Women in comics

[qtwerk]

Most comics are read and created by blokes.

Why is that?

Well that's the fucking question being asked isn't it.

If you seriously believe women don't read and create great comics, can we talk about Claire Bretecher? Alison Bechdel?  Jill Thomson?  Posey Simmonds? Amanda Conner?  Marijane Satrapi?  The incredibly funny Trudy Cooper?  Linda Medly?  Fiona Staples?  Jan Duursemer?  And that's only accessible gaijin stuff, I haven't got a clue about manga and untranslated material.

If you mean just superhero comics, well just read a cross-section of the bloody things.

Never heard of any of them. But as I said earlier, everything I am really interested in across myriad genres and disciplines seems to be created by men.

[TordelBack]

...everything I am really interested in across myriad genres and disciplines seems to be created by men.

That's clearly an artefact of the culture we live in.  Which is the point.  How likely is it really that women are incapable of producing work you would find entertaining, as opposed to the scenario that our culture is based around men controlling the production and consumption of art and entertainment, with definition of gender-divided genres a particular issue?  A cursory glance at the internet would show that freed of male-dominated means of production and distribution, female creativity becomes just as prolific. 

Also, if you have never read Claire Bretecher you really should.  Laugh-yourself-sick funny, even in translation.

[Silent_Bomber]

Alan Moore's old essay on the subject can be found on this person's blog
http://boredrigged.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/alan-moores-essay-sexism-in-comics.html
I used it as source material for an essay I wrote in my Sexual Revolutions module at uni, my chosen subject being women in comics.

I don't think the Carry On films were really that negative to women personally.

Watching them whilst growing up probably did send me on the wrong track though, I expected all women to be friendly, slutty, and fairly thoughtful, all the Carry On films got right was the sluttyness IMO.

Joke (kinda')

[Goaty]

To be honest... I don't think any of us here read 50 Shades of Grey 

[Richmond Clements]

I'm waaaaaay too drunk to be rational here - but not too drunk to recognise this weakness... and it took me ages to type this sans mistakes.
Whcih is to say: y'all are being grown up in this conversation. Keep it up while I sleep...

[TordelBack]

Watching them whilst growing up probably did send me on the wrong track though, I expected all women to be friendly, slutty, and fairly thoughtful, all the Carry On films got right was the sluttyness IMO.

I confess many of my ideas about the attitudes and disposition of women also came from the Carry On movies (whereas my sexuality was apparently created from whole-cloth by Marilyn in Some Like it Hot, but that's another story).  As a seriosu-but-horny adolescent I was most annoyed by the realisation that I had apparently been grossly misled, but then as an adult I was delighted to find that women were indeed all that Sid James had promised, and more.  The durty mares.

Whcih is to say: y'all are being grown up in this conversation. Keep it up while I sleep...

Said the man who started the Underware [sic] thread.

[maryanddavid]

While not quite a creator, Jan Shepheard has had a big influence on British comics, art ed on Valiant,
Buster, 2000AD, Starlord, Tornado, Roy of the Rovers, and probably lent a hand to Lion, Eagle, Scream
an many others.

[Colin YNWA]

Friday evening probably wasn't the time to start this conversation. If you come late it was inspired by this

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

and from that the fact that 2000ad has had a poor record for attracting female writers and artists.

Richmond's point about Lady Festina is the only female creator (off the top of his head at the light headed time  by his own confession) to really head for his (and Bolts) books may be heading to the answer. When I potter around cons (which alas I don't do as much as I'd like) there always seems to be loads of female creators in the small press areas. Is it just very few of them at this 'grass roots' level are interested in our comic?

[TordelBack]

Urrrrgh, my head.  Apologies to Colin for mucking up his thread with my drunken belligerent ramblings.

[Spikes]

While not quite a creator, Jan Shepheard has had a big influence on British comics, art ed on Valiant,
Buster, 2000AD, Starlord, Tornado, Roy of the Rovers, and probably lent a hand to Lion, Eagle, Scream
an many others.

Weve much to thankful for, regarding Jan Shepheard.

[Professor Bear]

Don't forget how much we as fans - and modern comics in their current form - owe to the work of Karen Berger.  Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis have been especially free with their praise telling how she nurtured their careers at Vertigo, and it's worth noting the talent drain from Vertigo and DC both as her influence began to wane in favor of more alpha male management from Paul Levitz, Dan DiDio and Bob Harras.

Without Berger, there'd be no Sandman, no Preacher, no Transmetropolitan - at least not in the forms we recognise - and no knock-on effects from those books on the industry both as creative influences and in how they changed the market towards trade collections in bookstores rather than just comic shops.

Apropos of nothing, I also keep meaning to read Colleen Doran's epic A Distant Soil, though keep forgetting. http://www.adistantsoil.com/2009/01/09/a-distant-soil-cover/

[Ancient Otter]

If you seriously believe women don't read and create great comics, can we talk about Claire Bretecher? Alison Bechdel?  Jill Thomson?  Posey Simmonds? Amanda Conner?  Marijane Satrapi?  The incredibly funny Trudy Cooper?  Linda Medly?  Fiona Staples?  Jan Duursemer?  And that's only accessible gaijin stuff, I haven't got a clue about manga and untranslated material.

I'd like to add to this list if I may: Becky Cloonan, Julia Gförer and two big names from Japan, the all-female collective CLAMP and Junko Mizuno.

[qtwerk]

Don't forget how much we as fans - and modern comics in their current form - owe to the work of Karen Berger.  Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis have been especially free with their praise telling how she nurtured their careers at Vertigo, and it's worth noting the talent drain from Vertigo and DC both as her influence began to wane in favor of more alpha male management from Paul Levitz, Dan DiDio and Bob Harras.

Without Berger, there'd be no Sandman, no Preacher, no Transmetropolitan - at least not in the forms we recognise - and no knock-on effects from those books on the industry both as creative influences and in how they changed the market towards trade collections in bookstores rather than just comic shops.

Apropos of nothing, I also keep meaning to read Colleen Doran's epic A Distant Soil, though keep forgetting. http://www.adistantsoil.com/2009/01/09/a-distant-soil-cover/

Why didn't she write or illustrate Sandman or Preacher then?

Oh wait.

[Professor Bear]

Good calls, AO.  I'd also add Gurihiru, as they are apparently not a single bloke but a pair of lady types more well-known for their kiddie-friendly Marvel Adventures work, but anyone watching Ultimate Spider-Man will be able to tell you how their influence has traveled.
June Brigman is a fave for her work on Power Pack and Brenda Starr, but she's also responsible for some of the current comic art noobs through her time as an instructor at the Joe Kubert school.
Tania Del Rio's manga-influenced work on Sabrina helped spearhead the revamping of the Archie line of comic books into something more multicultural and paved the way for introducing gay characters to the series.
Also Naoko Takeuchi, whose Sailor Moon property redefined both the use of anime in western programming, and also changed the aesthetics of western animation to allow the use of more traditional anime techniques - without SM there'd be no Teen Titans Go, Totally Spies, Martin Mystery, etc. 

[TordelBack]

Why didn't she write or illustrate Sandman or Preacher then?

Because she's an editor, you silly man.  However, Vertigo editor Alisa Kwitney went on to write follow-up Destiny and steered The Dreaming, main writer of which was the palaeontologist Caitlin Kiernan (and our own Peter Hogan).  A massive chunk of the Sandman fanbase are female, and of course Jill Thompson illustrated arguably the most important Sandman arc Brief Lives.  But maybe you skipped that bit, Qtwerk?  Or just didn't enjoy it?

All that aside, I'm sure the statistical under-representation of female creatives in mainstream western comics has nothing whatsoever to do with statements like '...everything I am really interested in across myriad genres and disciplines seems to be created by men'. 

Can I add Kate Beaton to our list of successful comics creatives?  Was glancing through the print collection of Hark, A Vagrant today, it's unspeakably brilliant. 

And can I ask that Denise Mina be struck off the same list.