Gail Simone's Blog, page 1002

Question Of The Day: Your Favorite Comic Book Villain?

And what makes them your favorite?

Hey Gail! A few years ago you posted on the CBR forum and said you were working on an Irish character. Seeing as the DCreboot has happened in the meantime which probably means that character isn't going to show up, can you say who they were, or in which bo

Wow, that’s a good memory! I did have a female Irish character in mind, that eventually I hoped to get into Birds of Prey, but then that whole debacle happened and I couldn’t get to her in time.

Thank you for reminding me…she’s a cool character, I will have to see where she can fit (I have some that are a higher priority, so it will take a LITTLE while!).

Hey Gail! A few years ago you posted on the CBR forum and said you were working on an Irish character. Seeing as the DCreboot has happened in the meantime which probably means that character isn't going to show up, can you say who they were, or in which bo

Wow, that’s a good memory! I did have a female Irish character in mind, that eventually I hoped to get into Birds of Prey, but then that whole debacle happened and I couldn’t get to her in time.

Thank you for reminding me…she’s a cool character, I will have to see where she can fit (I have some that are a higher priority, so it will take a LITTLE while!).

Merf. Thinking is Hard.: In 1847, only 16 years since the Trail of Tears which displaced thousands of Native Americans, leaving them impoverished...

Merf. Thinking is Hard.: In 1847, only 16 years since the Trail of Tears which displaced thousands of Native Americans, leaving them impoverished...:

dreams-from-my-father:

fyeahcap:

selchieproductions:

Taken inflation into account, the same amount today would be worth $19,722.22. The Choctaw had no reason to do this other than a shared sense of common humanity which led them to raise vital funds for the Irish.

Worth noting…

Holy crap.

It is embarrassing to find out how much history we are taught as privileged white kids is just utter bullshit.

Wow.

Cover and Solicit for Batgirl #0

Cover and Solicit for Batgirl #0:

angrysunbird:

gailsimone:

angrysunbird:

gailsimone:

cloudydrake:

gailsimone:

cloudydrake:

gailsimone:

gwenfrankenstien:

elfgrove:

gabzilla-z:

brikit:

dcwomenkickingass:

It does look like its time to find if she was Oracle. Interesting Ed Benes is drawing this.

BATGIRL #0

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art and cover by ED BENES

On sale SEPTEMBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• How did Barbara first become Batgirl? What led to her to don the cape and cowl?

• Witness Barbara Gordon’s shocking injury and her inspiring drive to recover and walk again!

• Witness Barbara Gordon’s shocking injury and her inspiring drive to recover and walk again!

Ugh. Really DC? We need to go over that AGAIN?

I know it’s an important part of her past, but do we really need to see Joker shooting her AGAIN?

You liked Oracle? That’s too bad, she was either erased or heavily retconned.

You didn’t like Babs being fridged in TKJ? HERE’S ANOTHER FLASHBACK

On the bright side, we may finally know if she was Oracle once and for all. Since this is being released in September, it took what? A year?

You know what needed revisiting? The fridging of Barbra Gordon. Even better? Let’s add the skeevy porno-traced artwork of Mr. Benes. GREAT.

DC, are you actively trying to run off your female fanbase? I just want to know if I should leave before it gets worse.

Is everyone enjoying the 4-pack of udders on her torso? Great. Thanks for pointing that one out @ShivaeStudios

oh good

now i’m angry at specific people for specific things!

The solicit is incredibly misleading, unfortunately.  The issue is not about TKJ at all.

Misleading my foot, I didn’t even THINK of The Killing Joke until reading all the above rants comments about it. Here’s a thought, guys: maybe it’s TKJ that’s being retconned out? Maybe DC finally listened to all the feminist commentators (not to mention ALAN MOORE HIMSELF) who thought it was exploitative? This has the potential to be a really good issue! OR, yes, it could be terrible and disrespectful, but we don’t actually know that until it’s published. We’re in the Schrodinger’s Batgirl period right now.

Also, the cover art? Yes, it is pretty ridiculous, but it’s a COVER. It’s SUPPOSED to be eye-grabbing! All it tells us about the actual story within is that it will feature Batgirl in some way. If you want to talk about the anatomy issues or the superhero medium’s continued over-sexualization of the female body, then great! Those are very important issues to discuss, but please try not to get it mixed up with the actual story that will be featured in the comic. They are two entirely separate topics (and the trend of featuring covers only vaguely related to the story within is a third topic also worthy of discussion. Just throwing that out there.)

I appreciate that a lot, but I totally understand why people would be concerned…we dealt with TKJ pretty heavily and this solicit makes it sound like the focus of the issue, which, no, it happens before then. I don’t blame anyone for taking it as read, I probably would, too.

The cover…hm. This is the first I’ve seen it, and that’s a little curvier than I like Batgirl. But it’s Ed’s first image of the character, I think, the interior pages are lovely and she’s got more of the shape she has in the book currently.

Gail, your patience is as always an inspiration. I’ll admit I don’t know the complete background for this issue (haven’t been buying a lot of comics recently due to some financial issues, and I don’t like torrenting for various reasons that are off-topic) so it’s possible I jumped the gun with my blanket dismissal of any connection to TKJ. I still think that the solicit itself, as posted, doesn’t contain more than perhaps a small implicit connect to TKJ, and that the reactions of the above commentators are pretty overwrought…buuuuut of course as I said in my own post, there’s really no way to know for sure at this point. Schrodinger’s Batgirl. :) I for one would definitely like to read this issue (and it comes out five days after my birthday! score!) so it seems that the solicit did SOMETHING right.

I’ll be honest, I used to freak out a little at solicit time every month, because people would tear their own heads off over these little paragraphs that were often written by editors, sometimes before the books were even written, and they rarely had much to do with the actual issues themselves. And I don’t let myself out of this equation, I write HORRIBLE solicit copy, probably the worst ever. The editors are doing me a favor when they write it themselves.

So it was always, sure as clockwork, people freaking out over nothing, the issue would come out, the solicit long forgotten, and sure enough, people are freaking out over the next set of solicits.

I used to get bugged about it, but then I realized that is totally my problem, not the readers at all. They are reacting to the information we have given them, that’s all they HAVE, so it’s not only understandable, it’s inevitable. We can’t give them a cryptic paragraph and be upset when they interpret it their own way, that’s goofy.

So now I look at it as kind of like sports fans, or something of that nature. It’s FUN to quibble and critique, I do it myself. There’s nothing wrong with it, it took me forever to learn that. It’s healthy. It’s fun, it doesn’t bother anyone.

I corrected this one here, but it’s not the readers who are at fault, the copy itself is a bit misleading, is all.

I was kinda hoping it would be an opportunity to explore the possibility that other people were Batgirl during her hiatus. You know, the same way they managed to cram four Robins in.

Crazy, I know. 

I am not going to lie about it, it isn’t that. But that isn’t off the table, as far as I know.

I’ve been trying to work out in my head if “not of the table” is better or worse than “plans”. We’ve been hearing “plans” for a year now with no results, and “not off  the table” doesn’t sound like they have much urgency to bring them back, but then again we know that if they were really positive about “great years” then they’d be really boned. So I guess it’s fairly indecipherable 

Being a fan of a minor character is a lot like being an old time soothsayer trying to findin meaning in the patterns of bones and chicken blood. I shouldn’t do it….

It’s frustrating. Yep. I had something going that just got shot down a couple weeks ago, and I know others have tried as well.

But I’m not trying to be ambiguous, here. “Not off the table” in this case, speaking purely for myself, means that it is entirely possible, even likely, that someone (or a couple someones) might have been Batgirl during Barbara’s absence. I would LOVE to tell that story.

But I will also say flat out that no such story is quite yet in the planning stages. We’ll keep trying, that’s all I can say.

royaltimes:zmpeccadillo:Babs/Renee for Royaltimes! ‘cause...

royaltimes:

zmpeccadillo:

Babs/Renee for Royaltimes! ‘cause it’s his birthday.

I had actually drawn the rough for this a while ago when he had requested it nearish Christmas, so I basically just coloured it.

Lovely! :D
wow i actually had to take a moment to appreciate how babs’ chair looks like something that’s actually for everyday use :o

That’s pretty dang cute!  Also, happy birthday to Royaltimes!

On second thought, this is REALLY cute. Who drew this?

How Did That Happen?

I now have more followers on Tumblr than on Twitter.

I wasn’t paying attention, but that surprised me.

Huh.

Only TWO Days Until Black Alice Day!

blackalice:

Remember to send in your drawings, cosplay photos, and any and all creations you have to express your love for our power borrowing, magickal little scamp! <3 

Just two days!

"I’m really trying to be a positive role model for trans people and it upsets me that after I..."

“I’m really trying to be a positive role model for trans people and it upsets me that after I SPECIFICALLY asked the producers of “Cake Boss” NOT to disrespect me or trans people. Before I agreed to do this show, I was assured and then reassured that it wasn’t going to be like the JERRY SPRINGER show or MAURY. Let me make this clear. CALLING A TRANSGENDER WOMAN A MAN IS WRONG. Period. Its degrading, its rude, and its very hurtful. I may not have been born a woman, but im NOT a man. I told them I would mind if they said “born male” or “was a male”. After taking this journey its not fair at all to be lied to by the producers. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG. EDUCATE AND PROMOTE EQUALITY AND RESPECT!!!!!!!”

-

Carmen Carrera on her appearance on “Cake Boss” (via fuckyeahdragrace)

TW: Verbal abuse, mis-gendering

(via wonderwomanv2)

I am SO sick of people acting like it’s funny to mock or disrespect transgender people or that it’s okay to call them by the wrong gender.

Referring to a transgender woman as ‘he’ or saying that she’s a man or ‘used to be a man’ is not okay. On no level is transphobic shit like that okay >:(

(via thefingerfuckingfemalefury) EXACTLY! I even had a rant up, a while back when HLN was referring to the lovely trans!contestant, who IS a woman, mind you, as, and I quote, “she was formerly a he”. Not only is it disrespectful, it’s also ignorant. >:-| (via ealperin)

^ THIS

She was not ‘formerly a he’

She is a woman. That’s the end of story right there. It’s not okay to refer to a transgender person as having ‘used to be a man’ or anything like that.

(via thefingerfuckingfemalefury)

Goddammit.

Cover and Solicit for Batgirl #0

Cover and Solicit for Batgirl #0:

oddchelonian:

gailsimone:

cloudydrake:

gailsimone:

gwenfrankenstien:

elfgrove:

gabzilla-z:

brikit:

dcwomenkickingass:

It does look like its time to find if she was Oracle. Interesting Ed Benes is drawing this.

BATGIRL #0

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art and cover by ED BENES

On sale SEPTEMBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• How did Barbara first become Batgirl? What led to her to don the cape and cowl?

• Witness Barbara Gordon’s shocking injury and her inspiring drive to recover and walk again!

• Witness Barbara Gordon’s shocking injury and her inspiring drive to recover and walk again!

Ugh. Really DC? We need to go over that AGAIN?

I know it’s an important part of her past, but do we really need to see Joker shooting her AGAIN?

You liked Oracle? That’s too bad, she was either erased or heavily retconned.

You didn’t like Babs being fridged in TKJ? HERE’S ANOTHER FLASHBACK

On the bright side, we may finally know if she was Oracle once and for all. Since this is being released in September, it took what? A year?

You know what needed revisiting? The fridging of Barbra Gordon. Even better? Let’s add the skeevy porno-traced artwork of Mr. Benes. GREAT.

DC, are you actively trying to run off your female fanbase? I just want to know if I should leave before it gets worse.

Is everyone enjoying the 4-pack of udders on her torso? Great. Thanks for pointing that one out @ShivaeStudios

oh good

now i’m angry at specific people for specific things!

The solicit is incredibly misleading, unfortunately.  The issue is not about TKJ at all.

Misleading my foot, I didn’t even THINK of The Killing Joke until reading all the above rants comments about it. Here’s a thought, guys: maybe it’s TKJ that’s being retconned out? Maybe DC finally listened to all the feminist commentators (not to mention ALAN MOORE HIMSELF) who thought it was exploitative? This has the potential to be a really good issue! OR, yes, it could be terrible and disrespectful, but we don’t actually know that until it’s published. We’re in the Schrodinger’s Batgirl period right now.

Also, the cover art? Yes, it is pretty ridiculous, but it’s a COVER. It’s SUPPOSED to be eye-grabbing! All it tells us about the actual story within is that it will feature Batgirl in some way. If you want to talk about the anatomy issues or the superhero medium’s continued over-sexualization of the female body, then great! Those are very important issues to discuss, but please try not to get it mixed up with the actual story that will be featured in the comic. They are two entirely separate topics (and the trend of featuring covers only vaguely related to the story within is a third topic also worthy of discussion. Just throwing that out there.)

I appreciate that a lot, but I totally understand why people would be concerned…we dealt with TKJ pretty heavily and this solicit makes it sound like the focus of the issue, which, no, it happens before then. I don’t blame anyone for taking it as read, I probably would, too.

The cover…hm. This is the first I’ve seen it, and that’s a little curvier than I like Batgirl. But it’s Ed’s first image of the character, I think, the interior pages are lovely and she’s got more of the shape she has in the book currently.

I’m very curious about this Gail.  This is the first time you see the cover?  Excuse my ignorance of the way the comics industry works, but I had assumed the writer got some input into covers.  Very curious to know how this process works.

It’s different all the time, and it depends on the editor. Most editors ask the writers for ideas, which are used sometimes, but if the artist has a better idea, or the editor does, then they go with that, which is fine. I have a great editor, Brian Smith, and he’s really good about keeping me informed.

But with things like this, a theme event, the format is decided for the entire line, like trade dress for a series of paperbacks, and in this case, the writer isn’t really going to add much, so the editor handles it, as it should be.

As I say, I think she’s too curvy here, but the pose is nice. I’m told these aren’t the final covers, in any case. I do have to say, the interior pages I’ve seen are extremely dramatic, great acting, very emotional stuff.