Gail Simone's Blog, page 644

Thank You, Guys

Thank you so much for the kind words for my brother and my family.

Honestly, it means a lot.  He had his first surgery late last night and they think it went well, so fingers crossed.

Love to all, and thank you again.

asylum-countess:My friend (whom I shall list as “bear” since I...

asylum-countess:

My friend (whom I shall list as “bear” since I am not sure if she is comfortable with me sharing her URL or name) as Tink and myself as Harley at D*C this past weekend!! :) 

Now I want this crossover to happen.

larchivio:Red SonjaWow.Photos of amazing cosplay shoots...

larchivio:

Red Sonja

Wow.

Photos of amazing cosplay shoots like this one always cheer me up.

comicbookcosplay:◘ Jillian / Florencia Sofen as Black Canary [...

comicbookcosplay:

◘ Jillian / Florencia Sofen as Black Canary [ Dinah Lance from Birds of Prey - New 52 - DC Comics ] ◘

Submitted by nomagikforme [facebook.com/ClintJillianCosplay]

It is so weird, I don’t care for this costume much in the comics, but it looks AMAZING in real life with the right cosplay, model and photographer.

Look how great this looks!

ceebee-eebee:gailsimone:Bisexual Superheroes and Villains→...

ceebee-eebee:

gailsimone:

Bisexual Superheroes and Villains→ Jeannette

Urgh, I miss Jeannette even more than Knockout! LOOK at this fabulous Nicola Scott art!

SO. DO. I. Bring her back, Gail. Give her back to me.

I AM TRYING, I PROMISE.

APE IN A CAPE: LEGENDS OF RED SONJA #1

APE IN A CAPE: LEGENDS OF RED SONJA #1:

machine-dove:

gailsimone:

Guys, this book is important…it’s twelve female writers from comics, games, prose, and tv. It’s a female character who kicks ass. It’s some of the best artists going. And it’s a really wonderful storytelling experiment.

I think a lot of stores are going to under-order, I imagine many of them are…

This is a book with TAMORA FUCKING PIERCE and MERCEDES YES WITH THE TELEPATHIC HORSES OF MY CHILDHOOD DREAMS LACKEY in a book about RED CHAINMAIL-BIKINI-OR-NOT-SHE-WILL-OWN-YOU SONJA.  AND THAT’S JUST THE ICING ON THE CAKE OF SWORD-SLASHING DELIGHT AND WONDER I CANNOT WAIT.

I MUST HAVE THIS SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA.  NONE.  WAAAAAAAAAAAAANT.

Honest to god, wait til you read their stories.

Tamora had decided to never do comics again. She came back for this.

And Mercedes, despite being a comics reader, had never done a comic before.

And they fucking KILLED it.

Devin killed it. Leah killed it. Rhianna killed it.

Amazing stuff, I can’t wait for people to read this!

LEGENDS OF RED SONJA #1

Guys, this book is important…it’s twelve female writers from comics, games, prose, and tv. It’s a female character who kicks ass. It’s some of the best artists going. And it’s a really wonderful storytelling experiment.

I think a lot of stores are going to under-order, I imagine many of them are not familiar with how large Tamora Pierce’s and Mercedes Lackey’s fanbases are, particularly with a fantasy setting.

A LOT of people could not get first printings of our recent Red Sonja ongoing relaunch, and that could easily happen again. 

Ordering deadline for retailers is this Wednesday, the 25th, for issue one. If you would like a copy, PLEASE let your retailer know. I want to have everybody who wants a copy get one!

The first issue has stories by me, the great Devin Grayson, and the wonderful Nancy A. Collins, and great art by Jack Jadson, Noah Solongah, and the immortal Carla Speed McNeil!

If you want the variant Frank Thorne covers, just ask your retailer to subscribe to all five issues for you, that’s all you have to do. If you just want the first issue, you get the gorgeous cover that has been shown on lots of websites.

We’re doing some interviews…this first one is myself and Bram Stoker award winning novelist Nancy Collins. Devin Grayson didn’t get the questions in time, but answered them as soon as she got them, so I have included those below the link for Nancy and my interview at Comicvine.com!

Nancy and my interviews:

http://www.comicvine.com/articles/interview-gail-simone-and-nancy-collins-on-legends/1100-147296/

And here are the answers from the great DEVIN GRAYSON that didn’t make it in!

1) How did you become involved in this project?

I, like everyone else involved, was captivated by Gail Simone’s vision, charisma and email writing skills.
In addition to being willing to do pretty much anything Gail asked and being absolutely gob smacked by the quality and diversity of talent she was assembling, I quickly identified this project as belonging to the new, improved female-centric comics model; that is, projects that have been conceived of and executed by actual female-type  people (I know, right?). After spending a couple of decades avoiding their less authentic precursors, I have been championing and joining these new ventures whenever possible. And this one has everything: a great character, a format that encourages unique story-telling, a truly supportive publishing company backing it and a lineup filled with women I would probably be willing to hurt somebody just for the opportunity to email, let alone collaborate with.   


2) What does Red Sonja mean to you?


She was one of the very first female characters to wield actual weapons—a broadsword, no less!—which makes her kind of a badass in my book.  For those of us into the sword and sorcery side of sci-fi pulp, she was pretty much it for a very long time. And she carried that burden quite well.
 
3) What is her greatest strength in your opinion?


See: broadsword. Also, at least as Gail writes her, she’s very human; flawed, surly, sometimes impatient, but extremely dangerous and effective.
 
4) What faults, if any, might she have during battle?


Well, impatience is not uncommon in battle, but it’s often not optimal, either. Sonja might even be drunk or hungover (not that that’s always problematic when fighting). And she doesn’t quit, which is for sure one of her strengths, but which in my story, for example, also lands her in a lot of hot water. Or, more accurately, extremely cold water.
 
5) At what point in her ‘career’ will you focus on?


My story occurs in the earlier part of her career. She’s still moving around looking for solid ground to stand on, but she already trusts herself in a fight.
 
6) What can you tell us about your particular story?


My story is a nautical horror tale which pitches Sonja against a summoned—but not in the least bit controlled—cthulhu-esque sea monster.  At its heart, the story is about personal agency; what it feels like when you’re not in control of your destiny and what it looks like when you are.
 
7) Were there any guidelines in coming up with the plot of your story or were you able to simply cut loose?


We were really given a remarkable amount of freedom. The tone, content, chronology and even presentation of the story was wide open. Really the only requirement was that the story be told through the point of view of someone other than Sonja herself.


8) What’s your favorite thing about Red Sonja?


What I love about her is that she’s quite clearly dangerous. When she picks up a weapon, you kind of have to take her seriously. You might underestimate her, or overestimate her compassion or restraint, but if you truly think she’s gonna be a pushover, you won’t live long enough to propagate that idea.
 
 

Forever Evil seemed like a good opportunity for a Secret Six series. Was there any discussion of that happening or is there any discussion of it happening any time soon?

Not that I am aware of…I don’t think there is going to be a new Secret Six series any time soon. But if we cross our fingers, maybe more of the group will show up. We have already seen Ragdoll, Deadshot, Killer Shark, and Black Alice.

Why I Haven't Been Around As Much

We’ve had terrible fortunes since coming back from Norway, it’s been one thing wrong after another (not work things, all my books are going really nicely right now and I am happy to be on those teams with those people).

So we were already pretty stressed and fatigued when I got a terrible phone call late Saturday.

My younger brother had been struck by a car while crossing the street. Apparently, the car did not have its lights on, but we don’t have that confirmed, yet.

We still don’t know all the details. His leg is broken in two places, but far worse, his neck is broken, as well. The EMT’s actually found him under the car.

It was not a hit and run, other than that we don’t yet know much about the actual incident.

Our tiny local hospital is not equipped for something like this, so they took him to a hospital that was, about ninety minutes away. My mom and I drove over and have been staying with him since, we have made a nearby hotel our base camp to take naps when he’s resting.

We didn’t know if he had spinal damage. In a very odd way, because I have been speaking with so many people over the years with spinal injuries, I could give him some true stories that I think helped a little. So the first two days have been very rough. They did tell us that if he moved his neck wrong, he could cause irreparable damage, so they are trying to immobilize that.

At first we were told they might not have to operate on his neck, but that turned out not to be the case, and it also appears there might be some additional complications. But the doctors are hopeful and so are we.

It’s been a rough couple of days. My brother is completely my opposite in almost all ways and he is very precious to me. He’s got the best heart of just about anyone I know. 

I know everyone here has been through a catastrophe with, or the loss of, a loved one, or maybe several loved ones. People keep asking what they can do to help, and I just keep thinking, “Just tell the people you love that you care about them and appreciate them.”

My best wishes to everyone, and think good thoughts for my brother, okay?

Mental Floss

I have been told that the Women In Refrigerators website, which I created with some friends back in 1999, long before I had thought of becoming a pro writer, has been named the #3 Most Powerful Website Of All Time by Mental Floss magazine.

I am still trying to figure all this out…I am very glad it’s had an impact, and I think it’s mostly been positive. There’s been tremendous change in the comics medium, and I think we were definitely part of that. I think change was coming anyway, but I think we helped make people question what they were doing in comics.

When people would ask me if it made a difference, for a long time, I said I didn’t think so. But over the years, creators would tell me right out that it had, sometimes without even knowing I was behind the website in the first place. I also remember it was one of the first quite blatantly huge call-outs to the male domination of the industry, which at that point (at least as far as mainstream comics was concerned) was simply overwhelming, on the internet.

I took years of abuse for the site, and still get some from time to time, almost always from people who apparently hadn’t bothered to read it. The site is not a condemnation of all comics, all males, or all males in comics. The words ‘sexism’ and ‘misogyny’ are either very rarely or not at all (it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at it).

It simply asked the questions…Is this a trend? If so, what does it mean?

And because I was not an expert, I asked a lot of people in the industry for their opinions. Some were dismissive, some were very sympathetic to the question, but almost all of them knew exactly what I was asking about.

Why was it that the industry seemed so puzzled that there were so few female readers, when the few long-standing female characters of note were all getting killed, maimed, or depowered?

I still think it’s a fair question. And I think the fact that we tried to say, “Hey, these female characters DO have value,” made a lot of creators, and later, publishers, pause a little bit before continuing the trend thoughtlessly. That’s also something I’ve tried to do in my career, successfully or not, that’s not for me to say.

The other thing is, it spawned several similar discussions about other marginalized people and how they are represented in comics. And I know for a fact it gave some other female commentators a bit of encouragement to speak up on these topics themselves. I know because they’ve told me so many times.

I don’t know what other sites are on the list, I haven’t looked at it yet. I think there’s a bit of a danger in assigning too much importance to it. There were many factors that led to female characters being given more value in comics (the continuing rise of indie and mature comics, the Vertigo line and its mixed gender audience, the increase in British creators who handled gender differently, and above all, the increase in power of the internet as a forum). Some of these had a much bigger effect, I think.

I never felt the idea of Women in Refrigerators was to take anything away from the existing readership. I always felt it was just about opening the doors a little more so more readers felt welcome.

It’s a flawed site, there’re things about it that I would have done differently.  And focusing on just one marginalized group pretty much means ignoring other marginalized groups.

But I think it did make a statement, and the fact that it appeared in national news magazines, on the radio, and in Harper’s Bazaar, of all things, I think it did make people take a look at what was in their reading material, and that did force publishers to consider that women might actually be READING these things.

It has not been a smooth trajectory, there is still a lot of nonsense and bullshit about gender roles in comics. But when I look at the vibrant and active (and growing) community of readers that are all along the gender spectrum, I am pretty happy and I know we were a small part of clearing the way for that to happen.

Thanks, Mental Floss. I haven’t read the article yet, looking forward to it.