You want more viusibility for female creators? Have Newsarama educate people on who they are and the type of work thery do …. and perhaps they will be salable and well know enough to get a title soon…. Heck when pressed a whole crowd of people couldn’t name 10 withouth listing the usual subjects. That was Dan’s point without lookjing which female creators does the average fan knbow offhand and is not currently working at DC or is willing to work at DC [SALABLE creators]

For instance listing Donna Barr and Rachel Dodson come to mind but are the willing and salable?

Whats that Captain Temerity? Your knee jerk reactionism was wrong? I’m surprised, i really am… Oh wait, no i’m mistaking surprised with “what people have been telling you since day 1.”

But just the dead-set, bang-your-head-against-the-wall determinedness of some people to claim that just because someone has a disenting voice towards how DC is displaying their choices of creators, it somehow means that DC is being attacked by people with agendas, that Didio and the rest on the panel were set up, and this is all just to get headlines somehow.

You know what, yes. Yes, there’s obviously an agenda. Because we all have an agenda, don’t we? My agenda is to not see comics go completely down the crapper because we can’t outgrow where we came from to get to where we need to be. My agenda is to see a wide range of comic creators and creative ideas come about, and hopefully flourish, so that we can finally get new readers interested in the art form I’ve grown up loving.

The people who went to the panels had an agenda in that they want comics that speak to them, because they are passionate about their love of DC’s characters and history, and want to know that they will still have a reason to read this new universe at its relaunch.

But you people who are so adamant that nothing is at all wrong with the reactions of the people in charge, editorially, at DC reacting in a crass, unkind manner to a fan because she dared ask if there was more to DC’s new line than what appeared to be a male-dominated fantasy world… What is your agenda? What is it you want? You want more of the same? You want to shove everyone with a different taste or opinion out of your hobby? No room for others in your pool? That’s fine. Just don’t be surprised when the whole thing dries up because there’s not enough of you left to support the effort.

In recent years, Comic Con has become as much about things like Science Fiction, Twilight and Tru Blood, Harry Potter, and so much more than it is about the comics themselves. You don’t think DC would kill themselves trying to get those numbers of fans? To get that money? Obviously it’s out there. It can be done. But the boys in charge don’t seem to have clue one how to do it.

This article, what everyone is responding to here, is DC saying, “We realize now we screwed up. We see that maybe we’ve been missing something, and we’re going to try to do better.” So I’m not disappointed in them. I’m disappointed that the fandom I count myself a part of can’t see to outgrow itself and enjoy the fact that we can have it all. Comics can have no limits if we don’t limit ourselves. We no longer have to feel secluded, alone in our hobby, as comics have become more mainstream. We practically run Hollywood right now. But if the fans can’t accept that there is room for all, eventually, there will be room for none.

I’ve been part of a discussion on this same subject elsewhere online, but with comic creators, not just purveyors of fan sites, and it’s a lot more inspiring talking to people interested in making comics stronger. Comics for everyone.

You guys are lucky there are people like that out there willing to do that for you. Because if we were judged simply by the “fans” here, comics are a pretty ugly place.

As opposed to ALL the STRAIGHT answers you get when asking a question at a COMIC BOOK PANEL?

Maybe I can start a campaign saying Marvel are bigoted towards British people b/c they won’t give a straight answer regarding the status of “Miracle/Marvelman” & they cancelled “Captain Britain” too quickly.

I’ll be starting a Facebook group in about 10 minutes if anyone wants to join. I will also Blog & Tweet about it. “Marvel went from 12% to 1% British Characters after Secret Invasion!!!! Anger & rage!”

Expect me to pop up at every convention panel wearing a Sex Pistols T-Shirt & shout about it.

Yeah.

–J.

Or Jewish! Or Islamic! Or elderly! Or transsexual! Or blue-eyed Albanians!

Or handicapped Blacks! Or Norwegian wood! Or short people who wear glasses!

Every single story should represent an accurate demographic picture of the entire country!

And if it doesn’t, they are racist!!

Quality is not important, demographics are.

(/idiocy)

oh yeah costume articles dont count.

I simply take issue with how this has all gone down: the petulant, rude, & immature badgering on the side of the “activists”, the way DC has responded, & all the hyperbolic “reporting” surrounding this semi-issue. And I’m saying this as an eye witness who was at the con.

And I gotta say, I agree with DiDio as far as the whole “12% to 1%” catchphrase that’s being bandied about. It means nothing in the bigger picture. Numbers are fluid.

–J.

i know, how sickeing is it that a comic book company that has made its bones over the last 50 years by making super hero comics continue to make super hero comics… Its sick, sick i tells ya. Whats next, the womans day will still continue to publish made up tripe, playboy channel will still show naked people, bars will continue to serve mind altering liquids in the presense of loud music & apple will continue to produce devices without a USB port… Its sick. /sarcasm

@Beano: “though recent Sue Dibny and Mary Marvel storylines based their appeal, at least in part, on female degradation”

No they didn’t. Identity Crisis was a well written story that just touched on something written poorly many years previous. It had a villain acting in a truly villianous way & as a fan of well written fiction i found it to be brillaint… After all the actual villain of the piece had actual understandable motives & for once it was nice to see a female in comics be shown as truly evil (especially in the same story as we see a male villain act in a way that was truly evil).

As for the Mary Marvel stuff, what degredation? She picks up the power of Black Adam & fucks some shit up. I don’t know how you get degredation from a power trip…

“That’s where the superhero teams become important. For example, Green Lantern needs to be white in order to sell his own book, but can be black in the Justice League in order to add diversity.”

Except that Green Lantern in the DCnU to start with isn’t white. Sinestro is the GL in the main book, John Stewart is the lead of Green Lantern Corp & Kyle Rayner is the lead in the team book Green Lantern: New Guardians.

If well written ethnic minorities can make great characters. Unfortunately they have a tendency to not sell well… Kind of like Blue Bettle: It was the greatest book that no one was purchasing.

The way I see it, DC needs to appeal to an audience of white boys and men, by giving them white male heroes. At the same time, they face pressure to have a more diverse portfolio of heroes. That’s where the superhero teams become important. For example, Green Lantern needs to be white in order to sell his own book (and movie), but can be black in the Justice League (book, cartoon, and future movie) in order to add diversity. (There’s an unwritten Hollywood law which says that every movie has to have at least one black person in it.)

One problem comes when DC “throws away” a potentially lucrative identity by giving it to a woman or a minority. Firestorm might be a good compromise–he’s made of two people, one black and the other white, which adds to the drama.

That’s arguable though, isn’t it?

I mean, we don’t know the sales of the NEW books… yet. But DC (and Marvel) have been getting lower and lower sales numbers. The whole point of DC’s relaunch is to attract a new audience.

How do you attract new, diverse readers with what is mostly the same creators you were already using? Or the same creators that were at the forefront in the 90′s when comics bombed last? Or with a very un-diverse group of creators?

This goes beyond gender or race, of course. This goes to House Style. This goes towards “American” comics, to “Super-hero” comics. Out of 52 titles, there are only three that aren’t super-hero focused. One war comic, one western, and whatever Blackhawks is. Now, the Dark line may be a little more Horror leaning, but it’s still super-heroes in a Horror setting.

Diversity isn’t just based on the creators. It’s the mentality of the whole line.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Now, I won’t get into some war of insulting anyone DC has working for them. Everyone is someone’s favorite, and that’s fine. But when you want a diverse line, you don’t put creative control in the hands of one, two, or even three people for 52 titles. You can have people OVERSEE the rest, to make sure things line up, that everything fits and has a place. But to have a top tier directing most everything on down… It stunts the creativity.

Let’s look at this another way. Didio said they made Barbara Gordon Batgirl again because she is “the most recognizable Batgirl.” Now, that’s true. But by that standard, Dick Grayson is the most recognizable Robin. Then Tim Drake. Not Jason Todd, certainly not a Damien Wayne that automatically ages Batman just by existing. No one outside of comic-reading for the last two years would think of Bruce Wayne having a kid. Likewise, the most recognizable Superboy to the general public is probably still Superman when he was a boy. The most recognizable Teen Titans team is going to include a Starfire, a Raven, a Beast Boy and a Cyborg. See where this is heading? DCnU isn’t happening for the sake of diversity or for a new audience or even for an audience that is looking for characters they recognize. It’s happening because a couple guys in charge thought it would be a good idea. And maybe it will be. But the statements that have been made are at odds with themselves. A lot of early statements were gone back on (and yes, some things were never said by DC or their reps at all, just stated on the web and DC eventually corrected them, although the sites just kept saying what they wanted to anyways).

The point is, though, is DC had a panel, and a fan (or more than one) had the courage to come up and ask an honest question that meant something to them. And the people who run DC, not just a random couple creators, but DAN DIDIO AND JIM LEE made some pretty crass statements in return. I don’t care if they were fed up with the questions being asked, or if the weekend was long, and they were tired. I know how that goes, it happens to me. But they let it stand as such. It’s taken another week of constant bad press to finally get some semblance of them saying they are taking the question seriously.

And these are people who are bombarded with questions and such about continuity gaffs and “how can Batman have fought the Riddler in issue #XXX when the Riddler was shown as being in Arkham that same month in Detective #YYY.” They get dumb questions all the time. When hit with a rather valid one, they instead get defensive and pissy.

But, again, that’s a personal thing. That’s not what the real problem is.

The problem is that, as people are saying, we just want the best comics possible. No matter who makes them. And we’ve now got a month to see if these are or they’re not. It’s DC’s gamble to make. But they certainly seem to have put all their eggs in one basket with the creators and the titles and the characters they’ve chosen to focus on. I mean, no… not really. Not every writer they have is the same voice. Not every artist is the same style. Not every book is a carbon-copy.

But it could be a lot more, couldn’t it?

It could be because it wasn’t a STRAIT answer or because Didio DODGED the question. Hence why she kept asking.

we need good comic book writers/artists, period.

You people need to get your priorities straight.”

Yeah! Isn’t it time the bitches and darkies learned their place?

If 99.9999% of the people DC is hiring are white males, it’s obviously because only white males are capable of writing and drawing comics.

Doesn’t it embarrass you just a wee bit to sound like an ignorant bigot, McKraken? Obviously not…

Bleeding Cool: a fan website, which backs up my original statement of “What you mean like how fans invented that DC Pants Scheme”

And @Bob Kach. I’m not sure what your point is about the number of women posting in this thread? (and now you can count 3!). Are you trying to imply something about the number of female readers? The two posts I’ve done on this have generated well over 600 comments and about half from women.

@matthew Lane given your focus on accuracy I’ll point out that your claim fans invented “the pants scheme” is incorrect The story came from Bleeding Cool. But I’ll let you argue the accuracy of it with Rich Johnson.

I’m amazed that people would be so up in arms about the time taken up by 3 different questions at three different panels asked by a woman at a comic con about female creators and characters in comics. Especially when other people were asking such important questions as whether Ambush Bug will show up again. Jeesh.