Crimebuster
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Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 19, 2016 11:29:51 GMT -5
Squirrel Girl is a comic that has a different and cool depiction of female characters, with art by Erica Henderson.
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson is another good book.
I've heard really good things about Lumberjanes, which is done by a team of female writers and artists.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 19, 2016 12:36:27 GMT -5
Lumber Jane's is pretty awesome. Great characterizations for a large cast of unique characters that alternates between silly/carefree and poigniant. Feels a bit like Love & Rockets Jr. (and at summer camp).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2016 14:29:56 GMT -5
I'm not sure anyone has mentioned Jill Thompson yet, she's another creator whose work I really dig. And I am not sure how I forgot Wendy Pini in my initial post as she was one of the cartoonists I included in my 12 days list last Christmas.
Two colorists should also get mentioned Elizabeth Bretweiser, who colors most of Ed Brubaker's Image books, and Jordie Bellaire who has won Eisners for many of her projects are among the two best colorists working in the industry bar none, and have mastered the techniques of modern coloring to enhance the storytelling in their books rather than detract from it the way many modern colors do.
-M
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Post by MDG on Aug 19, 2016 14:51:15 GMT -5
Two colorists should also get mentioned Elizabeth Bretweiser, who colors most of Ed Brubaker's Image books, and Jordie Bellaire who has won Eisners for many of her projects are among the two best colorists working in the industry bar none, and have mastered the techniques of modern coloring to enhance the storytelling in their books rather than detract form it the way many modern colors do. I think Adrienne Roy was mentioned recently in another topic, and she was one of the only colorists whose work I noticed. I forgot to mention Sherry Flenniken as a favorite. This list may come in handy during this discussion. (I didn't know Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a train, The Talented Mr. Ripley) wrote funnybooks.) |
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Post by Farrar on Aug 19, 2016 15:23:17 GMT -5
In The Talented Miss Highsmith, Joan Schenkar's fascinating 2009 biography of Highsmith, there are a number of chapters detailing PH's stint at Sangor-Pines and as a freelance writer for Timely and other companies. Highmsith apparently wrote everything from westerns and war stories to funny animals and those then-necessary text stories.
Schenkar also writes that Vincent Fago tried to set PH up with a young Stan Lee, but evidently there was no chemistry, because, as "Stan Lee was only interested in Stan Lee" (Fago quote)...and further, "Pat wasn't exactly admitting where her real sexual interests lay" (213).
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Aug 20, 2016 4:08:54 GMT -5
Mary Jo Duffy is one of my favourite writers ever and Wendy Pini's Elfquest is great.
As for strong female characters, I think Bendis's Jessica Jones in Alias and The Pulse was a very well-rounded, realistic (superpower's aside) and positive depiction of a woman in comics. Also, Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise featured a pretty decent and honest depiction of its female leads...warts and all.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 20, 2016 8:17:04 GMT -5
As for strong female characters, I think Bendis's Jessica Jones in Alias She's outspoken and acts like she doesn't give a damn, but she begins as a vulnerable victim. I don't know, watching her work her way out of that is a form of strength, but I think we'll look back on character like that decades from now and question why we ever saw that as positive. If you're a woman who's been through something traumatic, yeah, this is someone to look up to, but if you're not, then that's a whole other ballgame. If a Batman story arc began with him having been emotionally and sexually traumatized by Talia Al Ghul, I don't think we'd see his ensuing battle to regain his sense of self as "strength". |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Aug 20, 2016 10:39:54 GMT -5
As for strong female characters, I think Bendis's Jessica Jones in Alias She's outspoken and acts like she doesn't give a damn, but she begins as a vulnerable victim. I don't know, watching her work her way out of that is a form of strength, but I think we'll look back on character like that decades from now and question why we ever saw that as positive. If you're a woman who's been through something traumatic, yeah, this is someone to look up to, but if you're not, then that's a whole other ballgame. If a Batman story arc began with him having been emotionally and sexually traumatized by Talia Al Ghul, I don't think we'd see his ensuing battle to regain his sense of self as "strength". That's a fair point about Batman/Talia Al Ghul, but you're also kinda reducing Jessica to a one-note character by focusing exclusively on that particular character arc. There's a lot more going on with her than that. When I cited her as being a strong or positive depiction of a woman in comics, I meant things like the fact that she's the sole owner of her own detective business (not merely an assistant or a sidekick), she's a sexually empowered individual and not just a passive object for male characters to lust after, she fails as often as she succeeds in her missions, and finally, she talks and acts like a real woman, not some airbrushed, male-fantasy of what women should be -- she's shown on the pan taking a s**t in one of the earliest issues of Alias, for example. A little later on she becomes a working mother too. I'd say that was and is a fairly progressive portrayal of a female in mainstream comic books. I mean, sure, on some level Jesica is the archetypal troubled female, as attested to by her jaded persona, chain smoking, heavy drinking, and constant cursing. But the way in which Bendis writes her was refreshingly realistic at the time and, I would argue, still is. The standard defaults in comics are to generally depict female lead characters as either embittered villains/seductresses, old crones, or, most commonly, supersexy vixens, with tons of T&A and a supermodel's body, designed to get the hormone ravaged fanboys drooling. Jessica Jones is much more "real" than that and for my money that makes her a positive portrayal of a female in comics. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 20, 2016 11:51:38 GMT -5
I definitely appreciate the work the late Kim Yale did with John Ostrander.
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Aug 21, 2016 2:34:45 GMT -5
Would like to add Kelly Thompson (A-Force and JEM) and Natacha Bustos (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) as fairly new creators(to me) who are knocking it out of the park.
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Post by tingramretro on Aug 21, 2016 7:16:52 GMT -5
Mary Jo Duffy is one of my favourite writers ever and Wendy Pini's Elfquest is great. As for strong female characters, I think Bendis's Jessica Jones in Alias and The Pulse was a very well-rounded, realistic (superpower's aside) and positive depiction of a woman in comics. Also, Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise featured a pretty decent and honest depiction of its female leads...warts and all. I still miss Strangers in Paradise, it was a hard book to really categorize but utterly compelling. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 21, 2016 11:30:54 GMT -5
Natacha Bustos (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) I've heard great things about this and think I should probably be reading it. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Mar 31, 2017 8:51:54 GMT -5
Didn't realize March was Women in History Month until mrp mentioned it as part of this thread, so I thought I'd kick up this old thread and hopefully get the conversation running once more.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 31, 2017 8:56:12 GMT -5
In terms of mainstream comic creators, I guess the two that have had the most impact upon me have been Louise Simonson and Adrienne Roy. And Jenette Kahn has had a major influence on the shape of comics, moreso than just about any other single person in the past half century, I would argue. Shax, thanks for mentioning Adrienne Roy, who was a grammar school classmate of mine and a graduate of our hometown high school. A sweet and gentle spirit who was light years ahead of so many of us who grew up "with" her, but were too immature to recognize her finest qualities. www.comicmix.com/2010/12/17/adrienne-roy-57-1953-2010/And here she is, attending a very famous Bronze Age wedding:  |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Mar 31, 2017 9:09:15 GMT -5
In terms of mainstream comic creators, I guess the two that have had the most impact upon me have been Louise Simonson and Adrienne Roy. And Jenette Kahn has had a major influence on the shape of comics, moreso than just about any other single person in the past half century, I would argue. Shax, thanks for mentioning Adrienne Roy, who was a grammar school classmate of mine and a graduate of our hometown high school. I'm frankly envious, Hal. I would love to meet her one day. I rarely notice the work of colorists, but I firmly believe Batman would not have been the same without her. |
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