Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Cursing, erik larsen, image comics, savage dragon, twitter

Erik Larsen Shares His Thoughts On Cursing In Comics

Image co-founder and Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen spent some time sharing his views on cursing in comics on his twitter feed. Larsen is known for his strong opinions and speaking his mind. Here he brings up the issue that writers have to address a lot… do you use cursing, how much do you use it and how do you show it? Is it better to avoid it, black it out, use symbols or just let it fly.

What Larsen is working on this morning to bring up the topic is unknown… but it could be very interesting.

Coming up with clever ways to avoid having characters swear can be a pain in the butt. And the end result can be pretty unsatisfying.

— Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

People in the real world swear so much that it just comes off as really stilted and artificial to avoid it at times. — Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

But I hate the blacked out swearing in comics. That just seems stupid to me. It looks like Popeye muttering. — Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

And I don't mean "hell" and "damn" – I'll say hell and damn all day long. I mean the seven words you can't say on television.

— Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

There simply isn't a substitute for "fuck you" that is anywhere near as powerful.

— Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

"Drop dead" is the best I can come up with but does anybody even say that anymore? — Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

Now, I have used swearing in Savage Dragon a couple times, years ago, but I have been using it in well over a decade. "Don't fuck with God!" — Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

.@GavHigginbotham What if we got to a point where swear words had no "shock value"? Would that be so terrible?

— Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

In any case – bottom line is – this is not always easy.

— Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 23, 2013

As a writer I think Larsen brings up valid points and the use of language is an issue. Over use makes the reader desensitized. I've had a case recently where I put a single curse word into a story and felt it really had a dramatic effect. The publisher blacked out the word and in doing so stripped away the moment. I would rather have had the option to re-write the line than to have it just blacked out.

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