The Nipple Whisperer

Among the small pile of comics I recently purchased through itunes that use the iverse browser, two of them are Ghost Whisperer. The Ghost Whisperer comic is written by Becca Smith and Carrie Smith The art is provided by Elena Casagrande. My daughters and I love the Ghost Whisperer TV show, and I thoroughly enjoyed the comics. Seriously, I enjoyed it. It captures the feel of the show pretty well.

In this story line, Melinda is encountering the earthbound spirits that are full of anger and vengeance based on the circumstances of their deaths. In the first two issues at least, neither were actually killed by the people they have sworn vengeance upon, but both were victimized to some degree by peers, and met their deaths through accidents facilitated by their being picked on.

In each of these cases, the spirits are goaded on by another earthbound who believes himself to be the egyption god Osiris. When Melinda ultimately helps the girls to the light, Osiris is angry and lashes out at her. The art isn't phenomenal, but it's certainly not bad. The stories aren't earthshattering, but they are good, and have the tone and framework of the show for the most part.

My issue with this, and reason behind the title of this entry is a sort of bizarre and out of place series of nipples poking through shirts in both of the issues. I have no problem with nipples,I'm something of a fan even. Put them in a genre where it makes sense to show that sort of thing, and don't use high school kids, etc., and I probably won't feel weird about it. In the Ghost Whisperer, Even Melinda isn't presented in an overly sexual way, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is a looker by some people's standards (mine included). Generally, she dresses somewhat frumpy in the show, with layers, etc. When she does dress up, it's usually in sort of old fashioned seeming timeless or classic type outfits.

In the second issue, a girl died by falling into a swimming pool and getting tangled in the cover, and drowning. The first time we see her her nipples are prominently drawn in. Yes... I guess you could say there is some realism to that, but is it necessary, and does it really make sense or seem right in the context. I don't think so. In the first issue, The nipples pop up on the high school girls who pulled a mean prank on a classmate that lead her to run without looking where she was going and get hit by a car. In this same issue is a series of panels of the girls in a variety of bizarre poses for the circumstances. I will go with the idea that the girls might have a sleepover, but this is skinemax fare, one on her hands and knees on the bed, another is arching her back sitting on the edge, leaning back on her hands.... oh did I mention the lolipop the hands and knees girl is posing with... This just struck me as bizarre. I really didn't think that GHOST WHISPERER was really a show that relied on that sort of crap, and it was just out of place to see it in a comic. Yes they are all high school girls, but no I don't have tons of outrage, I just wonder why it was necessary. This isn't an ultra visible mainstream comic marketed at kids, etc. I mean, this is a comic offered on itunes, but the GW property may not be as attractive to most kids as it is to my girls.

People have nipples... as I pointed out earlier. I realize that, but generally they aren't flashed around quite as much in tv and movies as they seem to be in this comic that has no real use for sexuality in it. Does that mean it is just thrown in to spice up a fairly dull title? Were those details actually written into the script, or is this the solely the artists vision? Kind of strange, kind of unnecessary detail. I would like to read the rest of the series, though.