New Women's Anthology

This coming March, Marvel is releasing "Girl Comics", a three issue anthology written, penciled, inked, colored, and designed by women in the business.

The full article is here:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/12/marvel-to-publish-girl-comics-anthology-next-year/

I think this could be cool. The title seems a little on the nose though.

Some Future Potential

I know that it seems like I've just been dogging on all of the male (and occasionally female) writers and artists in the comic book business, so I wanted to compile a list of some female creators, as well as some males, who have made, and are making a difference when it comes to issues of gender and sexuality.

Craig Thompson - Known for his epic graphic novel "Blankets", Thompson pretty much does straight autobiographical stuff. "Blankets" seriously made me tear up when I first read it. It's a no-hold-barred look at first love from a young male's perspective. Highly recommended.

Becky Cloonan - Cloonan is more of an indie artist, but she occasionally does work for Marvel. I first saw her work on "Demo", which was written by Brian Wood. "Demo" is addicting - it's 12 issues, each one about a different kid. Her portrayals of women are realistic and respectable. I would check out her website, and if you like her work, "Demo" is a great place to jump in.

Brian K. Vaughan - As I mentioned before: go read "Y: The Last Man". Now.

Bill Willingham - "Fables" is one of the best modern comic books out there. Most of the main characters are female, and pretty much run the show. Definitely recommended.

Jeff Smith - His work is pretty much summed up with one word - "Bone". He worked on this title from 1991 to 2004, writing, drawing, lettering, everything. It's one of the best comic books I've ever read.

Sean McKeever - His first work is awesome. It's a series called "The Waiting Place" and it revolves around a group of kids during their last year of high school in a small town dominated by ignorance, tradition, racism, and repetition. I just read this recently and it really resounded with me.

Alison Bechdel - I haven't read her autobiographical graphic novel about coming out to her father, but I've heard great things. It's critically acclaimed, and next on my reading list.

These are just a few of the good writers and artists out there.

Frank Miller

One of the more critically acclaimed writers in the comic book business is Frank Miller. Especially in the 80s, Miller created some of the most influential and groundbreaking books in the field. His dark and uncompromising take on Batman was met with resounding success when he did "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1986. Miller also was met with enthusiasm when he did the "Sin City" stories for Dark Horse, as well as "300" which was made into an extremely profitable movie starring Gerard Butler. His run on "Daredevil" set the ground for everything that came after, and is considered the best in history.





I read his Batman stuff when I was younger, and really got into the "Sin City" stuff when I was in high school, mostly because I'm a huge film noir fan. I liked "300" because the tale of those Spartans always intrigued me.

All of that being said...Frank Miller is extremely sexist.

Almost every female character in "Sin City" is a prostitute. The women in "300" are considered sex objects for the men. One of Daredevil's most famous characters is Elektra, a trained ninja that wears next to nothing. She gets brutally murdered.

I think that everything really hammered home for me when I read his recent run on Batman. It's another different take on the character. The thing that really stood out for me was when Batman runs into Black Canary - a female super heroine that is usually extremely competent. They fight for about 2 seconds and then drop to the ground and have sex right where they were standing. Apparently, Black Canary couldn't help but succumb to Batman's charm - typical for a story penned by Miller.

Hopefully, Miller will start to be more respectful toward his female characters as time goes on. He's in his 50s now. But, again, I really needed to take a hard look at the things that I enjoy reading to see what they're really saying.

...

The Pro

Garth Ennis is a comic book writer known for his outlandish behavior within his stories. He is responsible for the infamous (and in my opinion, highly overrated) comic book series "Preacher", and is pretty much always reliable when it comes to controversy.

In 2002, Ennis wrote a one-shot (comic book lingo for a "one and done" issue, where there are no more parts to the story after the single issue) about a prostitute who gains super powers and immediately uses those powers for her own gain. She joins a super hero team (which lampoons a popular DC team called the Justice League) and gets into more and more trouble due to her slutty antics.

What troubled me most about this series wasn't the concept, the blatant sexism, or the content as a whole. What really bothered me was that the artist who was responsible for all of the art is a woman. Amanda Conner is actually a pretty good artist, and I enjoy reading books illustrated by her. But I wondered what this meant for women readers, and especially women in the business. "The Pro" is meant to be a comedy, but it still makes me wonder why Conner agreed to do it in the first place. She is known to be kind of a potty-mouth, making constant dirty jokes, etc. I can understand all of that - people are different. But this always seemed like a step backward for women, regardless of how funny it was supposed to be.

Wonder Woman Wasn't Always So Wonderful

My, how times have changed huh?

Interview!

Well, a short one, but an interview nonetheless.

I talked to Jason Pierce, lifelong comic book reader, owner and manager of Alter Ego Comics here in Muncie, and a close friend of mine today and asked him a couple questions about the industry and the sexism that usually closely follows behind it.


David: Do you think that there is a problem with sexism in today's comics?

Jason: I think it's certainly there, mainly because comics is a male dominated industry - Mostly written by males and drawn by males. Especially with the artist you get exagerated versions of the female form...but i suppose you get that in real life with any model. From a writing standpoint I think there are some strong female characters out there.

David: Who are some of those characters, in your opinion?

Jason: Powergirl, Wonder Woman, and Oracle come to mind. Oracle is probably the strongest female character out there right now. Pepper Potts is a good one right now too.

David: I just did a blog post and talked a lot about 355 from "Y".

Jason: She's a GREAT example.

David: What do you think are some of the initial improvements that writers and artists can make when it comes to being less sexist, or making the female characters stronger?

Jason: Treat the characters as they would act, not how we perceive them to act. And the artists really need to start making the women less gratuitous.