In his latest column over at Comic Bulletin, comics writer Beau Smith shares a long list of opinions … stuff like “Bruce Wayne could be a more interesting a character if the Batman didn’t pick out his clothes for him” and “In the 1980′s, Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and First Comics were way ahead of their time creatively. Their books still measure up today and more.” (I agree with that second one).
One opinion, though, was a head scratcher: “J Torres, Sean McKeever, Tony Bedard, and Terry Moore shouldn’t be typecast as the guy writers that you hire when you can’t find a chick. They can do any gender.”
Blogger and Friends of Lulu president Valerie D’Orazio had some questions about that one:
Is there some sort of “shame” attached to being a male writer who writes stories starring women? Where does that leave the Hernandez Brothers? Are they just pussies? Are they just toiling away in Chickland until they land their big break on The Avengers?
Much more from Val at the link.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
“Is there some sort of “shame” attached to being a male writer who writes stories starring women?”
I don’t think that’s what he is saying at all. I think he was pretty clearly saying that these guys sometimes get pigeonholed as *only* writing stuff for girls when they’re more versatile than that.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
What about Joss Whedon? Does he get pigeon-holed because his most successful gig was Buffy?
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
No rocket science or secret agendas here. Just a simple opinion based on what has been told to me by some editors behind the scenes. I simply (with a little hyperbole as all my columns are laced with) wanted to state that I didn’t want the mentioned writers and friends to be pigeonholed as ONLY being able to write women characters. Great writers (which they all are) can write beyond genders. They write interesting characters and stories. That’s the goal. I guess my simple statement stirred some underlying anger in some folks. That wasn’t the intention.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Jason has it exactly right. Beau was obviously making the point that these guys are talented writers who can handle a variety of assignments. No need to get bent on such an innocent comment.