Gail Simone's Blog, page 475
May 26, 2014
Oh, My Word...Slash!
At Free Comic Book Day this year, I was swamped and pretty exhausted and someone brought me a new card game as a gift. I did not get their name, sadly. I wasn’t sure it sounded like my kind of thing…it was called SLASH, Romance WIthout Borders.
Anyway, several weeks later, my son is home for the weekend and we decided to play tabletop games today, and we cracked open Slash because the rules page is about three paragraphs long, so we could be up and playing quickly. My son was skeptical, because the game uses fanfic and ‘shipping jargon throughout.
Holy crap, this game is HILARIOUS. There’s a huge deck of characters from literature, history, film, comics, games and more. Everyone gets ten cards. They take it in turns to be the ‘matchmaker,’ and one player lays down a character card, and the rest all have to pick the best possible character from their hands to make an OTP, or One True Pairing.
It’s ridiculously funny. If you don’t win a round, you can challenge the judge by explaining why YOUR OTP should wine, and we ended up with winners like Annie WIlkes (from MISERY) and Gimil together, and Keisha and Darth Vader. As a bonus, Red Sonja and Carol Danvers are playable cards, along with lots more great geek characters.
REALLY highly recommended quick, simply, funny party game, playable with three people or more, no set up or complex rules at all. We laughed our asses off and played three straight games in a row.
It’s by GAMES BY PLAY DATE at
gamesbyplaydate.com
I don’t have any connection with these people, we just thought the game was a riot, and I think you, will too!
Hi! Will you be doing any panels at London comic con?
I am sure I will! I don’t know what they are yet, though, sorry!
First ever Welcome to Tranquility cosplayer! I was so happy!
First ever Welcome to Tranquility cosplayer! I was so happy!
How do you reconcile wanting to write ladies who aren't so male-gazey eye candy with the fact that a lot of dude artists will draw them that way anyway? Do you ever try to say "Can we not?" or are you resigned to it as the nature of the comics beast?
This is a complicated question…I have a somewhat higher tolerance for cheesecake if it’s done with wit and charm, and if there is equal amounts of beefcake. I am okay with characters looking gorgeous. I am okay with somewhat skimpy costumes IF it fits their character (boob window on Power Girl, fine, boob window on Wonder Woman, weird).
I look back at some of the art in my earlier work and I am always a little surprised by HOW MUCH cheese there is. It’s more than I remember, every time. I think we were all so used to it at the time that it seemed less egregious.
Now, most artists are aware of who I am and if they want to work with me, they would know that I don’t want the Image bad girl crap. Like, Walter Geovani, who does a fantastic job on Sonja, and he draws her often with some skin showing, but he never forgets to make her powerful, she’s never just posing for an ogle moment.
I very rarely have to ask for art to be redrawn at this point, I think artists are aware that I’m serious about the characters keeping their integrity.
I did recently, just two weeks ago, ask for a character to be more covered up….I lost on that one. Usually I win, or there’s a compromise.
But it doesn’t come up that much, honest.
Gail, when writing a female character, what do you feel are some of the most important elements to add to their persona and how you convey their character? Let's say for Red Sonja, Babs, or Wonder Woman- they are all three warriors and remarkable women, ve
I just never think in these terms. I just don’t. To me, Wonder Woman and Red Sonja have no more in common than, say, Batman and Conan, but no one ever asks, “what do you feel is important to say about male characters” in the same manner.
I know you don’t mean it this way, I am just speaking in general because I hear this question a lot.
The idea that there’s a Grand Unified Theory of female characters is bothersome to me. Misfit and, say, Big Barda or Oracle have little in common. Trying to find the trace amounts of similar DNA in Lois Lane and Black Alice is kind of pointless to me.
We don’t expect all male characters to be defined by some ineffable and mysterious male quality, why would we think that it’s a good idea for female characters? Or POC or LGBTQ characters, for that matter. There’s more connective tissue between Batgirl and Robin than Batgirl and Jeannette.
The idea is a spectrum, to create a wide range of compelling characters. A wide range.
For my personal tastes, I like female characters that have their own agency. And I prefer that they have layers of character, rather than a single defining trait.
But overall, emphasize humanity as you would with any other character.
Good lord.
Jenny Frison, you amaze me, look at that look on her...
Good lord.
Jenny Frison, you amaze me, look at that look on her face!
Just read Savage Wolverine. Don't really read DC, so I've been unfamiliar with your work. Pretty good stuff, lady. First time in awhile that Jubilee was actually cool. Is there any Marvel characters that would be your dream job?
There are a bunch I’d love to write, like Spider-man, Deadpool, Thing, and the monster and martial arts characters. And Storm, always Storm.
May 25, 2014
About The Anons
I got a lot of kind messages and posts from very nice people who were a bit upset at the crappy things anons routinely send me here on Tumblr. A bunch of them asked me how I handle it.
So, I’ll tell you the truth. It’s rough, it’s really rough.
Honestly, sometimes they upset me so much I can…
I’m waiting to hear about the professional writer who quits the business because of abusive anons. Because I’ll be able to use my superpowers to fly around and get all the world leaders to sign a peace accord, get paid a reasonable wage for doing food service work, not worry about my wife being attacked when she’s out late, and a whole other mess of improbable things.
My point was not how wonderful I am, it was how small the anon thing is when I have many, many blessings to be grateful for. And I admit, I wad mostly being silly.
A LOT of people left the industry after not being able to take the abuse. A lot, a lot of women in particular. A lot of POC and lgbt creators do leave quickly, too, but I don’t know their reasoning.
I am sorry to hear things are difficult…believe me, I have been poor most of my life. It is only very recently that is not the case.
I wish for health, safety and happiness for you both, sincerely.
We all love you. Be Strong, fight the bad anons.
Ha!
Seriously, if these brave internet warriors had even the slightest clue how little they bother me, they’d find someone else to obsess over. It’s kind of pointless with me, I’m afraid. :)
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