Geekesses are princesses

[secondlina]

For some reason, men seem to think holding a pencil requires balls. 
Go to any special comic meeting and the idiot in charge of the interviews will spot you, hunt you down and ask you the same damn question the've been asking for 20 years thinking they are helping out a feminist statement doing so.

Okay.

I'm wondering why this is still a question that needs to be asked. 

In european and american comics, the place of women is still relatively minimal. In european, comics for girls tend to be either unisex comics or sinfully girly ones. The comic audience is still men. I remember reading Spirou (the france equivalent of Jump but for french comics) and they had this special about women in comics. They showed a bunch of "comic heroines" and did a little article about female comic autors. The comic heroines almost all came from series where they serve as eye candy on the side. The article showed a few women from the beginning of the comic book industrie, followed by a gap in time and then a few more artists. American comics have the same odd problem. Comic for girls tend to be unisex (like runaways) or girly (Mary-oh-shoot-me-now-jane). I appreciate the quality of the unisex comics but i'm not sure I appreciate the girly side too much, especially since a lot of those girly comics and written and illustrated by men. 

I remember reading an article about the artist from Y: the last man who is female. She was telling the journalist how she was denied to work on several series because her artwork was "girly" Girly? GIRLY?!! It's the most basic american style ever! It's very similar to fable's drawing style...So how is it girly?

Manga is by far the comic industrie that gives the most space to women, which is most likely why so many of the anime fans are girls. They can relate more to that product. Even then though, Japan is a pretty darn sexist country: Ozamu Tekuza had to cross dress one of his heroins so that she could ride a horse and fight with a sword without putting some of the reader's parents into comatose shock. 

So what is the place of woman in the comic world? I'm not sure. Their place in the fanbase is obviously growing as the place of geek-ess is becoming less and less diminitive socially and more and an association with a group of people.  Geek is not something that marginalizes you anymore. The internet helps a lot. Most of the internet is porn, but a very good segment is dedicated to fandom. Inside the panels, some women still dress with string. I don't think that will ever change. I mean, they style make Jame bond style movies. It's difficult to stop treating women like objects. Men are also starting to be treated like objects in the media too. It's definitly a problem to be looked into.

As for woman in comiking. Humm. That role is growing too. In Japan and Europe, there is a lot of mangaka and bédéistes who are female. However not all of them can find serious work, often because of their "girly (?????)" style. (un)Suprisingly, the american comic business is still pretty hard to get into. It's totally a boy's club there. But then again, it's also a very dog-eat-dog world, so it's hard for everybody. Being the "weaker" (sic) sex just makes you look like an easier victim.

-Secondlina

Comments

[savageknight.livejournal.com]

When Pia Guerra won The Joe Shuster Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Artist Award, it wasn't because she was girly. It was because she was the best of all the nominees (strangely enough, all men) :)

Personally, woman are a creative force that bring another "layer" to comic books. Girly? Nope. Intelligent. (think Gail Simone on Birds of Prey - regardless of the "sexy" art, the stories shine through. I can only imagine what she'll be doing with Wonder Woman)

If you're in Toronto for the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon the first weekend of June, be sure to check out the Women of Comics symposium (http://www.womenofcomics.com/ if you haven't visited already :) )

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

In webcomics, most of my favorite comic authors are women. However, it's not much of an industry.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

I really don't care for most American comics because they are very much directed toward male audiences. If the women in the comics have breasts bigger than their head, and waists that could be snapped in half, I know it's no comic I want to be reading.

I say it's high time to kick men in the head and make something better. It's already known that women on average read more than men, and they'd probably read plenty of comics if they could relate to them.

[rowenathewitch.livejournal.com]

Hi :) Your pic was hilarious and I just had to comment XD
Luckily the situation in my country (Italy) is not that bad: there has been an explosion of comics for girls and/or by girls in recent times

Just look at Winx Club (http://www.winxclub.com/) , W.i.t.c.h. (http://www.disney.it/Publishing/Witchmagazine/) (not the horrible cartoon, but the awesome comic by Elisabetta Gnone), Sky Doll (http://www.pavesio.com/scheda_titolo.asp?cod=28), Fairy Oak, Luna (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_%28fumetto%29), Lys (http://www.luccacomicsandgames.com/06/xhtml/comics/novita_editori/img/tridimensional_LysPromo.jpg)

It's just a matter of trends, I think...W.I.T.C.H was such a huge success that people realised girl comics were a gold mine, and they started to pop up everywhere ^^
I hope things will get better where you live ;)

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Lack of girl comic artists and good comics for girls is certainly is problem in North American comics. I didn't read comics as a kid, but there wasn't really a big selection for me except for Betty and Veronica (which I still do read once in awhile).

However, I do think it's only a matter of time before things change. With the internet, there's a lot more exposer for girl comics and artists. As rowenathewitch said it also depends on trends, because the same problem has occured in North American cartoons. In the 80/early 90s there were cartoons like She-Ra, JEM, Tanko and the Guardians of magic for girls to watch that weren't too girly. But later, the number dropped and there weren't many cartoons directed at girls that weren't unisex or super girly like the WINX cartoon.

However, now the selection is a bit better. There's Atomic Betty, Kim Possible, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, etc. Also, in the unisex cartoons there is a much larger selcetion of female characters like in Avatar. I realize that the cartoon industry is a probably different fromt he comic industry, but I do think it's only a matter of time before female comic artists and comics directed at girls get notice more. The real question is how long do we have to wait.

Also, you should check out Achiru's online manga Raven http://acorn.chorwong.com/raven/index.html

She's also a female Canadian manga artist and she's on deviantart http://-achiru-.deviantart.com/

[knightreborn.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that the american comic industry has generally been a slower market with female creators over the years. A recent artist I've been reading is Nicola Scott who's been working on a book called Birds of Prey with another female writer Gail Simone. Honestly one of the stronger comic books I've read in years. That's a DC book actually and it also has a few trades out as well. It is set in the universe but you don't have to be a DC Comics Whiz Kid to get into it as well.

There's some horrifying moments involving a certain comic called Witchblade Takeru that hurt my mind..but that's a story in itself.

Actually there's one book that I adore as well called A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran. She's an amazing artist who has worked all over the map comic wise. Ever get the chance read some of her stories about her experiences in the comic industry..she has a few doozies from when she was first starting out.

It does surprise me that Pia (artist on Y: the last man) was thought of as too girly. Gosh..she's a solid damned artist and she does a hell of a job with that book. It makes me hope that when that series finishes up she becomes just that much more bigger. Bless you vertigo on that. Actually a fascinating creator to keep an eye out for that's just an amazing artist as well is Becky Cloonan her work on Demo and currently American Virgin is great stuff. (Seriously Demo = One of the best serials I've read that I'm glad I own in single issue and soon enough here will own in trade format, it's that good.)

I just hope that with more diverse stories and so forth will lead to a more vibrant comic industry. Because right now it's pretty well it's getting better but..wow that could be a hell of a post in itself.