Tagged: Gail Simone

REVIEW – The Movement #1

npqzcq-2557989Gail Simone is at once challenging, provocative and blisteringly funny in her writing. One moment she’s introducing new transgendered characters to the mainstream DCU, and the next she’s announcing on the electric-type Twitter that her next project will feature an all-quokka cast.

As well as her triumphant (and briefly interrupted) run on Batgirl, Gail has introduced a new Superhero…perhaps “team” isn’t the right term.  The title describes it best; The Movement.  Too easily waved off as a play on the Occupy folks, The Movement is also equal parts urban watchdog group, police oversight committee and street gang, with a bit of Anonymous and Teen Titans thrown in.

It’s set in new fictional DC town Coral City, a town high in crime and police corruption.  As a pair of dirty cops offer to let a pair of young people go if the female offers them a free show, they are quickly surrounded by members of The Movement, clad in masks (which had BETTER be getting handed out at cons this summer, thank you very much) and cell phones, recording and disseminating the cops’ indecent proposal.

The part of town known as “The Tweens” is under the protection of The Movement, which seems to have both powered and non-powered members.  Incursions by the police, even the precinct’s honest captain, are not welcome, and are met with force.  The Movement has the might to

There’s the hint of a theme first touched on by Mark Waid in his last (and sadly underappreciated) take on Legion of Superheroes, in which the Legion was more of a youth movement than simply a superhero team.  As here, they represent the idea that since they are not being watched over by anyone, they will watch over themselves.  The Movement has organization and the power to make sure their part of town is not threatened from without, and protected from those within.

Freddie Williams’ art has a very loose line, , far better suited for a more character-oriented book like this.  The panel layout is very interesting, often a large splash image hiding under numerous smaller panels – the storytelling is dense, and fast-paced.  It’s a unique look, very well used in this very unique book.

This is far from standard DC fare, and Gail fills it with very interesting characters, about whom you immediately want to know more.  I expect the tale of how these people got their powers, and how they found each other, will all entertain and interest readers for some time.  Being a unusual title, I’m hoping it finds an audience, maybe even one outside of the normal clientele of comic shops.

Martha Thomases: The Wonderful Party

thomases-art-121214-2629242The responsible thing to do this week would be to write about The State of Women in Comics. With Gail Simone booted off Batgirl, coupled with Karen Berger’s departure from Vertigo, one can conjure all sorts of misogynist conspiracy theories, and one would have more than a 50% chance of being right.

But I don’t want to write about that. For one thing, I don’t have any inside knowledge, so I would only be speculating.

Here’s the thing. Comics is such a small world that I know both of these women. I worked with Karen for the better part of a decade, threw the launch party for Vertigo in my apartment when I couldn’t get DC to pay for it, and enjoyed her work a great deal. I don’t know Gail as well, but I’ve met her a few times, I love her writing, admire her work for the Hero Initiative, and think she’s a really classy person.

These are big names in the business. I am not. But comics is still low-profile enough that we are, more or less, peers. Or at least colleagues.

I was reminded of this last week, when I hosted our annual Hanukah party, the first one since my husband died. It was a bittersweet occasion, an event he loved very much. I thought it was an outrage that he wasn’t here for it, but I also thought it was important to continue the tradition. Life goes on, despite my best efforts.

My friends came out to support my son and myself, and that’s what friends do. The guest list isn’t just my friends from comics. It’s my friends from different aspects of my life, including my son and his friends. My apartment isn’t so large that the comics people can avoid the knitters, or the anti-war people can be in a room separate from my high school pals.

One of our guests is an aspiring comics creator whom I introduced to a few pros at New York Comic-Con last year. He happily told me about the other people in the business he’d met since then, and how great each of them had been to him.

That’s comics.

This is not to go all rose-colored-glasses on you. There are people in the business I don’t like. There are people in the business who don’t like me. There are people I don’t know, and more of them all the time. There isn’t any one of them I’d be intimidated to talk to.

And there isn’t anybody I wouldn’t defend against the attacks of the broader culture, the sneers of elitists who look down on the medium (fewer every day).

We’re in this together, and we have each other’s back. It reminds me of this lyric:

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Will be near to us once more

– “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

And that brings me to my wish for you this season.

Someday soon, we all will be together

If the Fates allow

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Or, of course, the solstice holiday of your choice.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

 

NEW PULP AUTHOR GUEST AT FESTIVAL!

  • News
  • September 30, 2011

Crossroads Writers & Literary Festival

September 26, 2011
barry-1023775
The 2011 Crossroads Writers Conference and Literary Festival starts at noon on Sunday, October 2, in downtown Macon, Ga. The festival, which includes children’s activities, a writing marathon and some unique offerings, is free and open to the public with readings by many of the conference’s writers.
   Two special guests reading at the conference include best-selling novelist Joshilyn Jackson, who was recently named a 2011 Georgia Author of the Year, and Melissa Fay Greene, who was just inducted into the Georgia Writers’ Hall of Fame.
Other writers from all over the country include best-selling writers such as Rick Moody, comic book scribe Gail Simone, poet Idris Goodwin, Jay Parini, Southern writer Terry Kay, screenwriter-turned-novelist Jeffrey Stepakoff, Adam Davies and sci-fi author Jack McDevitt.
Georgia talents include Macon’s own Tina McElroy Ansa, mystery novelist Nora McFarland, comedian writer Ad Hudler, pulp fiction writer Barry Reese, memoirist John Jung, Steampunk novelist Emilie Bush, and many more.
The conference schedule will contain the Kick-off Book Launch Friday night, the Writer’s Conference all day Saturday, and the Literary Festival Sunday. For more details about the schedule, visithttps://docs.google.com/leaf?id=17kNd7aPRRRfHykOMeUpmAv09ahE2q1C8xjOrsLwj6vjHTfgXBQCMOJqHFOEx&hl=en.
For more festival information and to register, visithttp://www.crossroadswriters.org/conference/.

Let’s gossip about gossip in the comics industry

  • News
  • August 26, 2009

It’s hot out there, and we just had a weekend or two without a major convention, so we’ve all been talking amongst ourselves. And as a result, we’ve been talking about… talking.

The major flare-up has been on Heidi MacDonald’s blog, chroncling a heated discussion between Gail Simone and Rich Johnston…

Sometime in the night, the marvelous Gail Simone went on Twitter and spoke thusly: Do We Need Tabloid And Gossip Comics Journalism?
which Rich Johnston picked up at the above link. Simone is no stranger
to the message board, so the debate continues in the link and its very
own Twitter topic.

…with comment thread cameos from Mark Waid, Mark Engblom, Kurt Busiek, and Dwayne McDuffie, and since the comment thread has closed down over there, I’m reopening it over here.

Let me throw in an example, and try to give some of an idea as to what we’re trying for here at ComicMix.

Very late last night, someone IM’d me that an editor had been laid off. Reasonably impeccable source, and I know the editor. Should I post it on ComicMix?

Well, no. If it’s true, I don’t think that person would appreciate personal employment issues being broadcast to the world. If it’s false, it’s even more damaging to their career and possibly the freelancers that editor employs. So there’s a good reason to hold back on it, until confirmation.

But wait! If that editor is truly gone, then that means that an entire line of publications goes down as well! Does that make it newsworthy then?

The scales tip a bit here. Because now you’re beginning to impact a number of other professionals (who I also know) who may suddenly find themselves out of work, and a number of businesses who will suddenly have their stock (and backstock) affected because books may be canceled.

Then it’s a puzzlement. In that case, there’s a case to be made for private gossip– check with the affected pros privately to give them a heads up, mayhaps. But it’s fluid. We make our choices day by day, and yes, we have our
own sacred cows and things we don’t like to talk about. We don’t want
to tick off publishers– we’re publishers. We don’t want to tick off
retailers, we publish print editions– but then, we also do electronic
versions of our books. We could pick on some websites when they go down, but then we look like idiots when we have technical problems.

My only personal take on it the matter? Always punch up. Picking on an editor who’s doing the bidding of a large company is fair game. Picking on an editor fired by a large company? No. Or, if you prefer, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Or, simply enough– what would crusading columnist Oliver Queen do?

The latest on the Scans_Daily shutdown

  • News
  • March 2, 2009

Well, this has been an entertaining weekend.

To recap: on Friday, the LiveJournal community scans_daily has been suspended for posting copyrighted material without the permission of copyright holders, which is against LiveJournal’s ToS.

Many people, looking for a focus to blame, have taken out their venom on Peter David, bombarding his site with comments, some supportive, some abusive, and pretty much chewing up computer cycles. This has required moving up a planned migration and upgrade to the site, and there’s nothing like doing an upgrade while a comment storm is going on.

(Incidentally, this person is one of the more obnoxious pinheads I’ve come across in a while, whose argument seems to distill to "I was rude to someone I stole things from, so he took back what I’d rightfully stolen, I think, and this makes him a bad man". I suspect this person felt that the three bears had no right to chase Goldilocks away, let alone eat her– especially since she didn’t like two-thirds of the porridge that she ate.)

Further commentary has been brought up by Johanna Draper Carlson and Gail Simone on the "you’re shutting down a free comics site! Bad!" side, Kevin Church and Lisa Fortuner on the "About bloody time" side, and Digital Strips’ Brigid Alverson giving equal time to both.

As for the scans_daily moderators, the best summation seems to be from schmevil. Stubbleupdate has offered to answer questions in an interview; I’ve already sent a list.

 

Wonder-ing no more

  • News
  • April 13, 2007

wonderwoman4ws-2825807Following up on the speculation we mentioned last Saturday, Newsarama is reporting that it’s official: DC’s Bob Wayne confirmed at the Comics Pro Membership Meeting in Las Vegas yesterday that fan favorite Gail Simone will be taking over the writing chores on Wonder Woman starting with issue #13.

Naturally, Matt Brady (who has been over this story like white on rice) gets a hold of Gail for a follow-up interview, wherein she teases, "Finally, about the art team. I can’t say who it is yet. But if the readers all made a list of who the best possible Wonder Woman art team would be, I bet this would be the number one choice. It’s that good."

If readers actually made such a list, we suspect it would contain as many different names as there were readers.  My choice, for instance, is at right…

Attack of the chicken head!

  • News
  • February 27, 2007

Being married to a freelancer often has its perks, and one of the more delightful ones occurred last Thursday night, as we were invited to DC Comics’ editorial-freelance dinner to kick off the NYCC.  This was a great way to meet folks like Gail Simone who, as it turned out, we never saw for the rest of the weekend. 

Trish Mulvihill has lots of photos at her blog, but we especially wanted to note the appearance of the chicken heads.  Originally part of the platter presentation for the wonderful Asian feast prepared by our host, the chicken heads soon took on a life of their own.  As we (who should have known better) didn’t bring our camera to the event, the photos below are courtesy of Harvey Richards, who shared our table along with Gail and her beau Scott, Rags Morales, and Dan DiDio. (more…)

DC at NYCC

  • News
  • February 9, 2007

To nobody’s surprise, DC will be out in force at the upcoming New York Comic Con. Under the direction of DC President & Publisher Paul Levitz, nearly every member of the New York DC Universe and Vertigo editorial groups will be at the show, along with personnel from WildStorm, Editorial Administration, Creative Services, Sales & Marketing and other departments. DC also will sponsor several panels at the convention. A partial list of DC freelancers (writers and pencillers) attending the convention follows after the fold, as does their panel schedule.

(more…)

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks