Welcome back people!
We are back from the first show of the year, Arisia 2011 and it was a very good show. We were not in a hotel room stuck up on the sixteenth floor. Jolly Rogue Studio had itself a nice table in the dealer room in the Galleria. Ah the dealer room, lots of room to move around in, fresh air to breath, and new customers that bought the trade paperback. I’m not going to leave out that we had some repeat customer come back and pay issue 2.1. I thank all the customers from that show, YOU ROCK!
I also did a few panels and learned a very important lesson. Remember that panel I thought the topic was politics, sex, and gender in comics. Well it wasn’t. Someone didn’t do a good job explaining the title of the panel when they sent out the topic to the participants. I thought we were speaking about three different topics. Well reader, the panel was actually about the politics of race and gender in comics.
Yeah three out of the five guys were blindsided. Yes, five guys were the panelists and yes a woman in attendance called us out for that. However it was quickly explained that we had one African American gentleman, a Hispanic gentleman, and three really white guys. Being one of the really white guys on the panel, I had to pull something out of thin air about how I felt about the big names in the comic industry and how they treated sex and gender in comics.
The long and short of what was said during this 75 min panel is that they don’t treat female characters any other way other than drawing women with big boobs to cater to thirteen year old boys who are just discovering girls. They really steer clear of gender or homosexuality in comics because kids that age can barely grasp their own sexual identity let alone other sexual concepts.
Yes there are no true mainstream gender fluid characters. There are no true mainstream gay characters. However there are some great indie comics that treat them with respect because there are some great writers out there that are not governed by editors. Most writers have editors that have to ok the ideas. Editors have to safe guard the pockets from those who would hop on their little internet forums and flame the comic for pushing their sickness onto the minds of children. However I think these are the same people who hand off mature-rated video games to junior to shut him up for a few hours.
Hey I even got called out for the big boobs that Gearz is sporting on the cover of the calendar. I want to address that question that is brewing in your head, “why didn’t you tear into this person for questioning my character?” Well there is a time you have to shut up and take it on the chin and simply say, “Well I respect the artist’s work and I have no problem with how she looks.”
Oh I wanted to rip into her and scream, “Hey lady I’m not making you buy it.” However those who know Gearz’s character know that this is the furthest thing from her persona. Gearz is not a sex object, she’s Valendor’s version of a cop. To show this side is not a reflection of her true nature, or maybe deep down it is….
I want to someday create a plus size super-woman and break some of those stereotypes. Maybe even poke fun at the mainstream standard that we’ve come to know and hate. However, and yes there is a however, this idea is on the backburner along with some other ideas I want to produce once I get known for being a great writer in the comic book world. Maybe that day will be soon. Who knows! Someday could happen….soon…I hope.
Ok people I’m off for the rest of this week. We have to get ready for another snowstorm heading for New England. So kids keep out of trouble, read a lot of indie comics, and stock up on junk food for the next snowstorm.
(I used the wrong e-mail address with the previous comment, if you could, please delete the previous comment. It’s the same thing.
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It really sucks that you got blindsided that way. That’s not something you can just ‘pull out of thin air’ unless you’re already well-versed in it.
The comic book industry, like every other industry, is still stuck in some kind of time warp, where creators think people only want to/need to see the same kinds of characters over and over.
Personally I don’t think that they steer clear from homosexuality or bisexuality or anything other than good old heterosexuality in comics for the same reason that they do it in every other venue: homophobia. (Homosexuality and bisexuality are also no more or less about sex than heterosexuality is, and yet kids are exposed to that at ages much younger than 13). It’s really not difficult to explain to a child that some boys like girls and vice verse, some boys like boys, some girls like girls, and some boys and girls like both. If anyone hasn’t already, I highly recommend it. It really, sincerely, is not hard. (And they’ll find out anyway. Imagine that.) How can drawing huge-chested women to cater to 13 year old purely heterosexual boys discovering their sexuality be a norm and yet portraying a homosexual character is somehow more ‘adult’ or unacceptable? It’s because it’s just homophobia. It’s the same reason we can show heterosexual characters on cable in what amounts to softcore porn but we can’t show a kiss between two men or two women. And it’s not ‘for the children’.
Plus, let’s also face it, many comic creators from the big names are white heterosexual males and I’d posit to say that it doesn’t even occur to them to include characters who are anything but heterosexual (unless they’re catering to other heterosexual males with highly sexualized lesbians). I think this is also largely the reason for much of the sexism in the industry as well. Privileged white men selling stories to other privileged white men (and others happen to pick it up as well). I’m not passing judgement on that, just saying that it’s part of the problem with having any real diversity.
And about your own character, I think it’s perfectly natural to want to defend her and the art which depicts her. There’s nothing inherently wrong with big boobs either. But I think that the point about the female physique in comics was directed at her because she fits the ‘sexy big-boobed’ bill, regardless of how far she may be from that in the content of the story. The critique isn’t about how kickass or kind or smart any female character may be but that they’re all usually drawn a specific way to appeal to men/boys sexually.
I imagine there’s also a big old dose of ‘oh, well, if our main character is gay, no straight people are going to read it’. Just like ‘if our main character is asian/a woman/anything other than a white dude’ people won’t read it. Because somehow we can all relate to straight white dudes, but it’s a special talent to relate to anyone else.
But I digress. Maybe you’ll have some fuel next time you’re up there if you agree with me
And if not, you’ll have that too. And hopefully they’ll let you know for sure before you get there next time too. Enjoy the next blizzard!