Gail Simone's Blog, page 200
October 19, 2015
olivesilverlock:
Well, butter my butt an’ call me a biscuit–!...
Well, butter my butt an’ call me a biscuit–!
I have the original art from this story (one of my favorites!).
I miss you, Zinda Blake!
Circe and Jeanette anon here - sorry I wasn't more clear. In the sense that Circe says she's the avenger of wronged women and hates amazons too but would Jeanette respect that or think Circe's full of crap?
Ah!
Okay, I get it. I think Jeannette in that case would probably think Circe is pretty awesome.
I also feel like Jeannette’s view of the Amazons, at least pre-new52, is a little unfair.
Good Luck Today, Canada!
I hope the elections work out for the best for your amazing country!
NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite
I feel that the most critical step to really re-inventing those characters would be to get them away from Dynamite Entertainment.
I enjoy Gail Simone’s re-invention of Red Sonja and understand there’s a balancing act with the branding and appearance. But an ongoing thing with Dynamite Entertainment is that they stockpile old characters to use them in spinoffs, mash-ups, etc.
So far, at Dynamite, we’ve had:
Steampunk Red Sonja in a skimpy scalemail bikini
Red Sonja being stripped against her will covers
Steampunk Red Sonja now with covers by sexy pinup artists
The Black Tower - which is actually worse than it looks
Swords of Sorrow - where every female lead was in bikini armor
I mean - these are the most recent spinoffs (one working with Dark Horse):
Furthermore, while these designs might be bold for Dynamite, they’re not really that bold when you step back and look.
Red Sonja is basically back to a sexier version of the outfit she in her very first appearance, Vampirella appeared in a space suit in March (and I remember seeing concept ideas to re-invent her wearing full body gear in the 90s) - and okay, the movie bombed but nobody thinks it’s because of what Lynn Carter wore as Dejah Thoris.
What would really be bold - is actually re-inventing these characters without anchoring them to bad branding and design decision made in 70s (or earlier). Red Sonja has changed far more than her costume has, and not updating her appearance to reflect that hampers the comic.
At the end of the day - the reason these properties got sold to Dynamite Entertainment and the reason this is the second time Red Sonja’s been re-invented since then is because the old branding isn’t speaking to audiences today.
- wincenworks
I appreciate your message and agree with some of it (there are some factual errors, Dynamite wasn’t ‘sold’ Dejah or Sonja, they are licensed).
And it’s patently not even remotely correct that ‘every female lead wears bikini armor’ in Swords of Sorrow. That’s just weird and wrong on many levels. Most of the characters are in fact fully dressed–Kato, Irene Adler, Miss Fury, Black Sparrow, Jane Porter, Lady Zorro, on and on, and few of the ones remaining wear ‘armor’ at all, although I take the message I think you intend, that they are wearing something revealing.
However.
How much sense does it make to complain about the leads wearing bikini armor when the series is set up to replace the bikini armor? I can’t quite follow that logic.
Sonja’s new outfit is deliberately evocative of her first outfit in comics (pre-bikini). That’s intentional. The design isn’t particularly sexed-up. I do agree some recent Red Sonja stories have not matched the newer version of the character. Ours outsold those by a considerable margin, hopefully that message will get through. I do believe Dynamite is making a huge change and they do need it. When I first saw their titles, I just assumed it was a company specializing in cheesecake. Which is fine, but nothing I’d be interested in writing.
But they also are hiring more female writers and artists than some of the big companies and they are doing it with a fraction of the output. They did the first major all female-character company crossover. They did TWO all-female-writers events. They put all female artists on the Sonja covers. The new Sonja book is a female writer and a female artist (and the writer is just RIDICULOUSLY talented).
So while I agree that some of the IP comes from another era, I think it’s weird to say Dynamite is some kind of toxic sludge pit, when they were WAY more open to actual change than most of the decision makers at other companies. There are growing pains, and there’s still some stuff that makes me shake my head, but I see that at almost every publisher (dangit). A lot of change at the big two is very grudgingly granted and came at tremendous cost…Dynamite actually went out and recruited good people to help them modernize.
And finally, how do you know we aren’t changing the branding? Vampirella in particular has a completely different look, and is being written by indie sensation Kate Leth, all three of the Monster Makeover titles have completely new directions (that I came up with and their writers will embellish).
Our whole goal was to update these characters into this century while keeping what made them kickass in the first place. I’m excited to see what these creative teams come up with!
October 14, 2015
I'm writing this paper and I have a few questions that I couldn't find in your thread. 1. Would you ever do a comic in which George W. Bush provides the art? He's a painter now, y'know. 2. Why do you spend so much money on Starbucks coffee (don't act like
1) Sure, when I do a book about puppies and clowns and boats.
2) I don’t drink coffee, ever. I’ve had probably less than a cup of it in my entire life. I don’t even like the smell.
3) Yes.
4) NO D&D WITHOUT HALFLINGS.
5) Butts
Swords of Sorrow #6 Review
Swords of Sorrow #6 Review
The final battle.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Sergio Davila
What They Say:
IT ALL ENDS NOW. The planet-crushing finale to this epic crossover ends here! With a key player down for the count, can the remaining warriors (and their Swords of Sorrow) hold the tide against Purgatori and…
Read more on The Fandom Post!
The post on email requests made me realise that I do not understand Tumblr! I mistook Fan Mail as an Ask function. To remedy this, I just wanted to ask about your use of Dublin as a location (in Tomb Raider and Swords of Sorrow). I was wondering if you lik
I do prefer to visit a place before writing about it, for the most part. And almost everywhere I visit ends up in a book somewhere. Shanghai, Mexico City, Singapore, Japan, all of those and many more have been in my books.
In the case of Dublin, there’s something very weird about that town for us, it just feels very much like home, somehow. I don’t know why. But we loved it, and we love the Temple Bar area at night especially. And of course Trinity College, and well, we just loved it. I still remember that Temple Bar had the best buskers in the area that I think I’ve ever heard anywhere in the world. And we had delicious boxty there (sp?).
It’s one of my favorite places. We were so struck by the art and literature and history. I think people have NO IDEA of how deep the culture runs unless they actually get to visit a few times.
It’s one of our favorite places forever even if some weird gang of teenagers thought they could attack my husband (they learned that was a bad idea pretty fast). Can’t wait to go back!
We had a similar feeling about Singapore, it just felt like we were being made part of the family. Mexico City made us very welcome as well.
For me, it’s part of my belief that comics are for everyone. We don’t need another thirty years of comics only being set in Gotham and New York. There are readers everywhere, there should be STORIES everywhere.
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