Like many others, I realized that I liked bondage as I kid when I read comics and was fascinated when the hero or heroine was tied up by the bad guys. What I liked most was when superheroes got tied up and put in some devilish dead-trap, and one of my favorites was Lee Falk´s The Phantom, which was very popular in Sweden at the time. I love his costume and the fact that he often gets tied up by beautiful women!
So anyway, I have started to re-read my old comics and thought it would be fun to try and write some reviews of some of the adventures. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own reviews!
Reviews of bondage in comic books
The Phantom: The Girls (also published as The Lady Luck) (1948)
Let´s start with an oldie but goldie! In this story, The Phantom´s girlfriend Diana is shanghaied by female pirates, and he tracks her to the pirates' secret island, where he is quickly captured and imprisoned.
The two leaders of the pirates start to flirt with him but realize that this creates an unnecessary rivalry and the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of The Phantom! So they tie his hands and feet and bury him alive in the sand!
It's a pretty dramatic scene that made a strong impression on me. When I was a kid and began to understand how much I loved to be tied up, I dressed up in tight clothes and rubber boots, tied myself up, crawled into a sleeping bag, and then rolled under some heavy clothes bags that hung in the attic. All to recreate this adventure and try to capture the feeling of being buried alive.
A nice bonus, by the way, is that The Phantom a little later (after he, as usual, has been rescued by his wolf Devil) binds one of the female pirates. Always nice with some bound ladies too.
The good stuff: Female pirates! Is there anything better? Especially when they tie up a costumed cladded hero!
The Phantom's hands are firmly tied to his upper body and we get to see him lying on the beach by the open grave when his feets are tied. And he is really helpless when he lies buried under the sand. One thing I like about The Phantom is that he is not a very good escape artist - and he knows this himself!
Even though he is sometimes cocky towards the villains, we often get to read his thoughts when he states that he can not get away. Like in this episode: "Too much sand over me ... cannot move ...".
The not-so-good stuff: We don´t get to see when the Phantom is rolled down into the grave and is buried in the sand. It would have been cool, but I can probably understand if it might have been too macabre for the audience of that time. The classic Phantom cartoonist Wilson McCoy has drawn the adventure and although I really like his style, I am not so fond of how he draws The Phantom's boots. I have after all a strong boot fetish, and in this case it looks more like a pair of ankle-high socks. Well, you can´t get everything. I am after all very happy about the murderous and beautiful female pirates and the fact that The Fantom is so helpless!
Grade: 4 out of 5
Let´s start with an oldie but goldie! In this story, The Phantom´s girlfriend Diana is shanghaied by female pirates, and he tracks her to the pirates' secret island, where he is quickly captured and imprisoned.
The two leaders of the pirates start to flirt with him but realize that this creates an unnecessary rivalry and the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of The Phantom! So they tie his hands and feet and bury him alive in the sand!
It's a pretty dramatic scene that made a strong impression on me. When I was a kid and began to understand how much I loved to be tied up, I dressed up in tight clothes and rubber boots, tied myself up, crawled into a sleeping bag, and then rolled under some heavy clothes bags that hung in the attic. All to recreate this adventure and try to capture the feeling of being buried alive.
A nice bonus, by the way, is that The Phantom a little later (after he, as usual, has been rescued by his wolf Devil) binds one of the female pirates. Always nice with some bound ladies too.
The good stuff: Female pirates! Is there anything better? Especially when they tie up a costumed cladded hero!
The Phantom's hands are firmly tied to his upper body and we get to see him lying on the beach by the open grave when his feets are tied. And he is really helpless when he lies buried under the sand. One thing I like about The Phantom is that he is not a very good escape artist - and he knows this himself!
Even though he is sometimes cocky towards the villains, we often get to read his thoughts when he states that he can not get away. Like in this episode: "Too much sand over me ... cannot move ...".
The not-so-good stuff: We don´t get to see when the Phantom is rolled down into the grave and is buried in the sand. It would have been cool, but I can probably understand if it might have been too macabre for the audience of that time. The classic Phantom cartoonist Wilson McCoy has drawn the adventure and although I really like his style, I am not so fond of how he draws The Phantom's boots. I have after all a strong boot fetish, and in this case it looks more like a pair of ankle-high socks. Well, you can´t get everything. I am after all very happy about the murderous and beautiful female pirates and the fact that The Fantom is so helpless!
Grade: 4 out of 5
Last edited by Treville 2 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Batman: Signalman Steals the Spotlight! (1976)
One of the reasons I did not read as much Batman is probably because he is far too good at getting out of the ropes when he is tied up. Well, there are some nice scenes when he is captured, and you can find many close-ups of his tied hands when he is trying to get out of the predicament (see for example the Instagram account @heroesuntied).
But one of the old adventures that I remember is this one when The Signalman knocks Batman unconscious and ties him within the Bat-Signal. So when chief Gordon will turn it on to summon Batman, the Dark Knight will be fried! It is a great death-trap and I love how The Signalman taunts Batman before he closes the thick lens and leaves our hero in a tight spread-eagle.
Good stuff: Don´t you love it when the hero is rendered unconscious, dragged away only to wake up and realize that he or she is tied up? I know I do.
It is also a nice panel where we get to see Batman in full figure when he is strapped inside the Bat-Signal. It is a very good spread-eagle tie and I love the claustrophobic feeling when the lens is closed. The feeling is inforced with suggestive text:
"And as the Symbolic Bandit´s mocking laughter fades into silence ..." it says in the explanatory text box and Batman is thinking about the situation:
"Signalman took no chances! He tied my wrists and ankles with heavy-duty wire!"
Not so good stuff: Already in the next panel, it is less exciting when Batman states: "But I clenched my fists when he bound me - expanding my wrists slightly so I´d have some slack to work against!"
Can someone explain to me why Signalman did not take the opportunity to tie Batman when he was unconscious so that he could not have clenched his wrist?
Well, after all, it's a pretty exciting struggle when he hears that Gordon is approaching, even if the scene is all too short.
Here is a picture: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2014/07/whos-signalman.html
Grade: 3 out of 5
One of the reasons I did not read as much Batman is probably because he is far too good at getting out of the ropes when he is tied up. Well, there are some nice scenes when he is captured, and you can find many close-ups of his tied hands when he is trying to get out of the predicament (see for example the Instagram account @heroesuntied).
But one of the old adventures that I remember is this one when The Signalman knocks Batman unconscious and ties him within the Bat-Signal. So when chief Gordon will turn it on to summon Batman, the Dark Knight will be fried! It is a great death-trap and I love how The Signalman taunts Batman before he closes the thick lens and leaves our hero in a tight spread-eagle.
Good stuff: Don´t you love it when the hero is rendered unconscious, dragged away only to wake up and realize that he or she is tied up? I know I do.
It is also a nice panel where we get to see Batman in full figure when he is strapped inside the Bat-Signal. It is a very good spread-eagle tie and I love the claustrophobic feeling when the lens is closed. The feeling is inforced with suggestive text:
"And as the Symbolic Bandit´s mocking laughter fades into silence ..." it says in the explanatory text box and Batman is thinking about the situation:
"Signalman took no chances! He tied my wrists and ankles with heavy-duty wire!"
Not so good stuff: Already in the next panel, it is less exciting when Batman states: "But I clenched my fists when he bound me - expanding my wrists slightly so I´d have some slack to work against!"
Can someone explain to me why Signalman did not take the opportunity to tie Batman when he was unconscious so that he could not have clenched his wrist?
Well, after all, it's a pretty exciting struggle when he hears that Gordon is approaching, even if the scene is all too short.
Here is a picture: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2014/07/whos-signalman.html
Grade: 3 out of 5