Drawn to be Wild discussed the changing image of women comic characters on the BBC’s Radio 4. BBC News previewed the piece by providing a look at how females have changed through the years in animation, comic strips and comic books, both in the UK and America. They first begin with Betty Boop, the reining…
For all the discussion about the role of women in comics — as creators and characters — apparently more needs to be said, at least judging from the submissions that come in to publisher Slave Labor Graphics. SLG editor Jennifer de Guzman goes off in a new journal entry, deriding the material she’s seeing cross…
Friends of Lulu, the organization dedicated to increasing the involvement of girls and women in comics, as both professionals and consumers, held their annual Lulu Awards at the New York Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Saturday, June 7. Until now, the awards have been presented during the San Diego Comic-Con. This is the…
There continues to be strong debate about the equality (or lack thereof) between female and male comic book creators, and a recent online panel discussion shines much light on the situation. Hudson Phillips — screenwriter, designer, fellow Atlantan and all-around good guy — hosted the discussion on his blog. He spoke with artists Rebekah Isaacs…
During 1992–1993, my newspaper-of-record became a sponsor of a traveling exhibition of art tracing the centuried history of editorial-opinion cartooning in Texas. Curators Maury Forman and Bob Calvert, seeking to preserve the display as a book, enlisted me to edit their program notes into manuscript form. The finished result, Cartooning Texas (Texas A&M University Press;…
During 1992–1993, my newspaper-of-record became a sponsor of a traveling exhibition of art tracing the centuried history of editorial-opinion cartooning in Texas. Curators Maury Forman and Bob Calvert, seeking to preserve the display as a book, enlisted me to edit their program notes into manuscript form. The finished result, Cartooning Texas (Texas A&M University Press;…
Born in 1947, Barbara Slate started out in greeting cards before moving to comics. In 1974, she met with a greeting card buyer from Bloomingdales and showed him 24 feminist greeting cards she had designed. Thus, the "Ms. Liz" line was born. Ms. Liz then became a comic strip in Cosmopolitan, and then an animated…
Over at Cinematical, Elisabeth Rappe responds to all the acclaim for Iron Man by pointing out a deficiency in the booming business of comics being adapted to film. Looking around the cinematic landscape, at the likes of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Bruce Wayne, Hellboy and the like, Rappe notices something missing: superheroines. And, even worse,…
It’s Women’s History Month, and time to confess that I’m inordinately interested in the daily lives of the Amazons. Not the historical/mythological Greek Amazons (although I’m somewhat fascinated at the idea of required semi-mastectomies to improve one’s archery prowess), but the DC Comics Amazons who live on Paradise Island, birthplace of Wonder Woman. In my…
Last Saturday was International Women’s Day, the first IWD where women in the United States were facing the very strong possibility that an Estrogen-American would become their next President — and the equally strong reality that lots of people (mostly men, but a surprising number of women as well) are committed to seeing that she…
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…
Via the Occasional Superheroine website, we find this survey: Poll Results for Worst Gender Related Comic Incident of 2007 Amazons Attack 35% Batgirl’s Entire Personality Change 12% BC/GA Wedding 12% Starfire’s treatment in Countdown to Adventure 12% Black Canary Wedding Planner 6% MJ Statue of Evil 6 % Donna’s weakness in Countdown 3% Wonder Woman…
