Comics Are for Girls!

ladiesmakingcomics:

Bleeding Cool understand that Batbooks editor Janelle Asselin has handed in her notice at DC Comics. And on learning that she was leaving for Disney, suddenly didn’t have to serve her notice any more and was escorted out of the building….

I understand she will be working at Disney Magazines. It’s possible there may be some Marvel content in there…

Neither DC nor Janelle chose to comment.

Best of luck, Janelle!

(I don’t exactly blame you, at this point :/)

ETA: Janelle was not escorted out of the building.

margaritashea:

The problem DC has right now is that too many of their creators decided that their book was going to be the one targeted to that all-important horny adolescent boys niche, and someone else could deal with stuff like ‘women’.

Snarky variations on a theme.

I want to hug this girl forever. Rock on, little sister!

Yesterday, two new comic books from the “New 52” relaunch of DC Comics provoked some online controversy: Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws. They were controversial in particular because of the way they depicted women, notably with the aggressively fanfictiony on-panel sex between Batman and Catwoman, and Starfire’s transformation into a promiscuous tabula rasa who can’t even remember the names of the men she sleeps with, and seeks out emotionless sex with both of the two male main characters while they essentially high five about it.

Since pointing out my issues with Starfire yesterday, I have received numerous e-mails — from men — accusing me of slut-shaming. Since there are a lot of people who don’t understand the sexual dynamics that are in play here both creatively and culturally, I’d like to dissect this a little bit and explain why these scenes don’t support sexually liberated women; they undermine them, and why after nearly 20 years of reading superhero books, these may finally have been the comics that broke me.

I would like to say first and in the strongest possible terms that I absolutely support the right of women to embrace and act upon their sexual desires in whatever way seems right to them, within consensual boundaries. My sense of justice is inflamed by the double standard that tells us that every person a man sleeps with makes them more of a stud, and every person a woman sleeps with makes them a little less valuable and less respectable. I know this in particular because unlike all the guys who sent me angry messages last night defending the sexual honor of an imaginary character, that double standard is something l have had to live with and be judged by for my entire adult life.

And that is why books like Catwoman and Red Hood make me so goddamn angry…

READ THIS.

At yesterday’s Funny Ha Ha panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Michael Kupperman, author of the newly released MARK TWAIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1910-2010 announced that he and Kate Beaton are teaming for a new series of comedy shows featuring comics and readings. The events will be held monthly at Luca Lounge in Alphabet City. We’ve seen both Kupperman and Beaton read many times and it’s always hilarious — plus they share the ability to see the drollery in obscure bits of history and culture. We smell good times! More info on the schedule when it becomes available.

UPDATE: The show will take place on the fourth Tuesday of each month. however the first one (on 9.29) will feature Kupperman solo. The first with both will be on October 25th.

Speaking of the new Kupperman book, here’s a great review by Jeet Heer. If only all graphic novels could be considered as smartly.

With the Dark Horse Comics release of Evelyn, Evelyn (a graphic novel interpretation of the bizarre band project by Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley with art by Cynthia von Buhler) only days away, ComicsAlliance conducted a short interview with Amanda Palmer about the book, a blackly humorous modern fable about two conjoined twins. We’ve also got some exclusive art from Evelyn, Evelyn, which also features an afterword by Palmer’s husband Neil Gaiman.

Evelyn, Evelyn is a violent fairy-tale of the kind no longer told to modern children. Blame it on a more politically correct culture or just the simple, thankful fact that death is less often a part of everyday life, but the type of grim fables told to kids a hundred-plus years ago just aren’t around anymore.

The story open on the titular twins, who lose both parents only to be raised as caged chickens, until later being housed by child-pornographers at a camping ground and ultimately ending up in a low-rent traveling circus. And in a tongue-in-cheek reference to a modern tragedy, the twins are born on September 11th, 1985.

When asked if, as a New Yorker and with the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center towers coming down, whether or not that specific date was significant in some way to the book, Palmer said only, “Yes. It is. Definitely.”

puzzleboat:

Women are a huge market that major American comic book publishers such as DC and Marvel absolutely fail to interest and engage. The first step in appealing to the members of this huge, untapped market is for comics producers to treat them with simple respect. Can the industry do more to appeal to women? They can do a lot more!

Read this.

First, they got rid of Oracle, now this. DC is sending a very clear message that only an extremely small percentage of the world’s female population is welcome in their universe. At least they didn’t make her white.

And Dan Didio probably still think there’s nothing wrong with DC’s lack of female creators.

adorkablegrrl:

#2 of 5 in the first set of interviews with women in comics for Bleeding Cool. Enjoy!