Contending between perceived gratuitous sexuality and creative freedom in storytelling.

Pen Elayne's Elayne Riggs has been critical of the first page image of the work in progress for Dose, previewed here. After a brief exchange in the item's comments thread, the discussion moved to Elayne's blog comments, seen here. An interesting exchange which touches on issues critical to the portrayal of women in the comics community, a paramount and well regarded pursuit for Elayne.

The issue is made more difficult due to that the image originally presented is intentionally too small to allow for the text to be read. It is furthermore only one page of an intended 4 page preview, basically an introduction to a more comprehensive comics project (not intended to be used in the project itself). This makes it difficult to assess the thrust of the story or the creative decision for the display of nudity seen in page 1. It also raises questions about our propensity to make premature assessments of such unfinished work in progress.

Having argued for the exercise of some patience until the entire preview is finished, I've nonetheless decided to allow for it to be read as a work in progress. It remains difficult make a judgment at this stage, but this is likely preferable to the unnecessary speculation already evoked by that image.

We now have 2 of the 4 pages for viewing, click each image for an enlarged readable view (opens new window).