Gail Simone's Blog, page 237
August 3, 2015
obsessive-ninja:
Comic Book Meme | 2/5 Favourite Male...
Comic Book Meme | 2/5 Favourite Male Characters
“Except … except all of my dreams are out there. Friends. Students. Being a hero. Being a teacher. And it turns out, that’s really all I need.”
- Ryan Choi
Really one of my favorites, miss him constantly.
nomalez:
Dynamite Entertainment preview: RED SONJA #17Story by...
Dynamite Entertainment preview: RED SONJA #17
Story by Gail Simone // Art by Walter Giovanni
Release date: In Stores now !
This intense issue finds the She-Devil in the grip of an obsession for revenge
that is so all-consuming, she barely recognizes herself! What happens
when the mightiest warrior finds the man who destroyed her life? Can
even RED SONJA return from darkness this complete? Continuing the
suspenseful FORGIVENESS OF MONSTERS storyline, taking Sonja to places she has never, ever been before!Links(follow me): RED SONJA / DYNAMITE / Comics Previews / Fantasy / All Comics / Hyborian Age .
Red Sonja knows when it’s time to wake up…
Okay, since I can't remember what else I asked you this morning, I just wanted to let you know I'm nearly finished the profile blog on you. I sent you a question earlier about how you said your early writing jobs were "forced upon me". Could you elaborate?
I don’t literally mean ‘forced upon me.’
But I was very reluctant to consider the possibility of writing professionally. It was a dream I had not thought possible. I was living in the boonies, I had a hair salon, I’d never been to a real con, and many people in my family had discouraged the idea of doing something like writing for a living as unrealistic.
So, I thought it was unrealistic. My writing was for fun, no different than those of you who write fanfic or do little funny posts for friends. I posted some things as jokes, they became oddly popular with editors at comics companies, and a website, You’ll All Be Sorry offered to hire me to write a weekly column. I did that, and then editors started offering me work. I turned them down, it just seemed too impossible, AND I was obsessed by the idea that if I took a writing job, that meant a ‘real’ writer would get less work and it would be my fault.
A lot of people helped me get over it, but I was definitely my own biggest stumbling block. Adam Hughes was a fan of my column and he told me, “Gail, almost everyone worth a damn in this industry is drafted,” meaning they didn’t come up through submitting for some editor’s slush pile, but were recruited. That helped a lot.
But the biggest thing was, Emmy-winning artist Scott Shaw liked my columns and told me that Matt Groening’s company was looking for funny writers who knew comics, and that I should try out. I put him off for the same reasons mentioned before. Finally, Scott just said, “It’s too late, I already told them about you, they’re calling tomorrow.”
So I thought about it, and when they called, I asked if I could have a day to think about it. I hadn’t even told my family I was doing any of this, because I was so sure it would all go away. When I told my husband, we realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that a lot of people would kill to have, and it would likely never happen again. Being offered a chance to write the Simpsons?
So when they called back, I said I would try. And it was such a great, fun experience, it made me very happy. And I haven’t stopped since.
But just as an aside, I was so sure it was all going to end like waking up from a nice dream that I kept my salon for a couple years even after I was writing full time.
Follow up question, how come your Action run was so short?
That was a weird deal.
We were asked to do ACTION (John Byrne and I) while the Superman editorial team was a bit in flux. I was excited, I wanted to write Lois and Clark, and the Daily Planet staff in particular. I had WAY more fun than I thought I would.
What happened was, we raised the sales WAY up, and critical and fan reviews were amazing. We were THE buzz Superman book at the time, and commercially, it was a hit.
HOWEVER.
Someone forgot to tell the artist and me that we were just a fill-in team. A major writer that DC thought would be huge news was supposed to take over the book, but needed time to do it. No one told us. This sounds pretty ridiculous, but when a book’s editorial team is in flux, it can be a very confusing time and even important stuff gets forgotten, and information on all the Super books was not getting passed along.
Anyway, they thought the person following us was going to be huge, it wasn’t, the ‘fill-in’ team did way better numbers. It happens sometimes. But it was a bummer, I was having a blast.
When the new52 happened, I was asked to ‘help’ the Super books a little, but nothing came of it. I would like to get back to write some Kryptonians, I kinda love ‘em. But I don’t know if it’s in the cards, it’s a difficult position to be in, there’s a lot of pressure from all sides.
July 29, 2015
In Wonder Woman: The Circle, when Hippolyta raises the newly formed Diana to the sky and presents her to the Amazon as "Our Daughter." That moment helped solidify in my head exactly who Wonder Woman is as a character. Happy Birthday!
Me, too. :)
Wish others read that scene, I kinda hate the Amazons being awful so often!
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