#ppl talk about barbies or disney princesses giving unrealistic body expectations but like. cape media is doing similar stuff for boys

[jesncin]

do you have any thoughts on super-hero comic muscles and physiques? not a judgement, i just see that you tend to not do the exaggerated bodies that you normally see in comic heroes

I tend to not draw out the exaggerated superhero muscles because my middle-grade-cartoon style lends better to smoothening and softening the shape language of the more "realistic" style of cape comics, but a part of it is also just trying to normalize different body types!

For a character as conventionally strong man looking as Superman, I borrow a lot of my version of Superman from the way Gurihiru stylized him. Even then, I don't draw the exaggerated tapered in waist or shoulders as broad as they, and many cape artists, do. Because that body type isn't actually strong! It's all aesthetic Mr Universe Hollywood man body type you get from dehydrating and starving yourself that people wrongly associate with healthy strength by conflating it with beauty standards.

(Form vs Function graphic by coelasquid)

So I wanted to draw Clark with an actual strongman physique! I think it just makes sense for a boy who grew up on a farm to naturally buff out into a strongman body.

I understand that it's all stylization and escapism at the end of the day- but when I think about that comic artist who made fun of the MCU Namor actor for not being as buff as he is- it's a reminder that depicting different bodies in our escapism matters! I know Robert Pattison was joking when he said that he skipped out on doing a routine to get into shape for playing Batman, but the guy was onto something.