The Buffyverse Piss Christ

[sombrefan]

There's a fair bit of controversy over some cover art for the Spike vs. Dracula #3 comic book which shows Spike in a Nazi uniform giving a Nazi salute (the issue is set in 1943 Nazi Germany btw).

You can read all about it at Whedonesque as the artist Eric Wight (Buffy: Animated designer) comments on it as well as other posters.

Elsewhere some Spike fans are saying Jewish and German fans will be horrified by the cover and the artist says he has received hate mail about it.

Comments

[rleyser.livejournal.com]

I'm jewish. I'm not horrified or even offended. Its appropriate for the time the comic is set in. Spike was *evil* people, for a lot longer than he's been good. Its not great cover art, however.

[swersfreakshow.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but isn't Spike EVIL!?!

Well... yeah.

[kuzibah.livejournal.com]

I can see what the artist was trying to do, throwing back to WWII-era comics, where Superman punched out Hitler, and so forth. But he must have known that he'd be dealing with a fairly young and unsophisticated segment of the fanbase who LURVE Spike, and who have grown up equating the swastika with the most profound evil possible. They don't have the historical context, either of comic art or Nazi Germany, and will react in a kneejerk way. It's the same reason Disney makes it so hard to see "Der Fuhrer's Face," even though that's clearly satirical and critical of Nazism; They're afraid all people would see is Donald Duck in a Nazi uniform.

At least Eric Wright seems to be taking it in stride, but I wouldn't be surprised if Fox told him to back off.

Re: Well... yeah.

[simonf.livejournal.com]

They told him to back off when he originally planned to do a cover showing Hitler staking Spike. They obviously seemed ok with Spike doing a Nazi salute. Oh btw, the orginal cover art link is now pointing to the correct cover.

Re: Well... yeah.

[kuzibah.livejournal.com]

Well that's good. I do have to say that I preferred Wright's animation-style art, but this work does fit in more with the style of the other artists who've worked on the comic.

[paperdol.livejournal.com]

I am offended by it, greatly so.

I wouldn't buy it, I don't support it, and I wouldn't welcome the artist at my lunch table.

I do support the artist in his right to express ideas through art, as repugnant as those ideas may be to me, just to be clear.