with #29 -- Millar's final issue and the final issue of the series. The Authority had become under Millar a top-selling title known for its aggressive and controversial nature, but this same nature lead to its censorship, delay, and ultimate cancellation.
The reality of leaked alternate versions, made possible by the internet, has allowed the following scholarly study of particular instances of censorship. I have attempted, wherever possible, to provide side-by-side comparisons between the printed and the censored versions. I have also included some material that, while not outright censored, simply never saw print.
The images themselves are copyrighted by DC Comics and are used here for scholarly purposes without depriving their owner of income. In fact, I encourage readers to purchase and study the comics themselves, conveniently available in trade paperback form. Both versions are enjoyable and The Authority, in either form, remains revolutionary -- which is, of course, why this scholarly study is of such importance. My hope is therefore that understanding these changes increases not only scholarly understanding but also interest and appreciation for the printed version.
Censorship of The Authority went back at least to Millar's first issue, #13, which originally specified the nation and its leader that the Authority invaded and toppled: Jakarta and President Habibe, then in the news for crimes against the population. Apparently, DC thought that the appearance of a murder fantasy against a living president was going too far, but thought too few people would recognize the president to change his visage.
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Mark Millar's first storyline, running from #13 to #16, featured analogues of many Marvel Comics characters, most prominently including alternate versions of the Avengers. Neither Marvel nor the editors at DC were thrilled with this appropriation, and the design of the Commander -- the Captain America analogue -- was changed to render him more unique.
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Right: the original version of page 16 from The Authority #14, showing The Engineer's killing of the character analogous to the Hulk. In the bottom panel, The Engineer gives the middle finger to her foe's corpse. The original was changed to the British "two finger salute" for the printed version, a change easily discernable because the raised finger was simply copied and pasted to create a second raised finger. There seems little logic in this change, given that The Engineer is not British, and it seems to have been made to obscure the gesture that is considered by many to be obscene: most readers of the American comic would not recognize the British version. (The change also has the effect of emphasizing the fact that Mark Millar is British -- which has considerable cache since the British invasion of comic book writers, including Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, in the 1980s.) Additional changes occured in #14 as obscuring red filters were placed on a few panels showing the Authority kill. |
Reports vary as to how much unpublished work Frank Quitely had completed upon his departure from the title, almost immediately following the publication of #22. Most reports specify only a few pages of #23 had been completed, meaning that #23 would almost certainly have been delayed in any case. Quitely had completed the next few covers, however, in order for them to be included with those issues' solitication. These covers were not censored and were probably not used to emphasize the replacement artistic team.
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Left: the main section, sans titles and indicia, of the cover, as it was printed, of The Authority #28, containing the third chapter of "Brave New World." Right: the main section, sans titles and indicia, of Frank Quitely's original cover for The Authority #24. The issue was to have contained the third chapter of "Brave New World," which saw print as #28. Note that both covers show Apollo and Midnighter fighting Seth. |
The Authority: Widescreen, a special featuring various stories, was cancelled in the wake of the 11 September attacks because it featured urban carnage in New York City -- including people being pulled out from under wrecked buildings. Reports vary as to how much of the contents for Widescreen were complete at the time of its cancellation.
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By the time The Authority #27 was published, featuring the second part of "Brave New World" (originally intended for #23), Arthur Adams had replaced Frank Quitely as artist. His cover (Quitely's having been scrapped) was noted as a bloody close-up, although an earlier version has materialized.
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Just as Authority #1 introduced the original team by showing them in combat accompanied by introductory captions, so Millar cleverly introduced the new Authority in #27. Here Teuton, the German replacement for Apollo, is introduced; in the entirely redrawn printed version, he throws some 30th-century teenagers to their deaths, but in the original he used himself as a projectile -- much as the terrorists used commercial flights filled with civilians as projectiles in the devastating 11 September attack.
Left: a portion of page 4 from The Authority #27 as it was printed. |
The introductory sequence concludes with the Colonel, an English football hooligan who serves as replacement for Jenny Sparks. The printed and original versions are the same except that the details of the head being used as a football were obscured for publication.
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Note the nipple in Adams's original.
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The egoism shown in the printed version of the Colonel's personalization of the beer can-strewn entrance to his room felt amusing but fettered. And indeed it was; in the original, it was covered with derogatory expressions of every sort (except of course for lesbiens, who are welcomed). But the real shocker here is the Colonel's perks, provided after he mentioned he fancied the dead Jenny Sparks. In the utterly redrawn printed version, he is provided with three look-alikes, beautifully shown half-dressed and clearly well-used. In the original, however, the powers-that-be dug up Jenny's corpse, letting the Colonel have his object of desire more directly -- and having necrophilia committed upon a valorized dead central character! Though the replacement here was nice, the issue's theme was that the new Authority has utterly conquered and humiliated the originals, and this theme is considerably lessened by not extending it to the humiliated originals' dead leader.
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Both versions of Swift's humiliation in #27 have a domesticated Swift in the kitchen. Whereas in the entirely re-drawn printed version she (formerly a vegetarian) is slaving over an elaborate meal of chicken, in the original she was doing the dishes -- with her tongue.
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In both versions, the domesticated Swift interacts with her new master. In the entirely re-drawn printed version, he brushes off her cooking, putting his cigar out in it. In the original, he calls her over (probably in a word balloon in what became a silent panel) and uses her mouth as an ashtray in a shot that is heavily reminiscent of oral sex. Indeed, the original version has a remarkable orality: Swift's mouth is used as a garbage disposal and an ashtray, leaving us to wonder what else it has received.
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The original clearly features George W. Bush, the newly-elected President of the United Sates known for his corporate sponsorship. Speculation raged, after this panel was released in January 2002, that Bush's visage had been removed because criticizing him had been deemed unpatriotic in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks, especially since the cowardly word balloon assigned to him might recall his criticized fleeing the Eastern seaboard and his administration's evacuation of the White House on the day of the attacks. Compare this alteration with the depersonalization of President Habibe in #13 and the explicit depiction of President Clinton in the same issue.
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This censorship continued into The Authority #28 (published in February 2002), though apparently to a lesser extent because Millar and Adams had adjusted the script and illustration in the wake of their experience on the preceding issue.
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NOTE: The use of the word "censored" as opposed to "edited" can be troublesome, though I reject the notion that a publisher, even as the owner of the artistic property in question, should be said to "edit" when the same action, taken by a governmental institution or a distributor, would be called "censorship." I generally prefer lack of censorship for moral and artistic reasons, although I recognize a publisher's need to censor in certain circumstances as well as the fact that the result, especially when generated as a compromise by the artists, may sometimes be superior to the original, censored version. But let's call a spade a shovel, shall we?
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