Secondlina's Panels

So yeah. I got my idea for work this year: i'm still working the fairy tale genre, basing myself mainly on characters fitting the profile of "lost girls" such as Alice and Dorothy, lost in another world, but also Snow White and Red riding hood, lost in the woods, ect. I plan on making a parallel with actual feelings of women feeling lost in our day and age. 

I think this subject suits me better then my first idea (which was, as some of you know, based on the illustration of the imaginary world. I'm glad I shifted from world to characters.) I presented my idea to the class today and completly ruined the presentation with bad english and loss of ideas as I was saying them. I redid the presentation directly to the teacher after class. I did that one in french. I don't mind doing my presentations in english... I'm allowed to do them in french because of the classe's bilingual status. However, more than half the class has no clue what you just said. Considering the other student's feedback is often precious and ensigthful, it's good to speak english. Also, the ones who don't understand you have a tendency to stop paying attention and speaking among themselves, which sucks and actually happened during the 2 minutes I spoke french. Rarw.

Anywho, I found this new idea closer to my personal life since i'm currently in a state described as "The limbo waiting room" I'm finishing this year, trying to figure out what to do with my life at the same time as managing two jobs, one for which i'm not paid (but on which I have a lot more fun. Mwahahaha). So yeah. I'm not in limbo yet, but i'm in the waiting room to get there. So I feel a bit lost in the woods myself.

The limbo waiting room must be SO white. Like pristine white.

In the end, my prof suggested awesome reads and a movie. I'm adding the readings to my pile of stuff to do. Because of my schedule, monday, tuesday and wednesday are pretty much days where I can't do any homework, so it all piles up for the weekend. I have maybe a total of 200 pages to read over the course of 3 days. Wish me luck. I already watched the movie. I figured it was a good excuse to do homework while vegging like a potato bag in front of the tv. The movie was "Water" by Deepa Metha. If you haven't seen it, rent it now. You can find it at blockbuster. Go.

As a finale note, I apologize to the people who have to stand me all day (mainly other Isabelle, Tanya, Stephan and Fauve) for being extra-bitchy and whiny this week. I don't know why, but i've spent the week biting people's faces off and being emo to a point where I could have made deviant art ashamed (and that website as emo crap coming out it's wazoo.) So, i'm sorry guys. I promise to get more sleep starting now and to stop being a dominatrix of conversation.

Ah, other final note: Meme! Take it if you wannit ^_^

-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