How do you feel about nudity in your comic?

[C_o]

I've been working on my first comic and my most recent update included some fairly innocuous nudity (a single panel of a topless woman). I never really planned to include it, but once I found myself drawing that particular scene it seemed strange for the character to be in clothing. I wanted to show them in a particularly vulnerable state.

It isn't sexual and I never intended it to be titillating, but I am now second guessing myself a bit. Maybe I'm just overthinking. How does everyone feel about nudity in comics? Does it turn you off as a reader?

[Random_Guy]

As long as it's censored somehow than I don't have an issue with it.

[Jenny-Toons]

It's chilled with me, censored or uncensored. Nudity isn't inherently sexual, and if the moment calls for it, it calls for it.

That said, certain angles, body positions, and character tone can turn nudity sexual. So if you're worried about how it looks, just look back at your panels: is there a lingering gaze on the body or is it just there?

[NickRowler]

I'm fine with seeing it mostly because I've seen it a lot in printed graphic novels that I feel like it is just something that happens. It did shock me when I was a teen reading them. I think if it makes sense to your scene, that's fine.

I won't do it for my own work because most of my stuff is sort of in the PG-13 range. The only piece of nudity is censored.

[vothnthorvaldson]

Let's be honest about what I think: I think nudity (back, front, female, male, whatever) is entirely natural, should not upset anyone who has not been brainwashed to think otherwise, and that the question of censoring or not should only exist for sexual nudity.

I'm horrified to have to put a mature tag on non sexual nudity for my comic, especially for traditional nudity. Having to warn people about that is so incredibly disgusting to me, that I had to remove a whole scene. I'll accept to put a warning for nudity on a next page, because the scene happens in a brothel (even if it is not in a sexual context, I get that the setting implies sex).

Also outraged by the fact we're allowed without warning, male top nudity but not female. I can get some of the reasons it's not socially done IRL (although I think any place actually enforcing this makes a mistake), but in art, it is absolutely unacceptable in my opinion.

But... I get it. Either I post on a website located in a country that is not afraid of such a natural thing as nudity, or I can get an audience. Can't get both.

(Yes, yes I know, I'm extra bitter . That's because yesterday, I draw 5 pages of a scene I really liked and then realize there was too much nudity to pass without a warning. So it's scrapped. I will NOT warn against non sexual nudity).

[indagold]

Depends if its a poorly written comic and their only selling feature is it got tiddy then not worth a read.

I actually put nudity in my comic only in one scene that was a dream sequence, It was intended to shock the viewer as well as show the main protag was far more intimate with a character that later took advantage of him and the shock they feel having shown a personal side to someone who doesn't care about you. I'm not gonna put nudity for shits and giggles in my work, I want it to be impactful and don't feel like censoring myself for that lol

[unknown_user]

How do I feel? Positively. When I'm able to draw it properly, of course, cause I'm not so good in anatomy...

[KidJake]

I may include a glance or two, but I can really only think of two times when it comes up in the comic as planned: A scene where the main characters visit a brothel to piss off its owner (shenanigans ensue) and a scene where a man with lightning fast regeneration gets torn in half in a display of astonishing brute force and responds by just growing new legs and running away bare-assed naked to the irritation of everyone involved.

I've bounced back and forth over just how much actual nudity each scene will end up with.

[baasinsimple]

I like ass, I like titties, if it has a point that's even better.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I'd probably just creatively censor it (that is its own kind of fun), but if the situation required it in my comic it'd probably be there. Nothing in Splitting Image that comes to mind actually needs it though, or at least nothing that needs to be on camera fully.

[MrTwennysebben]

I actually put nudity in my comic only in one scene that was a dream sequence

Same, one of my characters was having a nightmare where he was at work but then his boss informed him he was literally in Hell instead, so I had a big panel of the boss as a massive demon laughing at the other character who was now floating naked in a fiery void. It's the only time I've included any sort of nudity in the comic, and while I'm not opposed to it on principle it's just not necessary in my series.

Oh, hang on, I did draw another naked man butt for another episode but that was a near-feral employee who had been trapped in a labyrinthine basement for over a year and had had his pants stolen by a large rat. So I guess I draw asses for laughs.

[R.n.P]

es okay, we all came into this world in our birthday suit, except chuck Norris so there shouldn't be any issue for me

[AmazementComics]

I don't think anything of nudity, especially in art. Even if it is for giggles. People create whatever they want to create (Fifty Shades of Grey if anyone knows what I'm talking about). My comics usually range from rated G to rated R, although there haven't been any comics that I would put in the Mature section of Tapas yet. If there's a particular instance where, say a man or woman of my choosing comes back to their base after a bloody war, makes sense to show them bathing. Now whether or not you show their private areas depends on how much nudity you're comfortable with. In my comics, the only parts I wouldn't draw on a male or female are the genitals, that's it. Everywhere else isn't an issue. In those instances, it goes without question that I would censor those comics. Unless you want to get into a dispute with Tapas, it's better someone makes it to where it either has to be unlocked or completely adult oriented.

[Kiweevil]

I'm not put off by nudity in comics unless it's untasteful. I'm demisexual by nature and some of the art that is "tits out just because" doesn't really appeal to me. But I won't say I'm against nudity at all, because my comic has nudity. The characters in my comic are, for the most part, just walking talking animals. Though I've quickly discovered that how they're interpreted while nekkid completely depends on how much clothes they wear to begin with. Shilo usually only wears a collar, gloves, and shoes. So if you took them off of him, then he would just look like an animal. No biggie. Norman on the other hand, while still being the same race as Shilo, normally dresses head to toe in formal attire. So I've noticed when he removes clothes it actually looks somewhat inappropriate. This is a mechanism I'm still unsure how to approach, so I still slapped a warning on for nudity. Their genetalia is not visible ordinarily, even when unclothed (it's retractable, because that would be weird if it was just hanging out gross)

It's kinda like the difference between Pluto and Goofy. They're both canines (from what I can tell) but because Goofy normally wears clothes, if you took them off you'd be left hella uncomfortable.

There is also a tiny bit of female human nudity in my comic, but nothing sexual. There are a few scenes where the main girl is nude in an innocent way, such as swimming, bathing, dressing, etc. She's 15 and also Ace, so there is no visual sexually explicit content with humans whatsoever in the comic. There is a scene where said girl is wading in a large potion (basically a small pool) and is told she must be naked (how she "came into this world") before stepping into the potion. But I have it censored, at least for the Webtoon version, where her hair is covering her breasts and the water level covers her genital area. But yeah no I totally get what @vothnthorvaldson is saying about male vs. female top nudity. It's a bit dumb. They're just boobs. They don't have to be sexual at all.

I think back to when I was a kid and watching Animé, honestly. Because a lot of manga heavy in casual nudity gets an animé that is far dialed down. A primary example of this that I can think of is Inuyasha. The manga for Inuyasha is so full of boobs I can't even explain it. Every chance the manga-ka gets to slide in a casual boob, she does lol. But in the animé they changed it. Hair covered the breasts, female monsters just didn't have nipples lol.

[ZatchZ]

I do it a lot.

Zeta Bits :: This is Zeta | Tapas

[rmdooley]

As a creator, I'm fine with nudity in my work if using scenery or stylistic censors. But it wouldn't fit the tone of my comic to have anything explicit.

As a reader, as long as the nudity fits the story I don't care. It doesn't turn me away unless it is gratuitous or objectifying.

[SleepingPoppy]

I'm fine with it in theory, but I tend to feel shy/anxious about actually drawing it. Which is kind of annoying? I also think it's unfortunate that Tapas is less welcoming of tame nudity than it used to be thanks to Apple censorship.

As a reader I'm fine with nudity, tame and nsfw, though not so much interested in anything overly explicit. Generally I'm interested in a good story that has nudity and sex that fits naturally within, not something built around nudity and/or sex.

[indagold]

everyone had at least one dream where they were butt naked lol

[Inspector_Spinda]

it totally depends on the point of it and how it's portrayed. I'm not anti sex/nudity, but if it's just to flash the reader i think that's a bit disrespectful (unless that's the whole point of the comic)

[vothnthorvaldson]

But how on Earth is showing nudity 'flashing' the reader? Why is that one should be shocked by seeing a naked body?
Is it not disrespectful, also, to consider a naked body as inherently disrespectful?

Not attacking you personally, I just don't get it. How can nudity be disrespectful? It's just how we are when we don't need to be protected. It does not necessarily carry any untold meaning.

So, when one is shocked by nudity, is one afraid of what they are, or is one automatically seeing additional meaning to the natural simplicity of nakedness? Or both? That's what I don't understand.

(Now with sex it's different. It can be approached in a way meant to shock, for sure. Also many non shocking ways of course).