So reading DC’s solicitations from yesterday, I noticed some really interesting news.
Announced as the new ongoing writer for Teen Titans was Felicia D. Henderson, co-executive producer of the new J.J. Abrams series Fringe, as well as a former co-exec producer for Gossip Girl. (She also teaches advanced screenwriting over at UCLA, one of the top programs in the country.)
And in addition, Angela Robinson, the writer/director of the spy thriller D.E.B.S. and several episodes of the L Word, was announced to write the Red Circle comic known as the Web.
“Right now I am writing a comic for DC Comics, and I did a Web series, and I just wrote a graphic novel,” Robinson told Variety on Thursday. “I feel like I am working everywhere, in television, in comics, in books and on Web series. I don’t feel like you can, as an artist, only make studio movies. What I’m trying to do is so diverse, and I think we all need to work across all the platforms out there now.”
So what’s so interesting about this? Well, since it’s been a truism in the industry that African Americans and women have been underrepresented in the comics industry, the fact that two African American women — one headlining one of DC’s big franchises as an ongoing writer — are joining the Big Two simultaneously is pretty unprecedented. What do you think, Rama readers?
June 14th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
hmm..to be honest, I’d rather a D.E.B.S. series. I’m not sure DC needs ANOTHER hidden conspiracy type group with Checkmate and now Shadow Cabinet running around.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
The headline made me think the D.E.B.S. comic was going to happen (and I hope it still does) but it’s still awesome that Angela Robinson is going to be doing The Web. I also like that a woman is going to be writing a book that’s not specifically about women. That seems to be what usually happens when the big two hire women to write comics.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I don’t care what color someone’s skin is, or their gender, i only care whether they can entertain me.
June 14th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Let’s see what they can do. But more or less it doesn’t matter.
June 14th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Anyone attempting to write Titans while Dan Didio is editing it will fail, and fail miserably. I’m surprised I have to explain this.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
You probably have to explain it better since he hasn’t been editing Teen Titans for a long time now.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:46 am
So? Will the stories be entertaining? That’s the main question.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:24 am
DC has been hiring a lot of people from other media to write for them, with wildly disparate success. Jodi Picoult didn’t exactly burn up the shelves, but Michael Green seems to have been able to pull it off.
I think this is far more about finding more of those than it is trying to find more people to fill a demographic. I haven’t seen DC mention her gender or ethnicity in any of theior interviews or anything.
Let’s see if she can write a comic, cause that’s all that matters here.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Well, yeah, while all that really matters is how well they can write and what they can do with the characters, I’m excited to see more diversity in the comics talent pool. Not only does it help to show that comics aren’t a straight white boys’ club, but also serves the audience by bringing different life perspectives to the creative sphere.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I think its probably a step in the right direction. I think we need to be honest with ourselves that especially on the creative end (with some notable exceptions) comics is a white man’s world. We need to ask ourselves if that’s okay. I don’t think it is. I think its immoral for us to be exclusive like that. I’m also of the Milestone Media school of thought that on the whole more diversity means better stories.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Jodi Picoult did burn up the shelves. Love and Murder, while it may have been awful, is the only comic in the top 1000 on Barnes and Nobles, for instance.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
LAME. All that matters is whether they can tell the story. Every time someone makes a big deal out of a woman or some black person working in comics it’s an insult. I don’t read comics because other black people write them. I read comics because I like the stories. Just because someone’s black and female doesn’t mean anything — definitely doesn’t mean they’ll be good at it — and diversity crap is just that. Crap. Just tell the stories and take the PC brown-nosing elsewhere. That last thing I want is to get treated like I’m “special” because of my race.