Late Birthday!

While skimming old posts from 2 years ago, I was reminded that yesterday was cygnia's birthday. She thinks she's so sneaky having it not show up on My LJ. But I found out. Several hours too late sure, but still...

Edit: I have been corrected. Her birthday IS the 18th. My mad skillz are truly amazing!

Comics from the Big Two: female writers/characters

One of the common themes I see crop up in the feminism in comics area of the blogosphere is the lack of well-written female characters from the Big Two. And this is fairly true for the most part. With a few notable exceptions, the vast majority of "supers" comics are focused on male leads. Some are lucky enough to have strong supporting female characters. Others just have Chicks the Writer Wants to Fuck (I'm looking at you Bendis' Avengers (And the fact that the guy who wrote Alias and The Pulse churns out the schlock that is the current Avengers is a whole different rant)). The big exception to this is of course Gail Simone. Which explains why she is IMMENSELY popular in the Women Who Read Comics area. And she's a good writer (not to my taste though) but you'd think the Big Two would want more like her, helping to increase their base...

And one of the ways they seem to try to increase their reader base has been to go for writer's not normally known for comics. Brad Meltzer (Green Arrow, JLA), Orson Scott Card (Ultimate Iron Man), Tad Williams (Aquaman) and Tamora Pierce (White Tiger). Though the Big Two seem to do little to try and capitilize on this, pretty much leaving it to the writers themselves to market the fact that they're doing comics. Of the "real" writers doing comics, Meltzer is the only one I'm really familiar with both as novel writer (ok) and comics writer (stong and weak, often in the same issue). As for most of the others I've done little beyond flip thru their comics work (to be fair Tad Williams hasn't started his run yet and I'm waiting on the trade for Pierce's White Tiger (though when she first started making news in the comics blogospher for daring to say that Marvel's Civil War was poorly written it led me to picking up her line of YA books, which are freaking AWESOME))...

Where was I? Oh yes, once again, the majority of the "real" writers brought into the field have been men again. Not that men can't write strong, well characterized female leads. One of the most critically lauded female comics of late is the soon-to-be-cancelled Manhunter from DC. And as far as I can recall, the creators on that are male. And the same holds true for other feminist favorite characters like Wonder Woman or Storm. Throughout most of their histories they've had male writers, with varied successes and failures...

This of course applies to more than just females in DC/Marvel comics. Non-white, male writers have always been a rarity at Marvel/DC. Which means most minority characters often come off as false or stereotypical. As always their are various exceptions where minority characters are written well, making the weakness of the majority more glaring...

But back on topic, strong female characters written by female writers for the Big Two. The question is, where are the powerfull female comics writers that DC and Marvel should be courting to sign on with them? And the answer is, writing independant/small press comics and web-comics. Linda Medley. Carla Speed McNeil. Colleen Doran. Shaenon Garrity. Ursala Vernon. And a host of others.

All of them would be welcome aditions to the stables of writers for DC or Marvel. And I hope that they don't go there. Which is mean and selfish of me. Working for the Big Two is probably the best way to earn steadily, a boon if you want to make rent or support a family or what not. And barring being Ben Templesmith and scoring a Big Fat Moviecheck, contract work for Marvel or DC is probably the best way to make sure you can pay your bills...

((Edit: And by Ben Templesmith, I mean Steve Niles.))

But still, I'd rather get new issues of Finder or Castle Waiting, rather than pick up JLA by Medley or Dr. Strange by McNeil. And yes my brain undergoes squeeing nerdgasm's at the concept of shaenon doing Metal Men or a monthly book focused on an A.I.M. lab. But I'd still rather have a Smithson that continues to update regularly or whatever she does as her follow up to Narbonic...

I guess what I'm getting at (in a very rambling manner) is that there are a plentitude of strong, well written female and minority characters. But its better to look for them outside the supers-oriented, male fantasy comics of the Big Two...