Gail Simone's Blog, page 1139
November 14, 2011
APE IN A CAPE: About Richard And Dick
That sounds weird.
Anyway, I spoke with the writer of Nightwing just a few minutes ago, and they are sticking with Dick!
That sounds weird, too. Apparently, 'Dick' is still Richard Grayson's nickname. The request I got to call him Richard, or, alternatively, Rick, seemingly didn't get around…
You know considering you're one of the biggest name DC authors who still actually writes for DC they don't actually seem to show you or the characters you write a great deal of respect. I don't see this crap happening to Morrison or Johns.
It's not a matter of respect, this stuff happens to all of us, all the time. It's a shared universe with thousands of characters and hundreds of creative people working at any given time. It happens to Geoff and Grant as well, i assure you.
HA! Batgirl and A Dalek
I'm just getting into Doctor Who and I adore the Daleks best of all.
I asked twitterers to post a sketch of Batgirl and a Dalek and got a ton of beautiful responses. If I knew how to post them here, I would.
I kind of love the internet, sometimes.
About Richard And Dick
That sounds weird.
Anyway, I spoke with the writer of Nightwing just a few minutes ago, and they are sticking with Dick!
That sounds weird, too. Apparently, 'Dick' is still Richard Grayson's nickname. The request I got to call him Richard, or, alternatively, Rick, seemingly didn't get around universally, and the writers themselves prefer the original nickname.
So what we're doing is that only Barbara calls him 'Richard,' it's something she does a little bit to annoy him, but it's affectionate. Everyone else will continue to call him 'Dick.'
Problem solved, I think!
thehappysorceress:
bevismusson:
Birds Of Prey by...
Huntress, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk perusing an educational magazine looking at the finer points of the male physique. *ahem*. Not quite sure what the actual story is behind the picture, but I think it's probably more fun to let everyone decide for themselves what's going on exactly.
******INTERRUPTING MAGIC MONDAY FOR THIS SPECIAL POST******
Normally, I wait until MM has ended for things like this, but I just couldn't wait.
THIS is my BoP commission from Bevis Musson!
I'll let you admire the ladies admiring the fellas…
******WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY-SCHEDULED POSTS******
Bevis is fast becoming one of my favorite cartoonists. This is absolutely lovely!
Tiger Beatdown: If you protest racism during Black Face season in The Netherlands, you will be beaten up and arrested
My latest about events that transpired this weekend during anti-racist protests in The Netherlands. Content warning for racist photos, police brutality and depictions of violence on Black people.
For all the things I really love about the Netherlands, this nearly outweighs all of them. I've commented about my anger over this tradition before, but a lot of people still have no idea it goes on. This extremely racist Christmas tradition is directly tied to Dutch colonization, and I cannot understand how it is still allowed to go on.
"Black Face Season" also happens in Belgium, where my parents live. It's horrendous.
You must read the original article. It's absolutely repulsive. But holy SHIT, racism trigger warnings ALL DAY LONG on this.
roxannameta:
A moment of nostalgia: myself as Dinah Lance and...
:
A moment of nostalgia: myself as Dinah Lance and Rob Goodfellow as Oliver Queen, way back in the day. This was a fun shoot, and those were fun days in comics, too.
Sheer adorableness.
If you had the chance to write for your own animated series, what/who would it be about and why? Also, I absolutely love your work.
I would love an animated Birds of Prey series. It is probably the only way I would ever go back to Birds of Prey at this time. And girls need kickass heroes, too.
Hi Gail! I'm writing a paper on Middle Easterners in comic books and I was wondering whether you could help me with something. Do you think the main reason certain types of characters - specific races, sexual preferences, faiths - are so rarely represented
I think there are a bunch of reasons, and all of them are bullshit.
First, there is the weight of comics history, in that most of the characters that the industry is built on were created decades ago, and those are the characters that sell, and that readers have the most affection for. Companies need to exploit the characters that have a guaranteed readership. So it's always easier to do new books with Batman or Spider-man than an untested character.
Second, and I don't know if this relates in this case, so please understand that I am speaking generally and not about creators of Arab descent, but I do see this a lot. Often, creators from marginalized groups will deliberately stay away from focusing on characters from that same group. It's common that lgbtq writers won't write or create lgbtq characters much, or that females won't want to focus in large degree on female characters, for fear of being typecast. If you already feel a little bit of an outsider, you can easily tend not reinforce that, because people ARE quick to stereotype, and no one wants to be in a box of expectation they can't get out of.
Third, I think there's a lot of ignorance…quite simply, it's harder to create a character that is far outside of your own realm of experience, which relates to your own point as stated in your post. The risk of getting it wrong is higher. The criticism you face can be daunting. You might be well meaning, but your character, if he or she represents a group that isn't well represented, will be under much more intense scrutiny and any ire for that will be aimed straight at the creators. So I think some people shy away, much easier to create someone whose life experience is much closer to their own.
And finally, I think there's just some plain old fashioned cultural ignorance going on. For everyone who tries to create something neat, like Dust or Renee Montoya, we get lots more characters that are more vanilla and who more closely resemble the myth of the white, single, male audience who lives in mom's basement (which is bullshit in itself).
ALL of this is just utter crap, none of it holds any water at all. But I believe those are the actual reasons why such portrayals are so much more rare than they should be.
The good news is that I do believe publishers are slowly waking up to the idea that the audience is not what it was in the 1950's. There are some decent books with a more diverse cast and in fact, I think it's pretty conspicuous when a cast DOESN'T have some diversity (my own run of Birds of Prey was mostly Caucasian and it's pretty glaring).
So as bad as the history is, I do think the future looks brighter. The best thing a reader can do is to participate, write letters, post on the issue, talk to creators about it. It IS making a slow but certain difference!
November 13, 2011
Hi Gail, I was just wondering - if you were given the chance to write for Superman again, would you?
Yes, absolutely, no question. Some books and characters I would not go back to, but I would love to write Lois and Clark again, in particular. It could happen! ;)
Loved the question from ealperin! Obviously, it's something I think a lot about (even came up with a perfect birthday meal for Bruce/Batman once). I always think of Huntress as being 'the one who can cook', as she grew up helping her aunt & cousin with ki
Yes, Helena isn't a 'foodie,' she's a purist, a food snob. Canary is a food hedonist.
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