Bitch rant whine

[secondlina]

Everybody I know is drawing pretty girls. I want to draw pretty girls too! PB and Marcelline for you all!

I saw this article quite recently, about someone being encouraged by an agent to eliminate the gay characters of her book so she can get them published. The agent even had the gull of telling her “if the book was very popular and sequels were demanded, (the character) could be revealed to be gay in later books, when readers were already invested in the series.”

WHAT.

Gay couples are not marketing ploys. They are not writing anomalies. Support homosexual literature, fanart and comics by writing, drawing, and publishing online and offline as much as possible. We do not back down.

In other annoying news, I am SO SO SO very tired of people that come up to us in the bookstore, ask us for advice on which comics to buy for their kids (while the kid is right there), have us pull out something that makes the kid happy and then have the parents check out the price and go "THIS MUCH for a comic? Something you'll read in two hours? We'll go get you a REAL book."

Or better yet "Manga is all boobs and violence."

Or my favorite "You should be ashamed of yourself, a fine lady like yourself reading comics. Honestly. Don't you want to get married and be a good wife?"

(Yeah, that last one is totally what the fuck).

OH WELL. Tomorrow is the Comiccon. That should help.

- Isa 

Comments

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Agents/editors exist to make the artist change their work. Back when Gary Larson was drawing The Far Side, his editor was always making him change something or another before he could get published. (It's really quite interesting to read his comments and see his original comics before they were edited. Sometimes the editor seemed to have a valid complaint. Other times, it was too much and completely killed the whole point of the comic.)

Granted, people like me exist that are not comfortable reading about such things, but to be fair, I don't like reading romance of any sort. It's not why I read a story. (In fact, when the Harry Potter series dove in to Harry's pursuit of the ladies, I started to dislike the books. I read through to the end, anyway, although I still don't really care for that part at all.) Agents/editors want something to appeal to the largest audience possible, which means not being as "extreme" with characters, concepts, what have you. They're a necessary evil in the entertainment business, unfortunately...

Your customers amuse me a bit. In regard to the parent balking at comic book costs, it might be good to inform them that a good comic is not a one-time read. For me, the best comics are those I do enjoy reading the first time, but that continue to call me back for future reading. (Maus is that comic, actually. I never get tired of it.) Not to mention, there are comic versions of some really great literary works, and the pictures within the comic version may help a child get through the great work more easily.

How old was the customer that questioned your want to be a wife? And what were they doing in a comic shop? ;)