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| Bad girl art | |
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 Lady Death, created byBrian Pulido | |
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Bad girl art is asuperheroine artwork style trend that emerged during the 1990s.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: a mention of the decline of the trend during the late 1990s and early 2000s & more examples ofnotable bad girl characters. You can help byadding missing information.(December 2015) |
The term "bad girl art" was coined in the 1990s as an allusion – and contrast – to the "good girl art" movement that started in the 1940s, and is used to refer to the trend offemme fatale heroines that started in the early 1990s.[1][2] The "bad girl" art trend was derived from the exaggerated visual styles of the male and female form first used in the late 1980s by artists such asRob Liefeld andJim Lee. The precursors to the trend wereVampirella, created byForrest J Ackerman and publisher James Warren in 1969, andMarvel Comics'Elektra, created byFrank Miller in 1981.[1][2]
Part of the impetus for the "bad girl" trend may have been attributed toHarris Comics revival ofVampirella.[3] As the comic book industry had long held the belief that female-fronted books were not successful,retailers ordered very few issues expecting theVampirella book to bomb, but due to an influx of longtimeVampirella fans jumping at the chance to read a new series featuring the character this led to a massive spike in prices for back issues.[3] This led to Harris Comics debuting theVengeance of Vampirella to continued commercial success.[3] Additional momentum for the trend came about fromLady Death, created by writerBrian Pulido and artistSteven Hughes in 1991.[2][3] Although theLady Death had amassed a sizableunderground following from her appearances in back-up features inChaos! Comics'Evil Ernie, the character's breakout would only occur in January 1994 in the first issue of her self titledongoing series which like theVampirella revival was greatly underestimate by retailers leading to a spike in back issue prices and increased orders for subsequent issues.[2][3]
Other notable "bad girl" characters in the 1990s includeRazor, created by Everette Hartsoe in 1992;Shi, created byBilly Tucci in 1993;Angela, created byNeil Gaiman in 1993;Glory andAvengelyne, created by Rob Liefeld in 1993 and 1995 respectively; andWitchblade, created byMarc Silvestri in 1995.[1][2]
"Bad girl" characters dress in revealing costumes, possess shapely physiques, are morally ambiguous, wield supernatural powers or are of a supernatural nature, and have no compunction about killing their enemies.[1][2] The "bad girl" fad even carried influence in more mainstream books likeDC Comics ongoingCatwoman series, which while still falling within the aesthetics and stylistic leanings of theBatman family of books, incorporated aspects such as emphasizedsexuality and a morally ambiguous heroine.[4]Lady Death creator Pulido attributed the success of theBad Girl style (though disagreeing with name applied) to a kind ofsynergy which was achieved withLady Death,Shi, andVampirella being released within such close proximity of each other.[5]
Prior to the publication ofShi,Lady Death, and the Harris Comics relaunch ofVampirella, many of the creators were routinely told by figures in the industry that "girl books don't sell".[5]John Byrne, who was writing forWonder Woman at the time, expressed skepticism on the longevity of the "bad girl" books beyond a short-termfad, acknowledging the need and under served audience for strong female characters but felt the "bad girl" books were over reliant onshock value in place of actual substance.[5] Conversely,Jo Duffy who worked on theCatwoman alongsidepencillerJim Balent andinkerDick Giordano commented:
I think it is so incredibly fantastic. I have always loved characters likeSue Storm, [AKA] the Invisible Woman, who's such a good mommy, but I've always hated that that's all we really got. [I hated the fact] that bad girls had to be villains and we could never do a bad girl as a protagonist. I think rotten women are a lot [more vicious] than rotten men - they're sneakier, and most of them have a lot more imagination and better clothes.[3]
Colleen Doran admitted to liking some of the characters of the "bad girl" trend whilst also critiquing the misogynistic andexploitative aspects of the trend, but did not fault thepublishers of these books as it just made sense from a business perspective.[3]
Mantra creatorMike W. Barr hypothesized that the "bad girl" trend could be interpreted as having a degree offeminism, but also theorized that the trend could be more psychological as withGeneration X experiencing the breakdown ofnuclear family dynamics in favor of being raised bysingle mothers that modern readers were simply more accepting of a woman in a position of authority.[4]
