Gail Simone's Blog, page 1036
April 10, 2012
Chicks Dig Comics
A really excellent book of essays, interviews and articles about women in comics and geekery comes out today, called CHICKS DIG COMICS. I am proud to be one of the many contributors, including people like Marjorie M. Liu, Greg Rucka, and more.
One of the things I like about it is the variety of material covered—everything from in depth character discussions to essays about cosplay and much more. It's a lovely book, I really enjoyed it. Thank you to Lynn Thomas and Sigrid Ellis for their fantastic work putting this together!
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite queer female character
Scandal Savage
I started reading Secret Six after a million recommendations, and completely fell for Scandal. She's wonderful. Her father is an immortal supervillain and her mom was the only woman he ever really loved. Scandal was trained in combat since a young age and is a businesswoman. Also, an anti-hero and a lesbian.
She's intelligent and fierce and she loves her girlfriend a lot. She leads the team and they all respect her because she's amazing. She's friends with a banshee, and she fought her father because he wanted her to give him an heir and she's a lesbian, so no.
I liked that Scandal wasn't afraid to be cruel and that she had a depressive episode after the death of her girlfriend. I liked that she had trouble initially getting back into a new relationship with Liana, and how she slowly grew to love her without forgetting how much she loved Knockout. I liked her weird father-daughter relationship with Bane, and her awkward, sometimes hostile, but ultimately positive friendship with Deadshot and Catman.
Scandal is great. Her sexuality is important to the character, but not the core, and she kicks a lot of butt and has a lot of flaws.
Of all the Six, she's the one I miss writing the most. I loved them all, but Scandal gave voice to a lot of thought that is otherwise not expressed much in comics. Miss her.
So, At Emerald City Comicon...
…a reader came up and plopped two beautiful leather-bound books, big thick ones with gold metallic lettering (I think it was gold) on my table for me to sign.
He had had all the issues of Secret Six, and the mini-series, bound into big omnibus editions.
I don't think I have ever been QUITE so jealous of a reader at a con before…holy cow! I WANT BOOKS LIKE THAT!
April 9, 2012
Heroic Rescue By Hoodied MoC
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Steven Love was headed down the stairs Thursday afternoon on the outbound side of the Utica Street subway station, on his way to his job as a cook at the T.G.I. Friday's in Williamsville, when he first noticed the man ahead of him.
Love, 27, looked down for a second and then looked back up — in time to see the man suddenly collapse and fall off the platform onto the tracks.
There were several dozen people on either side of the station, Love noted. But no one seemed to be doing anything.
"He hit his head real bad," Love recounted to The Buffalo News. "His nose was bleeding. He was out. He was unconscious. He wasn't responding to anything."
Love lay down on the ground close to the edge of the subway platform "to see if I could grab him and pull him," he said.
But he couldn't reach the stricken man.
"So I had to go down," he said. "It was one of those moments where you don't think. You react."
The father of three jumped down to where the man lay motionless.
"At that time," he said, "I saw the train coming."
It seemed that the train operator didn't see them at first.
"Then he started blowing the horn," Love said.
Love grabbed the unconscious man and lifted him up. He couldn't get him all the way up, so he flipped him up. A woman standing nearby then grabbed the man and pulled him up.
"I hopped right up after that," Love said.
At the same moment, the train operator, Jose Ramirez, a 10-year veteran, activated the emergency brakes.
Ramirez had already begun to slow the train as he approached the station but he was able to bring it a full stop — about 50 feet before the point where the man had fallen on the tracks, according to Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer.
"It was wild," Love said. "Sparks were flying all over the place. It was crazy."
The stricken man, identified as John Ciszek, 59, was badly hurt.
"One of the ladies thought he was dead," Love said.
Love checked for a pulse, but couldn't find one. But he realized Ciszek was still alive because he could see bubbles forming in the blood that covered his face.
NFTA police, city firefighters and Rural Metro paramedics soon arrived and took Ciszek to Erie County Medical Center. He was listed in serious condition Friday.
At the subway station, fellow passengers showered Love with praise.
"I was kind of in shock," Love said. "People were saying: 'Oh, that was brave.' 'That was good.' 'That was a blessing.' But I couldn't really react to anything. I was so in shock. People were giving me hugs, but I couldn't react."
Worried that he'd be late to his job, Love asked the police to call his bosses at Friday's to let them know what happened.
"Everything was fine," Love said, after he took the subway and Bus 48 to the restaurant. "So I've still got my job."
After work, he stopped by ECMC to check on Ciszek. At the time, he didn't know his name and it was past visiting hours. But he learned that the man was still alive and that he had been admitted.
Love was back at work again Friday afternoon, still trying to make sense of what had transpired the day before.
He had never had any kind of training for emergencies, he said. The only similar experience was a time when one of his daughters began choking on mucus when she was an infant.
"She was blue," he said.
He used a nasal syringe used for clearing stuffed noses and stuck it down her throat. It cleared it out.
"The doctor said if I didn't do that, she would have died," he recalled.
Love said he's just glad he was able to help.
"I just know that if that was me or any of my relatives or anyone, I would want someone to jump down there the say way I did," he said.
Good lord, it's nice to read a story about a hero!
kajedheat:
APE IN A CAPE: A Deleted Scene From The Wonder Woman Animated Film
gailsimone:
Just a...
APE IN A CAPE: A Deleted Scene From The Wonder Woman Animated Film
Just a funny little moment. Diana has been given the okay by General Rock himself, who tasks Etta with taking Diana to a mall to get some less showy clothing…
Etta turns to the COUNTER GIRL.
ETTA
Pardon me, but would you happen
to have something tasteful and
gorgeous …
I remember watching this movie and loving it, but I was bugged at how Etta was skinny. She's always been fat in the comics, except when she got anorexia. Why the change?
I feel bad saying this, but Etta in the film is my biggest problem. In my draft, it was more recognizably Etta, and she had a huge role in the story. But they cut the story down to streamline it, which I totally get.
I asked the writer of the final draft, a great writer, why they made her the way she is in the film. He said that originally, that character was NOT Etta, and giving her the name Etta was a last-minute decision. So essentially, they gave Etta's name to a character who had very little similarity to Etta.
These things unfortunately do happen…the scene with some random woman would have been fine. But calling her Etta was a mistake, in my opinion, and I think the writer agreed.
Can't Wait For C2E2!
I've been con-free for a few months, up until last week's wonderful Emerald City Comicon, and was completely overwhelmed by the response at my Seattle appearance. It was absolutely hectic and beautiful.
C2E2 is one of my favorite conventions, I am very excited to go again. I can't wait to meet readers in that area and see friends from previous appearances. Hope you can make it!
I am doing several signings and panels. Please come say hello!
Gail Simone's answer to the Tim/Kon relationship
The user verms asked Gail Simone a very interesting question:
Miss Simone I have a question. I know you're probably obligated by DC law to perpetuate the myth that Tim Drake is straight but what are your personal thoughts on the wonderful epic romance that is TimKon? Also, I think Babs (your Babs, not the current Batgirl) and Tim's relationship warrants deeper delving. See Babs is just like the coolest big sister ever and I bet she'd love to give Timmy relationship advice and be the most supportive fag hag ever. Comments?
Gail, being the lovable person she is, aswered him:
Heh. Is it okay if I just love this letter?
The truth is, I think you are seeing a vaster world than I am with those three characters at the moment and I applaud you for it. I would love to have Babs be a big sis, but the age difference is less than it used to be. As for TimKon, well, clearly, there are wonders to behold. ;)
The answer "there are wonders to behold" is a little enigmatic to me, specially because of the blinking smile. Maybe she is referring to Wonder Girl, implying that they are both straight and they will fight over her. Maybe she is referring to a homoerotic subtext that will never ever surface in any plot. Maybe she is telling us DC will make Tim gay. Maybe she is just being enigmatic and playing with words that will makes us wonder.
What I think? DC will NEVER make a former Robin gay. Period. So, all that obsession crush Tim had in Geoff Johns' run is just a friendship for all that matter.
Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that inscrutable, I didn't mean any hidden message. I don't write Tim or Kon right now, and I was simply sort of adoring the lovely nature of the OP's clear headcanon. The OP sees a world he loves that comes from comics, I love that.
But I honestly don't know Tim or Kon's exact sexuality at this point to comment on, sorry. I would love to be more encouraging but it wouldn't be based on anything other than the personal conviction that I think it'd be a lovely development.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to be coy. There's way too much coyness on this topic already. Sorry! :(
Another Deleted Wonder Woman Scene
Still in the mall…Diana gets her first taste of a food court…
They walk to a busy food court, and Diana's delighted again.
They pass a table with a young couple on a date. The boy gapes openly as Diana passes, and is slapped in the face for his ogling by his girlfriend.
They face a dozen fast food restaurants: Taco Whiz, Big Belly Burger, Fieri Brothers Italian, Cookies n' Milk, Circus Foodimus, Wong's Wok, Sushiville, Thai Delight, etc.
ETTA
Well, princess? Anything look good
to you?
DIANA
Um. Would it be all right if I tried
everything?
ETTA
I like the way you think.
CUT TO:
The paparazzi guy, hiding behind some plastic shrubbery.
We show several snapshots, as he's clicking away.
Etta buying food
Etta buying more food
The two taking loaded trays to their table
Close up on a smiling Diana
CUT TO:
Etta, making a disgusted face, recoiling in horro.
ETTA
Oh, my word. Princess, listen.
I know you're new to all this, but…
Diana's dunking her cotton candy into a bowl of clam
chowder.
ETTA (cont.)
…you do not ordinarily dunk cotton
candy in clam chowder.
DIANA
It's good! Is it really made of
cotton, though? I can't believe
we've just been using this to make
clothing. It never occurred to me
to consume it.
Diana, animatedly talking, stops suddenly as she sees something off screen. Her eyes almost glaze over in wonder.
ETTA (o.s.)
What. What is it?
Diana gets up and wanders off.
ETTA
Diana?
CUT TO:
INT. THE MALL'S PLAYGROUND, NEXT TO A HUGE FOUNTAIN
It's a kid's playground, the kind where parents rest their feet for a moment while their kids work off their energy.
Several kids of ages 2-8 are playing on dinosaur-themed slides and obstacles.
Diana walks in among them, almost as if she were seeing ghosts or UFO's. She's never seen ONE other child, let alone so many playing so freely.
DIANA
Children. I've never…I can't
believe there are so many—
Etta walks up behind her.
ETTA
You must've been an only child,
huh?
Diana smiles, almost tearful but not quite, as she kneels.
DIANA
That could be said about me, yes.
A young boy walks up to her bravely, with a cheap plastic sword, which he holds up, posing.
BOY
I'm a gladiator!
DIANA
I can see that!
The boy makes several swooshing arcs with his sword.
DIANA (cont., conspiratorially)
Isn't cotton candy simply
the greatest creation ever?
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