"This is just badly drawn naked ladies saying s***." It took John Byrne, comic writer, author, artist, and loudmouth, to say what was on everybody's mind. American comic books were growing up. Becoming more mature, more adult.

And now, on Xbox: Leisure Suit Larry: Magna ***** Laude and it's bit player Leopold, the self pleasuring primate; Playboy:The Mansion, with a virtual Hef taking the skin boat to tuna town on a couch; The Guy Game, which breaks up it's monotonous minigames with boobies and the women who proudly bear them; and Darkwatch: Curse of the West with sex scenes.

Comic books, as a medium, stretched to find a new identity. The going was not easy, and the early days of the shfit toward a more adult audience were filled with Bynre's cursing, crudely drawn femailes. For every Watchmen, there were five Cherry Poptarts. And for every Batman: the Dark Knight Returns, there were 10 Black Kisses.

As gamemakers struggle with the definition of adult, I hope they'll discover it means more than bared female mammaries and the F word blurted five times in as many minutes. Rignt now, it seems it's just naked ladies abusing the English language.