Gail Simone's Blog, page 486

comicsodissey:RED SONJA #12Good GOD, look at...

comicsodissey:

RED SONJA #12

Good GOD, look at that. 

That’s the first time I’ve seen this cover. Jenny Frison is AMAZING.

jyger85:Okay, for realsies, I like the new costume for the...

jyger85:

Okay, for realsies, I like the new costume for the next movie, and I can’t wait to see the new Batmobile in action, but THAT is hilarious. XD

You know that’s Catman. THAT IS CATMAN.

What do you think of Greg Rucka, Brian Michael Bendis, and Peter David?

Great, great, and great.

There are reasons why these guys have legions of readers. 

Read This Article...

…about video games and PWD. It’s an excellent, moving article, but it’s also wonderful because it focuses a lot on my dear friend Sam Mackley-Ward, who posts here on Tumblr at http://dashingforceofpalsy.tumblr.com/ .

I don’t know enough about this topic but when I went to a school in the Lakes District in England to speak, several of the game companies were working on controllers and games and software to help PWD play the games they wanted to play. They were passionate and dedicated. Hopefully, we will see the results of their labor soon.

Excellent article, everyone should read it (also, Sam really is the awesomest).

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/04/30/disabled-gamers-part-world

So against my better judgement: why I have issues with Gail Simone's fandom and the way it frames criticism

So against my better judgement: why I have issues with Gail Simone's fandom and the way it frames criticism:

i-can-be-found-at-ayries:

I would like to preface this with: I have read some of Ms. Simone’s work and liked it. I appreciate that she is willing to speak out about many issues in the comic industry, and what she has done for many female characters; I have always appreciated things like her…

Urgh, I didn’t realize the original post was so old, I thought it was new.

Sorry, everyone. 

Doesn’t matter, still important stuff to remember.  

Afternoon, Gail. Should I make tacos or BBQ chicken for dinner tonight? Thanks.

You know the answer.

Tacos.

After Tomb Raider #6, will there be more issues in the months following? Even after the end of this arc? Or will there be a waiting period? (Comic-noob, apologies! D=)

More issues, cool new story, and a big surprise!

After the current story arc is done in Tomb Raider, are there plans to do other adventures and stories not related to the events hat happened on Yamatai?

YES THERE ARE.

gail, i'm having a lot of trouble developing some of my main characters. do you know of any exercises or have any advice for really fully developing a character including little things about them? i'm really desperate here.

Okay. My guess is, you are not spending enough time observing. 

Seriously, if you create characters like you build Lego figures, you might get some interesting end results…you put a bit of childhood trauma here, you put a bit of fear of intimacy there, whatever.

But it’s not very human. And humanity is what makes characters relatable.

So what you do is, you observe.  Read books, speak with strangers, people watch, watch great actors. Look at the tics, the movements, the behaviors, the desires. Big details are where the drama comes from, but little details sail the ship, they are what make you care, what make you believe.

Look at the behaviors of people you know, or characters you are moved by, look at those traits. Add them to your character but put a spin on them, change them up, reverse them, shift them into a different gear. Do NOT photocopy…rather, you should interpret.

An artist draws an apple fifty times to learn how to draw an apple properly, maybe a hundred more to learn how to do it properly from memory. 

It’s the same for writers.

Observe, observe, observe.

So against my better judgement: why I have issues with Gail Simone's fandom and the way it frames criticism

i-can-be-found-at-ayries:

I would like to preface this with: I have read some of Ms. Simone’s work and liked it. I appreciate that she is willing to speak out about many issues in the comic industry, and what she has done for many female characters; I have always appreciated things like her speaking out for Dinah as potentially a queer character, too. I like Ms. Simone’s work.

And see, there’s the thing: why do I have to preface this with that?

Why is it that whenever anybody tries to critically examine Simone’s work online, her work, something I have paid for, something I am a consumer of, something that is not necessarily indicative of the person behind it… they get told they are attacking her personally?

Read More

I don’t know if this helps, but I agree with pretty much all of this. 

I agree that intentions aren’t everything, I agree that allies often make everything about themselves, and I agree about just about everything else, as well. 

I also agree that criticism is fine, but I wasn’t always sanguine about it, I used to actually go to message boards and argue with people about my work. I can’t imagine anything more obnoxious, but that was me. It’s indefensible and I don’t defend it, it’s gross behavior. When I see other pros do it, I try to talk them out of it, it’s just embarrassing and rude and I was the most embarrassing and most rude, probably.

The Scans_Daily thing was 100% my fault, I have talked about it here, many times. Whenever anyone asks about regrets I have, that’s the first thing that comes up, and the truth of it was, I just totally failed. I failed to listen, I failed to respond well, and I failed to agree to do better in the future. I have apologized for it many times since, right here on Tumblr. 

It’s sad to think about but I don’t want to pretend it never happened. It took a while to actually learn from it, but I think I did, eventually. 

I have no problem at all with what you’ve written here, I appreciate what you are saying and how you are clearly trying to be fair. I really don’t mind criticism anymore, I enjoy a lot of it quite a lot. Eventually, you do learn that people have a right to dislike your work for good reason or no reason at all, and trying to argue them out of it is purely obnoxious, rude and egocentric.

I don’t think of ‘building points,’ honestly, that’s just not what’s in my mind. I wouldn’t want to be defended on that basis. No defense at all is necessary, really.  I actually hate to see people fight and argue over my work in that way, because feelings do get hurt on both sides sometimes.

Anyway, I appreciate it.  I’m not going to make any excuses, excuses just cover shit up. But I am trying to do better.