The Cover to Midnight Warriors#7 was Uploaded to our MySpace page upon the book's recent release, and it was made the main profile picture. This is a common practice of ours to celebrate the release of each new book, we upload it to the photo library on MySpace and spotlight it as the main picture until the next book comes out. This time it only lasted 3 Days before MySpace removed the image and sent an email warning that it violated the terms of use of MySpace. They said that it is unallowable to post images containing sexuality and violence. At first I was stifled, wondering how the Suicide Girls get away with their sexualized imagery, and how countless profiles dedicated to horror get away with their violence. Even our own cover to Midnight Warriors#8 depicts all of our main characters completely nude and lying on top of one another, and that image has been on our profile there for years, and upon it's release it was our main profile picture. Then looking deeper into what MySpace said of the image, I wondered if they saw sexuality & violence combined, drawing an assumption to rape and abuse of women.
The cover, drawn by Stephen Holcomb II & colored by Jeremy Colwell, depicts Anna Marie brutally beaten by the mentally-deficient ring wielder Krudd. From what MySpace said about the banned photo, I am thinking they ASSumed it was a depiction of rape, incorporating sex & violence in an image, drawing those conclusions because Anna is a young girl, her clothes are torn, and some bits of blood are visible. I can say that there is no rape, or intent to rape, within Midnight Warriors#7. I didn't see any problem with the cover, and I still don't. The same concept was actually used by Andy Sullivan for the original B&W printing of this issue (which is the last of the reprints/"Revisited" issues, finally catching us up to Midnight Warriors#8, now aided by an all-new back-up story drawn by Stephen that leads into MW#8's plot), and part of the premise of #7 was to show how extremely misguided and dangerous that Krudd is to the other ring wielders, and the world at large. This will greatly be explored in "Time & Time Again" (MW#12 & up) currently in progress by Edgard Aedo. I don't see the cover as being greatly offensive enough that it be banned from MySpace, with everything else that is on MySpace, but I can see how they would be misled by the cover and they're avoiding having to deal with any backlash from it. So I have not attempted to contact MySpace or try to get them to overturn their verdict on the image, but I did want to give everyone the chance to see the uncensored image on our own website. If you click the image, it will lead you to our online store where you can check out the covers of all of the books we've published so far, including some other covers that could have proven offensive in their own way. |