Gail Simone's Blog, page 365

I just found out that Jan Duursema is the artist on the Convergence book you're doing!! The news just keeps getting better! Just wanted to add my voice to the legion of thank yous to you, Jan, Dan, and DC for making these books happen.

Oh, man. Let me TELL you!

I agreed to write the Convergence thing as soon as I heard Oracle could be in it. That was all it took. I was so happy I forgot to ask who the artist was.

Later, the editor says, “Oh, we’re waiting for costume designs from Jan.”

And I thought, wait. It can’t be, right? No way. It can’t be the legendary Jan Duursema, whom I have wanted to work with forever. No WAY. it has to be someone else.

So I even asked…wait, you don’t mean we are waiting for NIGHTWING design sketches from JAN FREAKING DUURSEMA, do you?

We were, it turns out. 

I am the luckiest writer on Earth, I swear to god. I get to write Nightwing and Oracle, and the artist is a legend whom I adore and have always been dying to work with but it just seemed like an impossible dream.

Life is GOOD.

You recently answered a question saying Mouse couldn't control rabbits because they're not rodents. I just realized this means he could control capybaras. And that's amazing. Sorry this isn't actually a question.

Oh, yeah, he’d have an army of capybaras and he would name them and teach them to ride a little bicycle fleet.

I Get Uncomfortable In Interviews and On Panels Sometimes

And I thought it was just because I’m shy (which I am) or that I have a bit of crowd anxiety (which I do) or that I’m not really a showman-type (which I’m not).

But I realized recently it’s that often, the panel moderator or the interviewer is trying to get a certain response from me, they want me to say some soundbite that’s easy for the audience to applaud to or they want me to condemn some vague notion of sexism in a way that they find palatable.

I don’t like to be ‘handled,’ and I am not a soundbite person. And so I get very uncomfortable and sometimes a little edgy.  If a panel is going great, everyone knows it and people speak their mind without trying to fit someone’s neat agenda. If it’s going badly, no amount of mollifying is going to make it more authentic. 

I feel like I have dedicated a lot of my life to trying to promote things I believe in in comics, and that’s important. It is not important to me to spout something that fits on a bumper sticker. :)

Moderators and interviewers, really, just let us talk. There are lots of people out there who have amazing things to say, but you have to get out of the way a little bit and take your expectations with you. 

We like you, we want to do a good interview or panel, but we may not agree with a tidy, abbreviated synopsis of our real life experiences. Just let us talk. When I go to a panel with someone, I really hope to hear their real experience, their real viewpoint, not one that they are being pushed towards discussing.

I will say that this stuff is the exception, usually it’s great. But not everything is a soundbite. Some issues are complex and require context and shading. These are not bad things. They’re good things.

That’s all, just my thought for the day.

““I had this silly little dream. I thought that we might be part of something better…where...

““I had this silly little dream. I thought that we might be part of something better…where people cared about each other…where compassion wasn’t a weakness…where those people in power helped people, without judgment. I thought maybe we could remind people, you know? That it’s OK to care.””

Virtue, The Movement #12

I.e., what that book was really about.

savethiscity-rp:Name/Alias: Detective Melody...

:

Name/Alias: Detective Melody McKenna 
Affiliation: GCPD
Age: 30 Years Old 
Played By: OPEN
Face Claim: Janina Gavankar

“It was my job, not theirs. And I would have done it right. In accordance with the law.”

Mel was a Gotham kid, born and bred. Small family, public schools, good grades, track and field star, student council president, boyfriend on the baseball team, apple of her parent’s eyes… Sure, they didn’t have a whole lot of money in a city filled with crime, but they made do, and in spite of all that, fife was good for Mel growing up.

In spite of her apple pie upbringing, Mel knew other people hadn’t been so lucky. Her boyfriend’s family had lost their business in a fire set by criminals and they’d moved away right after high school. It wasn’t the only factor, but it helped make up her mind. After graduating high school, Mel entered the Gotham City Police Academy, dedicated to the safety of not only her people, but his city. Her attention to duty, her charm, her procedural and dedicated approach ensured she caught the eye of her superiors and Mel steadily climbed ranks into the Gotham PD, earning a detective badge and a spot in the serious crimes unit.

McKenna and her partner, Douglas Paulson, were waiting for a murder suspect attached to one of the local gangs to wake up in Gotham hospital when some psychopath in a cape had stormed the building looking to take him off the streets for good, to prevent the law from seeing him to justice. Another cape had tried to stop him, but one of them had wrestled a gun away from the other, and shots had been fired. Paulson was dead, McKenna was injured, and before she could stop the blood oozing out of her shoulder wound long enough to pick up her weapon, one of the vigilantes had killed the suspect, too. This was the Batman’s legacy. More bodies.

Even when she was standing on wet grass as Paulson was lowered into the ground she couldn’t get the thought out of her head, that the supposed costumed heroes had caused all that damage through their own vigilante ways. She made a resolution: these people would never manage to hurt others through their methods ever again. She’d see to it or die trying.

She thought that the position would give her an edge, an advantage in trying to protect his city from the capes and cowls- she was wrong. For years, all that happened was things getting worse and worse, more and more monsters like the one that attacked her partner showed up. The crime scenes got worse, more dramatic and frequent and horrifying. And worst of all? There was nothing Mel could do to stop it. People praised these vigilantes on the streets, called them heroes, said they were only trying to “help” when this kind of thing happened, but where were they when Mel was cleaning up after shootings and grisly murders? Mel’s disgust for them only grew with each drop of blood spilled that they didn’t even bother trying to stop.

The Batman had started the wheel turning, and now it was rolling downhill picking up more speed than even he could handle. They hadn’t caught him and they hadn’t quietened his influence. Mel’s colleagues thought she was nuts, her and her grudge, but she knew better. They hadn’t seen her partner die. They hadn’t had to watch it happen. No, she wouldn’t be quietened. The law was the law, and these vigilantes would pay the price.

Character Facts:

Personality: Mild mannered until challenged, resolute on beliefs, protective to a fault, lawful, attentive, her way or the highway belief system, tunnel vision, a bit idealistic
Every time she finishes a case, Mel drinks a shot of tequila in keeping with a tradition she and her old partner started
The firm way she handles her beliefs sometimes puts her on the outs with her colleagues. Many of them believe the vigilantes are trying to help, but even those who agree with her are sometimes put off by how extreme her views are
Says she doesn’t smoke much, except for when she does.
She hates the name Melody and insists on being called Mel or McKenna at all times

Abilities & Weapons:

Skilled detective
Extensive knowledge of the law
Access to resources of the Gotham PD
Police department issue gun, cuffs and baton
Trained in the use of firearms

I really like this character, I hope we see her again someday. Great casting as always!  

Hey Gail! This occurred to me last night as I was still half awake in bed, have there even been attempts to write Wonder Woman as non-straight? (I have to admit I'm not as familiar with Diana as I would like to be, but I'm trying to catch up. I'm just curi

Several of us have either hinted at that or implied it fairly directly, I think Greg Rucka, myself, and Phil Jimenez have all implied that she’s bi.

It would be nice to have someone state it outright but I am not sure what DC’s position on that would be.

Hey Gail! This occurred to me last night as I was still half awake in bed, have there even been attempts to write Wonder Woman as non-straight? (I have to admit I'm not as familiar with Diana as I would like to be, but I'm trying to catch up. I'm just curi

Several of us have either hinted at that or implied it fairly directly, I think Greg Rucka, myself, and Phil Jimenez have all implied that she’s bi.

It would be nice to have someone state it outright but I am not sure what DC’s position on that would be.

Do comixology sales "count" toward keeping a series going? I mostly read on tablet these days.

I always say people should buy comics in the manner that they most enjoy them, I hate for people to worry about this.

But to be brutally frank, I would say digital sales count most if they are timely. If a book has high digital sales on the week of its release, that makes a big difference for the book. Like, Ms. Marvel sells okay in print (better than most could have expected, I am sure) but it’s a monster in digital sales, Marvel’s number one title, I am told. So that makes a big difference in keeping that book going. Which is lovely and you should all get it. :)

If the book has digital sales months later, I imagine it’s much harder to connect that to keeping a book going. HOWEVER, I do know that the books that keep selling and selling digitally (Secret Six is in this category) do make a difference in other ways. The creators do get a bit of a royalty if certain numbers are met, and also the companies judge it as a way to gauge further interest in the characters, titles, and creators.

So any way you do it makes a difference. But if it’s important to you to keep a book going, please try to buy your digital copy on the week of release. 

Make sense?

Yay!

Free pizza and big sales at my signing at Dragonvine Comics and Toys in Springfield, Oregon today.

Big fun! Come on down!

dynamitecomics:You read that right! We’re having a cover art...

dynamitecomics:

You read that right! We’re having a cover art contest with our friends at Red Sonja LLC. and The Art of Drawing Instagram community. 

Artists! This is your chance your chance to be seen, and possibly score a paid cover art gig! 

Post your entry to Instagram. Use the hashtag #redsonjacontest (Along with the disclaimer in the rules below) and tag @redsonjaoffical and @dynamitecomics before December 1st to enter!

We’ll pick the top four we like, then you guys get to pick the grand prize winner!

Click Below For Full Contest Rules

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Wow! This sounds awesome!