Jailbait is a four-issue limited run comic book series co-written by Mary Jo Pehl. Published by Bluewater Comics (currently known as TidalWave) in 2013, the series was co-written by CW Cooke with art by Nestor Canto.
The story revolves around a super-powered woman called Diamond, who works with a secret group known as the Gems to fight against sexual predators. As she gets closer to the head of the operation, uncomfortable truths are revealed.
In 2014, a trade paperback was released collecting all four issues. Mary Jo Pehl later felt that much of her original script was abandoned and she has distanced herself from the project since its publication.
There is no connection between Jailbait and the 1954 Edward D. Wood Jr. film Jail Bait, written by Alex Gordon and starring Steve Reeves, Timothy Farrell, Dolores Fuller, and Conrad Brooks.
Production[]
Mary Jo Pehl has stated the following concerning the production of the comic:
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I was asked to write the comic book. Some of the art for the lead character had already been done and that’s what I was supposed to work from as well as the storyline given to me by Blue Water (they have a different name now). The character’s clothing was very skimpy. She was supposed to be a lure for sexual predators, like "To Catch A Predator". But I hated how she was represented. I thought it was gross, not to mention what her job is supposed to be, AND not to mention how sexualized women are in pop culture anyway. I was completely ignorant of the process of writing a comic book but I wanted to try. So I did. And I wrote out the revealing clothing. The character did not have it. I wrote in that she was wearing, ya know, normal clothing, non-sexualizing, non-objectification clothing. Blue Water did not like that. I think the artist was pretty offended. (My memory could be foggy.) I guess that it’s bad form to “override” the artist’s vision. I was ignorant, admittedly. Point taken. So then I tried to write the story to JUSTIFY the clothing and then, since the rest of the artwork was still being worked on, I wrote transitions that justified her getting out of that clothing and into something different. I just could not write something that was so out of line with my principles. I was optimistic and naive, I suppose! So Blue Water didn't like that either. They took it away from me, someone else ended up writing it, and yet, my name is still on it. Let me add that I was way out of my depth and should not have attempted it in the first place. I am in no way saying it would have been any better had it been left up to me. But Blue Water was not professional about it, there was no communication about what was going on, and I have never gotten paid. Live and learn. |
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Release[]
Jailbait was released both physically and via Comixology. All four issues and the trade paperback are available via print-on-demand.
Gallery[]
