Valerie D’Orazio on DC, Comics Culture and the Female Presence
In a wide-ranging interview over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon talks to Valerie D’Orazio, former DC editor, current Occasional Superheroine blogger and president of Friends of Lulu.
Over the course of their conversation, D’Orazio discusses her former employer(s), the state of women in comics and the industry as a whole, and even shares a few thoughts about what readers should and shouldn’t expect from publishers.
Oh, and she offers up a word or two about the best targets for fans’ outrage, too:
SPURGEON: Is there any issue in the last three years that you think has been underplayed? Overplayed?
D’ORAZIO: I understand a lot of the outrage some readers have about stuff like T&A in comics. But this stuff is never going away. The primal need to look at a pair of breasts is never going away. Now, saying something like "I don’t want this cherished comic book heroine to be a slut" or "kids shouldn’t read that stuff" or "mixing images of women with sexualized violence can be dangerous" makes sense to me. But take the case of Top Cow’s Witchblade. It’s erotica. It’s like our generation’s Vampirella or Barbarella. I can laugh at this or that aspect, but the title isn’t a menace that needs to be stopped. It serves a function for men, the same function Laurell K. Hamilton’s books serve for women — the blending of horror/fantasy with erotica.
As with many of Spurgeon’s interviews (and in the interest of disclosure, I was one of ’em), the conversation is quite lengthy but worth every word for anyone interested in learning about the culture, business and behind-the-scenes environment of the comics industry.
We told you about this event 
Wow. 
It was 30 years ago this week that I first slept with the man who would be my husband. This didn’t happen because I sensed he was my soul mate, my other half, the light to my void. I didn’t think he’d be the perfect father to my children. I didn’t think I needed a date for Valentines Day. Neither did it happen because he had a lot of money, a great job, or a fantastic apartment.
Over on the online home of ASIFA-Hollywood, a full, scanned story from the inaugural issue of 
Have you noticed that whenever there is an article which feature comics, it almost always features a Pow, Zap, or some such idiotic way to describe comic books in the title? If not fight effects then it will begin with Holy, as in Holy Crack Whore! Comics find their way into Rehab!
Cliff Meth 
It’s hard to wait for February 13th when you’re a California resident. There you are, counting down the days until a kid in a yellow, zig-zagged shirt comes down your chimney, pontificates on life and lets out bloodcurdling screams of "Aaaaarrrrghh!" while trying in vain to kick your football.
