Gail Simone's Blog, page 828

Do You Have An E-reader?

If so, do you use it much? What kind do you have? Do you ever use it to read comics? Have you ever upgraded to a different model?

Does the rule against reading fanfiction work retroactively? Like, if someone wrote/read fanfiction before writing for a living, are they not allowed to write comics?

Absolutely not. Excellent question. 

Several people I know are pros now who used to do fanfic. I doubt if their publishers know, in most cases. 

i think there are probably real benefits to writing fanfic if your goal is to go pro someday. The practice, the draft, the critiques you might get, that could all be very helpful.

you just have to put it away when you are ready to start submitting. 

This would be a BIG change for me, but I think I'd be willing to do it. I would consider asking you to sign my arm, and then get your signature tattooed on my arm.

I would not feel comfortable with that, to be honest, but I WOULD sign Dan Slott’s name!

Please forgive my naivety, but do you charge for your autograph at cons? Do other folks? I'm going to my first this year and I want to be prepared. Thank you!

I never charge for my signature or for photos, and am happy to sign any amount of comics that you bring.

A few comics people do charge…like Neal Adams, or they set a limit on books, so it’s good to ask.

Urgh.

Hurt someone’s feelings unintentionally today.

Hate that. Sorry liquidiousfleshbag.

:(

Sent my email by dm if you want to talk.

EDITED TO ADD: Please don’t leave disparaging comments about the poster. This was obviously very upsetting for them and I do not want to make it worse. Thank you.

Mrs. Simone, I heard some very malicious rumors in the internet that King Shark is not, indeed, a shark, but rather a very large barracuda. Can you please confirm/deny?

Yes.

dearestdominoeddaredoll:from birds of prey 108Spy Smasher...

dearestdominoeddaredoll:

from birds of prey 108

Spy Smasher might be my favorite antagonist I have ever created. It’s a tough one.

Alkyone, Savant, Dwarfstar, Knightfall, I like all of them.

But I love Spy Smasher’s arrogance.

I moved my toes, Dinah. I moved my toes.This was inspired...

I moved my toes, Dinah.  I moved my toes.

This was inspired by Christopher Reeve.

I know many pwd have a problem with some of how Reeve talked about his paralysis, as something that could be ‘beaten,’ and that’s all perfectly valid. For many, that is never an option. And he had access to treatment most people would never be able to afford.

But I found some of his story very inspirational. After years of therapy, Reeve became able to move his wrist and a little bit of one hand, and he regained sensation in his legs. Now, this can’t happen to everyone in his situation. But he did work at it every agonizing day, and eventually, he could feel his family touching his legs, he could feel water in the therapy pool, and he could move his hand at least a bit. That sounds like not much, maybe.

But it must have felt like moving mountains to him.

I had been talking quite a bit with people at Reeve’s institute, which was doing research and rehab of this kind. And I felt we should reflect that a little bit in the book. We got tons of mail about it from pwd, almost all positive, I think they knew the story was intended to be hopeful, not castigating or condescending.

Again, it reminds me what an Oracle-shaped whole we have in comics right now. :(

No woman, no fry, dipstick!This story happened because the...

No woman, no fry, dipstick!

This story happened because the wonderful Bruce Timm had written me several notes saying how much he enjoyed Birds of Prey under my pen.

Now, if you have heard of Bruce, you know that he is not prone to empty praise. He is very, very critical of his own work and willing to point things out to other artists and writers if he feels they messed up. He is the guy who told Alex Ross to ‘throw away his photo reference camera,’ for example.

But he said really lovely things about Bop, and I was such a huge fan. We worked together a bit on some animated stuff and just out of nowhere I asked him if he would draw a short story in bop, never thinking he’d say yes.

He said yes.

So I wrote him a fun, silly animated-style Canary story and he KILLED it.

Three fun things about this that may not interest many people but I found fascinating.

1) Most artists draw on pages much larger than a comic, and the art is then reduced. Not Timm, who draws the pages almost exactly the size you read them. This is so odd I don’t know of another mainstream pro who does it.

2) He puts his script questions in blue pencil right in the margins.

3) Bruce Timm does not get popular culture. Almost all his questions were, “What does this mean?”  I thought that was awesome. For example, he didn’t get the Marley reference on this page at all.

Amazingly, Bruce gifted me with a page of original art from this story. It is a cherished possession, believe me!

youngjustus:Whenever Dinah says “Honey” or “Sweetie” my heart...

youngjustus:

Whenever Dinah says “Honey” or “Sweetie” my heart melts out my butt

That is some particular imagery!

I was very nervous writing Bop. Deadpool, I felt at home, in a way. Marvel had not been happy with the recent DP runs and gave me a LOT of room, and it was a funny comic, which had been my thing up to that point.

With Bop, it suddenly hit me that it was the ONLY mainstream comic of its kind, that featured at its core a female friendship, a buddy book about girls. That hit me very hard…if I, the book’s only female writer, messed it up, it would affect not just me, not just the book—but it could be used as an excuse from editors and publishers not to even attempt such a thing.

What I found fascinating about the book was the relationship between these two. So I wanted them to talk like friends. To tease each other, to pick on each other, and to support each other. I wanted them to hug and bicker…but mostly, I wanted them to do that thing that good friends do which we don’t always see in fiction with females. 

I wanted them to fit together. I wanted to see Barbara’s strengths cover Dinah’s weaknesses and vice versa. When two people are real, genuine partners, they do this without even realizing it’s happening.

That bond felt very real to me.

But it was my first script at DC, for a book I felt was really important, and there was a LOT of buzz about it, expectations were high. And the story I wanted to tell was subtle, it didn’t have Batman in it, it had new villains…lotta stuff that is now considered risky. So I was nervous when I sent it in. Even worse, the two previous Bop runs, by MASSIVELY talented creators, both idols of mine (Terry Moore and Gilbert Hernandez) had not caught on with fans or retailers. So this was it. We were the last ditch effort to keep the book from being canceled, and I had only had a few previous scripts under my belt. It all fell on my shoulders.

Again, not just bop, but even the POTENTIAL for books like bop, was riding on this script (or so I felt).

I waited to hear back from my editor, a great lady I really loved. Waited, bit my nails, worried.

I missed her work hours, she went home. So I thought I was going to have to wait until morning.

Way after hours, I get an email from her.

“Gail, you can’t see this, but I am dancing around my living room.”

She loved it, and we were off. She finished her letter with just GAIL. I LOVED IT. SMOOOCHES!

I want to stress again here, what a godsend a great editor is. They are your cheerleader, your sounding board, they are the friend that tells you when you have lipstick on your teeth, they can be idea generators, and so much more. They are the doctors who deliver the baby you conceived.

When you have a great editor, you cherish them like raspberries in a smoothie. And when the book is going GREAT, most readers still never learn their names.

Lysa Hawkins, you were awesome and I probably wouldn’t even be in comics without you. THANK YOU SO MUCH!