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A woman from Ojai, California recently moved to Ashland because of our lax nudity ordinance that allows the libertines in town to bike naked, stroll naked, or just simply “be” naked as long as they cover their naughty bits while in a city park or the downtown commercial district.

The Ashland Chamber of Commerce would not let her walk in the parade. Deeming their decision “unconstitutional” she did it anyway, commando style. Photographers Jim Chamberlain and Steve Yungen took some incredible shots of this, starting with when she stripped down (check out the children’s faces in the background) stood up (love the things associated with stripping—gloves and fringe—misplaced in this photo on the veteran and flag) and paraded down the sidewalk (much to the merriment of frat boys with video cams. Soon to be seen on Girls Gone Wild - Ashland!).

Click for full (graphic) frontal:

She says she’s making a statement about the Earth, but her signs read random things like “Check out Dr. Emoto’s research,” and her actions are fueled by pure exhibitionism. She needs some PR help, needs to shore up her messaging and refine her spin. Otherwise she’s just another naked lady with a conch.

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I'm writing The Graveyard Book right now. Or at least, trying to get back to the place where The Graveyard Book is. Yesterday I called in the colour and lettering corrections on Absolute Sandman Volume 3 -- finally, Dalmatians will be spelled correctly! -- and today I have to write an introduction to a script in it (for Sandman 50 -- the only Not Full Script in the whole 75 issue run) and an afterword to the volume as well. (Next year DC are bringing out Absolute Sandmans 3 and 4.) And today I'm also writing a foreword to a book of essays by the late Professor Frank McConnell, who wrote the introduction to THE KINDLY ONES and was a remarkable and fine man.


Hello! While I'm sure Mr. Gaiman himself won't read this, and from the look of a similar question in the FAQ section, he may not want to.

My friend and I are looking to write a short story and/or screenplay based off of the main plot elements in Sandman IV. We're not sure if if we need to go through any legal loopholes to do so, and thought you may be more helpful than emailing DC first.

Thank you very much,

Michael Garrity

Michael, it's a great big blog, filled with information. A quick site search shows that I first answered this question in October 2002, over five years ago. There's even an answer in the FAQ section, because it's a question that's frequently asked. (You comment on having read the answer in the FAQ at the beginning.) It's still the same answer, I'm afraid. If you want to do a Sandman thing, you would ask DC Comics or Warner Brothers, and they will almost certainly say no.

A question of nudity...

Almost every review of "Beowulf" has focused on the handling of Beowulf's nudity when he fights Grendel: many finding it unintentionally funny, one or two speculating that it was *intentionally* funny, but still, lots of people fixated on it. (By the way, I do like how Caitlin's novelization spells out that Grendel has no sex organs, so nothing to see there, literally...) It seems worth asking, how much was the treatment of Beowulf's nudity a decision you and Avary made, and how much was it a decision Zemeckis made? I wonder if there was a chat along the lines of "He's naked in the original poem, so how do we deal with that on film, where male nudity means an automatic R?"

(As a friend who saw and loved "Beowulf" said, "I was promised nudity! Angelina's naked, but she's covered! Beowulf's naked, but HE'S covered!")

Chris Walsh

P.S. To change the subject abruptly, thank you for mentioning Project Erin last month.

That sort of thing - how you shoot a naked fight, or indeed a clothed fight - is entirely a director's decision. (In a film like Beowulf, where every pixel is a decision, I think you can pretty much assume that everything is the director's decision).

If you're curious about what Roger and I had originally written in May 1997 (what I think of as the Jabberwocky Version) and then about what the final shooting script looked like (which was the Roger-and-Neil final draft as amended by Robert Zemeckis), with extensive amazingly honest introductory material by Roger on how it started and then how it came back to life, and why in the end Roger sold it to Steve Bing's company for Bob Zemeckis to direct rather than make it himself, then you might want to check out the Script Book -- http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061350160/Beowulf/index.aspx

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Frank Cordelle's Bodies and Souls, a book based on the Century Project in which he photographed nude women from age 0 to 100 was featured in Oprah's March 2007 issue. We had brought you the story of the difficulty Cordelle had in getting his book published in previous posts.

Speaking of nudity...we noticed something interesting today. We have set up a banned and challenged book display in our library as a way of getting people interested in the "Banned Book Challenge." Where's Waldo, one of the display books which was challenged because there is a topless woman on the beach. Lo and behold, in our copy, the woman has evidently put on a top. I am just curious to see if any of this blog's readers have noticed whether their sunbather is topless or not.

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A comment on the last post by Lauren prompted me to visit yesterday's edition of East Bay Express where there is a wonderful article about Oakland photographer Frank Cordelle by Lauren Gard. The article offers some insight into why it was so difficult to find a publisher for the book. The article is excellent and there are examples of the very moving photos found in the Century Project. Gard writes,

His photos, although profoundly moving to some viewers, come as a shock to many, particularly when viewed out of context. Nude depictions of children and seniors are by nature taboo in a culture rooted in Puritanism. And most, although not all, of his subjects bear physical or mental scars, or struggle with their body image. Some are obese, anorexic, or bulimic. Some have been raped or abused. Some are afflicted with disease, while others have inflicted pain upon themselves. Desiree, nineteen, poses against a white cinderblock wall, a massive T-shaped scar dominating her chest. A year earlier, her uncle slashed her with a knife after she refused to let him have sex with her any longer. Kerry, 41, sits in profile, laughing, her unattached prosthetic legs resting beside her on the couch. Durga, 66, was given a hysterectomy in a Harlem hospital at age 31 without her consent.

According to the article, five or six women editors who considered his book were deeply moved by it and although they did not explain why they turned it down, Cordelle believes the work was too controversial. He cites the problems Barnes & Noble had in Alabama for selling Jock Sturges books. In 1998, Barnes and Noble was indicted by a grand jury for selling what they identified as "child porn." Cordelle believes this incident "fire[d] a warning shot across the bow to publishers."

Fortunately that wasn't the end of the story. In 1999, Paul Rapoport, a music professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario saw the Century Project at a conference and was so moved by it that he invited Cordelle to do a show at McMaster University. Rapoport joked that he would start his own publishing company in order to see the project in print following the response that he saw.

My goodness, all kinds of things happened. People were crying. One student came across the sixteen-year-old, Katie, the anorexic, and was just bawling her eyes out and then ran from the room. The next day she came back with her parents and a couple of friends....It's not unusual for someone to take two to three hours going around the exhibit, reading everything, and then going again.

In 2002, Rapoport got serious about his joke and began Heureka Productions which publishes naturist titles. Bodies and Souls, is their fourth book.

And incidently Barnes and Noble apparently has ordered only one copy.

I have had a day to think about the impact this publication has had so far and I find that I have been quite moved not only by the intent of the project to show the woman's body over the course of almost 100 years but also by the real people and real stories that are portrayed. Each women is one of us. These are not models whose bodies are being exploited in publications like Playboy and Penthouse. It is ironic that publishers will continue to publish these types of magazines and not the Century Project and not even see the discrepency. The women are not models whose imperfections have been photoshopped out for the sake of superficial beauty. Their bodies are not a perfect 10. They are not the bodies of people one might see nude and they evoke a strong response especially when we see the wounds of disease and the natural changes we can expect from aging. But these are obviously women who are comfortable in their bodies.

Read the story, then visit the Century Project web page.

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The Star Phoenix reports that a controversial book "deemed too risqué by American publishers" has found a publisher in Canada. Bodies and Souls: The Century Project is a collection of 98 nude portraits of women shown in chronological order from birth to almost 100 years old. The Century Project is the work of U.S. photographer Frank Cordelle. The show has been exhibited for 14 years. The images depict "real" women, not nude models and the portraits are captioned with statements -- many from the women themselves. Proponents of the project see value in showing realistic photos of women.

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