Gail Simone's Blog, page 215
September 14, 2015
Hi Gail, I am really loving Secret Six! You mentioned a while ago that the current roster is not the final one. When will we see the final team? I'm dying for Scandal and Ragdoll to join full time.
The line-up is a bit fluctuating, but all I can say right now is, as ever, “Six” means nothing in this book. :)
captainstarlord:
Secret Six #9Written by Gail SimoneArt and...
Secret Six #9
Written by Gail Simone
Art and cover by Dale Eaglesham
The team’s attempt to defend the Earth from invasion by the Elder Gods takes them to a creepy New England town, inhabited by one very nasty creature. And just when they need Black Alice’s abilities the most, a shocking turn of events puts her down for the count. Guest starring Swamp Thing!
This is it.
The Secret Six ally with Lovecraftian giants against the world.
Maybe they didn’t plan this out well.
EVERYONE guest-stars!
You Can Only Find the Best Version Of Wonder Woman in Sensation Comics
io9 published a nice article recently praising Sensation Comics and featuring my Wonder Woman story, among several others. As Sensation Comics is ending soon, I wanted to speak a little piece about why it worked, and some of the editorial dynamics of how it is created versus the main Wonder Woman comic. In essence: why we may not see the strong points of Sensation repeated elsewhere with Wonder Woman.
Sensation is edited in a special projects/digital office, an office which is sadly under-utilized in the internal turf wars of DC and faces shutdown/restructuring as a senior male staff member finds it unnecessary… despite the plaudits its books (including Sensation) have achieved.
The main Wonder Woman comic is part of the Superman office. Now, the Superman office allegedly employs no women, and a cursory glance over the mastheads of several Superman titles and Wonder Woman seems to confirm that allegation. The reason, I’ve been told by several people who work or used to work at DC, is because one of the most senior editors is a sexual harasser with multiple incidents on his HR file. I don’t use “alleged” here because at least one incident (grabbing a woman’s breasts) happened publicly at a corporate social gathering with multiple witnesses. There was also something about sticking his tongue down an artist’s girlfriend’s throat when the artist was in the bathroom. Again, public gathering.
It is not known to me whether the no-chicks-in-Supes-office diktat is the preference of the harasser, or whether it’s the HR department crossing its fingers and hoping to Jesus they don’t get hit with a liability lawsuit so big it’s visible from space. This guy was kept in the move to Burbank despite his record – allegedly because he has blackmail on one of DC’s most senior staff members.
Now, of course you don’t need women on staff to tell a great story with a female character. I’m not saying that. And plenty of women have written rotten stories with female characters. I am just positing that this situation in the Superman office may not be the best environment to foster innovative, compelling stories about DC’s foremost female character, in the way the Batman office has done so well recently with Batgirl, Gotham Academy, and even reaching back to things like Gotham Central and Batwoman.
I’m also talking about it because man, I am sick to death of corporate comics telling me they caaare about me and my lady-dollar as a reader, and then continuing to employ / protect known harassers. Kids, there are five known big-name, vindictive harassers in comics, and about three bad drunks. Two harassers are writers employed by DC; one is a DC editor; two are writers employed by Marvel.
Not only does protecting these people disrespect female readers, it disrespects all the creators and editors working hard at those companies to make awesome comics for all readers. DC and Marvel are not the Augean Stables. There are many, many good people at these companies, and things have gotten immeasurably better over the past decade for readers who are not cis/het white dudes. But we’re not done. Diversity isn’t a fad senior management can get away with giving lip-service to. You can’t celebrate black culture and not employ black people. You can’t hold up female heroes while coddling male harassers. WE SEE YOU.
Indie comics are not perfect – at one of the companies I work for is a Bad Drunk, who again has done harassing shit (to other men, though het) at public social events. I believe he’s been taken aside by HR and told “ginger ale or GTFO”, but I don’t want your take-away to be that DC/Marvel Bad, Indie Good, cuz it ain’t that clear cut.
It isn’t even really a comics problem. You get ANY company with hundreds of employees and statistically speaking, at least one of them is going to be a screaming fool who should never be allowed alcohol or thinks mailing dick pix to female employees is a gas and fuck her if she can’t take a joke. But it’s what senior management does about these people that matters.
The irony is that nothing will be done by DC and Marvel about these harassers, but I will be blacklisted (even more than I already am) at the Big Two. And I do not care. While I have great affection for some of the characters owned by these companies, and love many of the creators and editors who work there, these corporations have repeatedly shown to me over 2015 that their senior management’s values and priorities are not a good fit with my values and priorities.
(Don’t worry about me, folks – my current creator-owned workload right now is more than enough to keep me working 12 hour days for the foreseeable future.)
(also, inb4: “I’ve worked with everyone in that office and they are absolutely lovely and committed to world peace and hugging squirrels” “she was asking for it” “misandry!” “but Gail Simone!” “she couldn’t take a joke” “I love current Wonder Woman, shut up bitch” “you’re just sour grapes, fuck u” “where is the PROOF, does anyone have videos or pictures” “men can be victims too!” “they just put a black woman in Superman, sit down, it’s all good now” “u can grab titty and be a good editor too!”)
September 11, 2015
bookishboi:
Our electricity has been disconnected. We need...
Our electricity has been disconnected. We need help!Hi y’all. My partner and I, two trans people of color, have lived in a house that has allowed us to provide shelter for LGBT youth of color for the last three years. We’ve taken folks in who have needed somewhere safe to stay repeatedly. Even now, we’re providing shelter to two queer youth of color and a trans black woman.
Both my partner and I have been fortunate to be employed and (somewhat) healthy, but recently events have taken a down-swing. Mounting medical bills and other personal bills from maintaining the safe space have swept us under our normal monetary level.
We’re asking for your help. In whatever form it is.
In order to turn our electricity back on, we need to pay $632.65 (six hundred thirty two dollars and sixty five cents).
We don’t make enough to be able to pull this amount up.
The full bill totals at $1008.54 (one thousand eight dollars and fifty four cents).
If you can, please, please help.
We need you.
If you’re able, you can donate here.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for reblogging. And thank you for your support.
superheroesincolor:
Wonder Foo (Afua...
A photo posted by Afua Richardson (@doctafoo) on Sep 5, 2015 at 6:35am PDT
Wonder Foo (Afua Richardson) #dragoncon2015Docta Foo is Afua Richardson. Comic artist. Musician. Jane of all trades. Singer in the band, waking astronomer. Artist of Top Cow’s “ Genius”.
Aerist website afuarichardson.com
[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / twitter / tumblr ]
Her art inspires. Just way, way too much talent for one person.
I AM DYING TO WORK WITH YOU SOMEDAY, AFUA.
September 10, 2015
Gail Simone Draws her Sword
I love Gail Simone.
And I love her take on Red Sonja, because at last the character gets to be fun and vulgar and barbaric instead of having to fit into a bizarre (and bizarrely-overplayed) virgin-warrior archetype. She finds a way to motivate the character that discards the tired, old, sexist Rape As Backstory trope and instead presents us with a character who worked her ass off to be an awesome warrior.
And I love watching her take down people who think that having Sonja enjoying life is wrong.
A long-time Red Sonja aficionado sniffed snootily recently that my Red Sonja was ‘vulgar.’
My response is, ‘fuck yes, she is.’
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone)
July 28, 2015
I mean, holy crap, you could get through decades of porn poses and gross plotlines but MY Red Sonja is too vulgar?
Dude, that’s awesome. :)
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone)
July 28, 2015
YOU MUST READ IT ALL HERE.
Reeead iiit.
You are too kind. :)
Yeah, I like the vulgar. I am glad there are women writers out there keeping it classy, but…
…well, maybe I like to mess up the cleanliness once in a while. :)
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