Women in comics

[Colin YNWA]

Great interview with the two female writers of two of my favourite runs in comics. Anne Nocenti (whose Daredevil is in my top ten defo) and Louise Simonson (whose Power Pack might just miss out). Its a really interesting, if nostalgic and I think very interesting in the context of the Galaxies Greatest.

One of the things my favourite comic is very poor on is its track record with female creators. There has of course been some and for letterers we're spoiled, but writers and artists the record isn't so good. Is it just the talents not out there, well we know that's not the case, is the talent out there not interested in writing for 2000ad, seems strange if that is the case given one of its strengths is the apparent freedom it give creators, but who knows. Is it us lot, has the comic just become so male fan orientated that, that becomes a barrier? Is there other stuff I'm not thinking of and is it something we should be worrying about anyway? I personally think it is. One of tooth's strengths is its ability to run different and diverse stories in-between its covers and I'd love to see more female creators, not for their own sake, but as in the past its its really added a different voice to the comic...

...anyway christ listen to me going on its meant to be about this great interview.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44169

[Professor Bear]

Always good to hear from Weezie!  Her Power Pack is my pavlovian default assumption in my brain of what superhero comics should be like, while Nocenti's work in the medium is criminally overlooked.

As for twoothy, I think the Nerve Center got scared off from hiring fillies that time Hilary Robinson emasculated and humiliated a previous Tharg who tried to throw her off her own series - and considering not long after we got Mercy Heights, she deserves our thanks for looking out for us.  Apart from that, it's only a very small percentage of 2000ad readers that ever try writing for the book, and 2000ad tends towards archetypes not traditionally inviting/friendly to female readers, so it doesn't attract many female fans, so in turn there's an even smaller percentage of female writers taking the plunge and submitting to Tharg - if they don't just go out and get their story drawn up by someone and publish it in a fanzine (and/or, latterly) online.
It's not a conspiracy or owt, it's just the numbers don't work out - though I remain open to the possibility that lasses have been reached out to before and made the mistake of asking if the Nerve Center had anything to eat other than Pot Noodles and Thargs past had just thought immediately "this is not going to work."

Female writers also traditionally go into manga because it better accommodates a wider range of material than just sci-fi - Richmond or Bolt-01 can likely inform us better here, but I got the impression there were plenty of female contributors to MangaQuake compared to books like Zarjaz or FutureQuake.  Also online webcomics by lasses are plentiful...

Hmm.  I'm not sure what my point was originally, because now it just seems odd that with such a huge interest from women in creating the form, we should have a lot more female creators on books than we have.

[qtwerk]

Maybe it's like women in comedy. Generally they're rubbish at it

[TordelBack]

Maybe it's like women in comedy. Generally they're rubbish at it

My but we are celebrating International Women's Day in high style round here.  Did you even read the Prof's intelligent summary of the issue?

As Alan Moore once asked in the Halo Jones preface: what's the matter, don't you like girls?

[qtwerk]

Maybe it's like women in comedy. Generally they're rubbish at it

My but we are celebrating International Women's Day in high style round here.  Did you even read the Prof's intelligent summary of the issue?

As Alan Moore once asked in the Halo Jones preface: what's the matter, don't you like girls?

Not when they try and do standup comedy, no.

[Frank]

Most stand-up comedy is pish; I don't see why female stand-up comedy should be any different.

[Richmond Clements]

Most stand-up comedy is pish; I don't see why female stand-up comedy should be any different.

^^^This.
I love stand-up, but have come to realise in the past few years that there are very very few people I enjoy watching perform it, and they are pretty much equally divided between men and women.

[qtwerk]

Most stand-up comedy is pish; I don't see why female stand-up comedy should be any different.

There aren't any good female standups. Which seems rather definitive in the fact department.

Louis CK. Bill Hicks. Stewart Lee. Doug Stanhope. Brendan Burns. Jim Jeffries. Dylan Moran. Chris Rock. Ed Byrne. ..........Sarah Milican.

[Richmond Clements]

Can I just head this one off at the pass.
This conversation ends now.
Women in comics = yes.
Women comics = no.

[qtwerk]

Women comics? What are they?

Most female characters in mainstream comics are pneumatic cliches (at least to look at). I can't think of too many that are written and depicted realistically, apart from maybe Hellblazer and Sandman. Even Halo Jones had a very typical shape in the first series at least. Until she shaved her hair off anyway.

That said, most men aren't depicted that realistically either.

Gosh this is a ridiculous conversation

[TordelBack]

Gosh this is a ridiculous conversation

Off topic, certainly.  Causing me to bang my head off the desk for the second time today, definitely.

[Richmond Clements]

Gosh this is a ridiculous conversation

Step the fuck away from it then.
That wasn't a suggestion.

[qtwerk]

If I was to list my favourite music, films, actors, comedians, authors, artists, designers, video games creators etc, it would be 90% populated by men.

[qtwerk]

Gosh this is a ridiculous conversation

Step the fuck away from it then.
That wasn't a suggestion.

Why? Have I been abusive or rude or said anything contentious? Why don't you calm down dear?

Crikey

[sheldipez]

There's no difference between female or male writers; there's some great authors of the female persuasion (Gail Simone has done some great work in comics and long may she continue with her forthcoming take on Red Sonja) as well as the bad (Karen Travis; an "author" that doesn't enjoy reading).

I think more women should write comics, especially for female characters, it makes them ring true and might do a lot of good improving women's viewpoints on comics as being something other than adolescent funny books or "shite" as the wife calls them. More than a few times I've had dismissive opinions thrown back at me when I've suggested someone read the original Walking Dead volumes alongside the TV show, but aparently those are just "dumb comics" where as the series is on TV so is legit for entertainment, reading Spider-Man at aged 30 is dumb but paying £10 to watch a 30 year old pretend to be a teenage Spider-Man swing about onscreen for 90mins is a great way to spend a Friday night, but I digress; that's a whole other subject entirely. Sorry for that.