Gail Simone's Blog, page 1162

APE IN A CAPE: Oh. My. God.

APE IN A CAPE: Oh. My. God.:

sapphoshands:

gailsimone:

Geek Girl Con is a dream come true, it's lgbtq- and POC-positive, everywhere you look there are creative, brilliant women, and the vibe is positively joyful. I keep having to miss panels I am dying to see..

Amazing. Amazing.

The first Women In Comics panel I attended, there were nine panelists…

I am having an AMAZING time. I wonder if they'd consider setting up a franchise opportunity…

Seriously, this con is the greatest. Everyone is so HAPPY to be here. Me included.

Karen is being modest. 

Last night, she ran a panel that was giving scholarly papers about female superheroes.

Her's was about Queer characters, in this case all lesbians, and their family structures, both biological and by personal choice. It focused on Renee Montoya, Batwoman, and Scandal Savage, and was fucking BRILLIANT. 

I mean, both Greg Rucka and I write a lot on a subtextual level, and I think we both try to tell a surface story that is compelling on its own, but if you look at the stories and give them thought, there are vitamins and rewards upon second reading. That's the hope, anyway.

Karen, who goes by the handle Sapphohands on some message boards, is a PHD student in Sussex, and she just found an amazing amount of the intended understory themes in all three books. It was absolutely brilliant and humanizing. I loved it.

Then there was a paper by a professor whose name escapes me who uses a lot of comics in her work. She analyzed my Wonder Woman, specifically going over the gender themes and how many traditionally male roles and plot points were subverted to female themes. Again, astoundingly smart stuff. She was using Rise of The Olympian, which isn't my favorite of my Wonder Woman works for various reasons, but she did remind me about the stuff in it that did mean a lot to me, stuff that I think was very subversive.

It was so thoughtful, and the questions afterwards were so smart…I love this con, it's just amazing. I hope there are more like it, soon. It's an astounding creative success. I hope it's a commercial one, as well.

The discussion after was brief, they kicked us out for time.

The only real complaint about the books that we heard (and again, the discussion was short, there may have been more with time), was from a very smart woman who sat right behind me (I didn't make my presence known, I just wanted to sit in to support scholarly discussion of comics), who felt that Scandal telling her father, Vandal Savage, that she would not give him a true heir, was giving the message that lesbians don't want to have families, or are anti-childbearing.

It's an interesting point, I think it's a fair observation to make—I will have to reread the scene because I'm pretty sure that Scandal just objects to Vandal's manipulations, not the IDEA of childbearing.

But I thought that was a very interesting and powerful observation.  Are there, aside from Apollo and Midnighter, any gay heroes/villains at DC or Marvel who actually have a kid?  No one leaps to mind.

Another thing on the list of stuff that needs to happen.

Anyway, it was lovely to see these books discussed intelligently, on that kind of level. I have several books that get regular coverage at colleges, I've given a lot of lectures and discussions on The Circle, in particular. But this was probably the best such discussion I've attended.

elliottmarshal:[Image: A black and white inked sketch of DC...

elliottmarshal:

[Image: A black and white inked sketch of DC Comics character Knockout. She posts like a body builder with one arm curled in a flex. She smiles at the viewer.]

By Karl Kesel

That picture is lovely.

I've seen several Knockout cosplayers and most of them are tall women, like famed Canadian cosplayer and tv star Liana Kerzner (whom Liana in Secret Six is based upon).

But I'm at Geek Girl Con (which is fricking AMAZING…the first female-aimed geek con I've ever attended, it's like a miracle, I swear to god), and there's this tiny, petite and lovely young lady cosplaying Knockout here with a great costume and attitude…it's completely adorable but a real shock every time I bump into her.

It makes me want to create a powerhouse brick of a female character is just barely tops five feet!

Oh. My. God.

Geek Girl Con is a dream come true, it's lgbtq- and POC-positive, everywhere you look there are creative, brilliant women, and the vibe is positively joyful. I keep having to miss panels I am dying to see..

Amazing. Amazing.

The first Women In Comics panel I attended, there were nine panelists and four people in the audience. Four. One was my husband.

Eight years later, there's this amazing con, that is just FULL of thought and beauty and art and still gots SERIOUS GEEK CRED. Even if you have no interest in the gender aspect, there's a ton of stuff here for you..,prose, film, comics, music, performance, cosplay, crafts, games, and some of the smartest, funniest panels I've ever seen.

I hope this is a huge success, and leads to more con's like this all over the world.

Yay. Seriously, just yay.

Thanks

Thanks for the jokes and stuff yesterday, guys. I was in a funk.

Today Sucks

Someone say or show something funny, please.  :)

This message brought to you by the I Could Use A Good Laugh Society.

What if the Secret Six broke out of their comics, found out they were comic book characters and then kidnapped you? How do you think they'd handle it? Do you think they'd scare you?

Yeah. But only because I would think they were coked up cosplayers!

Hi Ms. Simone, I am really interested in your run on Secret Six, and I was explaining to my girlfriend about the mixed sexualities on the team and she is also really interested. I find DC doesn't collect comics in trades/hardcover near as well as Marvel. W

Thanks!

They first appear in Villains United, and then the next is Six Degrees of Devastation.  That second one is out of print right now and expensive on ebay but is available on the DC comics app and Comixology, I think.

Then the ongoing series goes, UNHINGED first, DEPTHS second, and then i get confused. :)

You can start with either Villains United or UNHINGED pretty easily, I think!  Good luck and thanks!

Hi Ms. Simone, I am really interested in your run on Secret Six, and I was explaining to my girlfriend about the mixed sexualities on the team and she is also really interested. I find DC doesn't collect comics in trades/hardcover near as well as Marvel. W

Thanks!

They first appear in Villains United, and then the next is Six Degrees of Devastation.  That second one is out of print right now and expensive on ebay but is available on the DC comics app and Comixology, I think.

Then the ongoing series goes, UNHINGED first, DEPTHS second, and then i get confused. :)

You can start with either Villains United or UNHINGED pretty easily, I think!  Good luck and thanks!

Hi Ms. Simone, I am really interested in your run on Secret Six, and I was explaining to my girlfriend about the mixed sexualities on the team and she is also really interested. I find DC doesn't collect comics in trades/hardcover near as well as Marvel. W

Thanks!

They first appear in Villains United, and then the next is Six Degrees of Devastation.  That second one is out of print right now and expensive on ebay but is available on the DC comics app and Comixology, I think.

Then the ongoing series goes, UNHINGED first, DEPTHS second, and then i get confused. :)

You can start with either Villains United or UNHINGED pretty easily, I think!  Good luck and thanks!

Hi Ms. Simone, I am really interested in your run on Secret Six, and I was explaining to my girlfriend about the mixed sexualities on the team and she is also really interested. I find DC doesn't collect comics in trades/hardcover near as well as Marvel. W

Thanks!

They first appear in Villains United, and then the next is Six Degrees of Devastation.  That second one is out of print right now and expensive on ebay but is available on the DC comics app and Comixology, I think.

Then the ongoing series goes, UNHINGED first, DEPTHS second, and then i get confused. :)

You can start with either Villains United or UNHINGED pretty easily, I think!  Good luck and thanks!