Early memories
11-26-2014
Hello, I was planning on talking a bit more about bondage in main stream comics, super hero comics in special. But then, when I was just musing about it, I was all of a sudden struck by something more specific, more personal also.
One step back though, first. Yes there is a lot of bondage to be found in super hero comics, sometimes sloppy and uninteresting, more often somewhat elaborate, because you can't tie most super heroes down with simple rope: you have to have special equipment to neutralize their powers too. Sadly, that doesn't guarantee more interesting bondage per see, just bigger manacles, more tubing etc. Every once in a while you come across a real gem, like this one from Ed Benes.
But more often, it stays simple and not all that interesting, and I find myself reading all these wonderful comics, thoroughly enjoying them, but shaking my head, looking at all the missed opportunities.
While looking through some of my own stacks, I came across some really old ones, and then it hit me. I saw a page with a slight bondage theme in it, and it brought me back, back a whole lot of years.
I was about eight or nine years old, and I really loved Marvel and DC comics. I didn't know about the companies: I just knew titles; Spiderman, Batman (all time favorite, still), Superman, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, X-Men... I loved those books! I loved the stories, the drama, the suspense... and also something else. In my whole collection, there were a few pages which I would go back to, over and over again.
In the Fantastic Four for instance, there was a character called Madam Medusa. Her superpower was her living hair, with which she could do, well let's say: some serious damage, and she was most of the time triumphant in any fight. But sometimes... she was on the receiving end! And boy, did that excite me!
There were even a few panels with her, the mighty Medusa in bondage, defeated by her mad cousin Maximus!
And there were other characters, like the Scarlet Witch of the Avengers, helplessly restraint in chains. I look at these few pages, which I then turned up over and over again, and in the present, I wondered why these pages had such a profound effect on me. Sure, they gave me nice feelings, but the bondage wasn't that great, in fact, it was quite simple.
But then all of a sudden I realized: I kept going back to those drawings because they were all I had, at nine years of age! I hadn't seen Willie's work, or Stanton's. I didn't know what bondage was, or even what I was feeling exactly! Or that there were others who would share this fascination. In those days, it was just myself and these few, magical panels. Little did I know, what was to come
Coco
CBAP