Inspired by a few conversations with friends, I’ve been thinking about women in comics. There are plenty of us, as Rachel at Inside Out noted, writing about comics, writing and drawing comics, editing comics, or just fans of comics.
Yet we often seem to be counted out, overlooked, or ignored. We’re told we don’t read comics, or told which comics we should like, or people assume over and over again that we’re just looking for books for our boyfriends. (Even if we don’t like boys.)
Women in comics and women comics fans are not a monolith. We don’t all like the same things. Women read superhero comics, and women read crime comics, and women read Northlanders and The Boys.
There’s no way to just write “comics for women,” in other words. There are ways, though, to make the comics world more woman-friendly. But we’re not all going to agree on what those things are, either.
One of my favorite moments for women creators came when Denise Mina took over Hellblazer. I love women writing women characters (hello, Gail Simone on Wonder Woman) but I loved seeing a woman handed the reins to one of the most archetypically male characters in comics. John Constantine is selfish, manipulative, and goes through women like other characters go through outfits, and Mina got him.
So, ‘Rama readers of the female persuasion, what do you want to see more of? What annoys you? And to everyone, who are your favorite female creators?
And most importantly, what should I be covering here?
January 15th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I’m not of the female persuasion but…
I don’t know how things are over at DC but, other than the ridiculous cancellation of “She-Hulk” and “The Amazing Spider-Girl,” I think Marvel’s done a great job of creating or promoting female characters in the last couple of years. The Lady Liberators is awesome, even in a Loeb book, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones and Emma Frost every time they show up. And Thundra. She’s fantastic. I can see big things coming up for Jessica Drew and many of the young X-women.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I wanna see more from Kathryn Immonen. Her Hellcat book is fantastic (though the art does play a big part in that).
January 16th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Gotta go with Witchblade! The last three years under Ron Marz has been amazing! She’s gotten a bad reputation for being a T&A book, but honestly, that’s by NO ONE who’s read the comic since #100. Both Witchblade and the Darkness have a real direction and all of the characters have been developed with depth to them now. Check it out!
January 20th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
What do you mean there aren’t that many female creators in comics? Do you read anything outside of Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse?