Gail Simone's Blog, page 879

So I just read your BOP run for the first time the other day. It was as addictive as it was heartwarming. I noticed that the character voice for Oracle is SUPER DIFFERENT than your current characterization in Batgirl. Are they two separate people in your m

Great way to ask this question. To me, it’s a timeline. Barbara is Barbara.

But it’s a timeline. Barbara in Batgirl: Year One had a VERY different voice from Oracle. Because of her age, maturity, and experience.

To me, we are looking at Batgirl as she is in the VERY first months of her career as a very young woman. She’s also full of a little bit too much enthusiasm, she hasn’t yet experienced everything that’s coming.

To me, I read her as being closer to the Year One stage. The Barbara Gordon that becomes Oracle, that’s still inside her.

I’ve talked about this a lot, but when you look at some of the great adventurers of literature, they have a timeline, it’s not just endless status quo.

You can read, for example, the regular adventures of Tarzan, or THE JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN from when he was just a kid. You can read early Conan stories, or KING CONAN from when he’s old and the ruler of everything.

It’s stages…the same thing takes place for me with Batman and Superman. In Batman: Year One, he’s a complete newbie, nothing works right and he almost ruins everything. In Dark Knight, he’s an old, bitter man. Right now in Superman and Action, we see two different segments of his timeline.

For Batgirl, it’s the same way. This is the early part of her career, she’s only been back for a number of weeks, really. She’s going to make mistakes, she’s going to be over or under-confident, she’s just starting.

The Barbara that is Oracle, she grows into that. But it is IN there.

That really is part of the joy of an iconic character, is charting that growth, measuring the achievements and drawbacks, the wins and losses.

This is inexperienced, just-starting-out Barbara. Barbara who rules the world, that comes later, it’s her destiny.

That’s how I see it, anyway. Barbara is always destined for greatness, the thing we’re doing now is watching her struggle to get there.

So I just read your BOP run for the first time the other day. It was as addictive as it was heartwarming. I noticed that the character voice for Oracle is SUPER DIFFERENT than your current characterization in Batgirl. Are they two separate people in your m

Great way to ask this question. To me, it’s a timeline. Barbara is Barbara.

But it’s a timeline. Barbara in Batgirl: Year One had a VERY different voice from Oracle. Because of her age, maturity, and experience.

To me, we are looking at Batgirl as she is in the VERY first months of her career as a very young woman. She’s also full of a little bit too much enthusiasm, she hasn’t yet experienced everything that’s coming.

To me, I read her as being closer to the Year One stage. The Barbara Gordon that becomes Oracle, that’s still inside her.

I’ve talked about this a lot, but when you look at some of the great adventurers of literature, they have a timeline, it’s not just endless status quo.

You can read, for example, the regular adventures of Tarzan, or THE JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN from when he was just a kid. You can read early Conan stories, or KING CONAN from when he’s old and the ruler of everything.

It’s stages…the same thing takes place for me with Batman and Superman. In Batman: Year One, he’s a complete newbie, nothing works right and he almost ruins everything. In Dark Knight, he’s an old, bitter man. Right now in Superman and Action, we see two different segments of his timeline.

For Batgirl, it’s the same way. This is the early part of her career, she’s only been back for a number of weeks, really. She’s going to make mistakes, she’s going to be over or under-confident, she’s just starting.

The Barbara that is Oracle, she grows into that. But it is IN there.

That really is part of the joy of an iconic character, is charting that growth, measuring the achievements and drawbacks, the wins and losses.

This is inexperienced, just-starting-out Barbara. Barbara who rules the world, that comes later, it’s her destiny.

That’s how I see it, anyway. Barbara is always destined for greatness, the thing we’re doing now is watching her struggle to get there.

I just wanted to say, I really liked the Batgirl annual, and I'm very happy to see a cool woman of color joining the Birds of Prey! You did a very nice job setting her up for Duanne!

Thank you!  I have been talking with Duane, he’s excited to have her. I think she’s going to be unique in the new52, some very surprising stuff coming!

If you could choose between bringing back either A) Your Secret Six or B) Your BoP, which would you choose? (Sophie's Choice, I know)

Birds of Prey.

As much as I love the Six, I think having at least a single book that revolves around female friendships and love is important to the industry and to the readership.

Plus, I miss writing Zinda.

It’s a tough one, but I would choose Bop, I think.

comicpanels:From Batgirl Annual #1 by Simone/Wijaya.(I think...

comicpanels:

From Batgirl Annual #1 by Simone/Wijaya.

(I think it’d be awesome of the companies installing them were secretly Wayne subsidiaries, and they were intentionally useless… and hiring them put you on a list of places for Batman to check out)

Um.

Damn.

Kinda wish I’d thought of that.

Beautiful panel, though. WOW!

pepethekingpelipper:wardellb:Dwayne McDuffie (Writer)love...

pepethekingpelipper:

wardellb:

Dwayne McDuffie (Writer)

love him so much

Best writer, best GUY.

Miss him every day.  The amount of kindness and support he gave me, way before I even considered becoming a writer, was just endless.

The best. The BEST.

What did you do for Halloween?

I was in airports and on planes, sadly, so I missed most of it.

I hate to be away from home on Halloween. We have a tradition of giving away comics, I save up the age-appropriate stuff all year, to trick-or-treaters, and some of them have been coming every year for ten years. So it’s always sad to miss it.

Also, for some reason, one of my dogs, our Shetland Sheepdog, he LOVES Halloween. He wants to greet every kid at the door with a big friendly hello and tail wagging. I swear, it’s like he knows the ritual pat every year.

Will you EVER work on birds of prey again? That series (and team) set the groundwork for modern feminism in DC comics!

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s very likely. Sad to say but being taken off the book I made a hit twice made returning unlikely for me. That just was handled so poorly that returning feels like it would be a mistake. The Birds I loved and helped build don’t really exist anymore. Sorry to sound morose but that was painful to witness.

The silver lining is that the new book, while different, has an excellent caretaker in Duane, and has become its own thing, its own vibe, and still has lots of kickass females.  If some crappy writer had taken over the book, it would have absolutely killed me. So Duane taking over is a huge thing.

I miss it a lot. I miss a lot of the pre-new52 stuff, but I was very heavily invested in BOP and what place it held in the comics industry, so it’s a bit sad. But I do love what we did (all the people working on the book back then) and am proud that we proved so MANY naysayers wrong, not just as a fluke, but consistently for years.

And thank you for the kind thought!

Here's a bit of a random question. Have you ever read DC's 1993 series of annuals/ the Bloodlines event?

I did, at the time…I liked the idea better than the execution, which unfortunately fell victim to too much formula. But I really liked some of it, the Mark Waid stuff was great.

I know this is corny but it's also true----> YOU, Ms. Simone, are a real life super heroine.

You are a doll, and thank you, but I am more of a real-life annoyance, ask anyone.  :)

But thank you! Don’t know what I did but your kind thought is appreciated when I can’t sleep in Belfast tonight.