Gail Simone's Blog, page 885
October 27, 2012
thehappysorceress:
Batgirl’s First Time (in the costume) by...
October 25, 2012
Hey Gail, I was just re-reading Birds of Prey and I LOVE Lady Blackhawk but what made you decide to use Zinda, since you dont really see her in other comics?
The Blackhawks were my father-in-law’s favorite comics characters, he loved them and he meant a lot to myself and my husband, so that made them emotional favorites of mine. I loved the idea of them, and the original stories are well-written (though sadly full of painfully racist imagery). And they LOOKED amazing.
There have been some attempts to bring the Blackhawks back, some good, some less so. One of the more recent appearances had Zinda Blake appearing in Beau Smith’s WARRIOR comic. I loved her in that book, and the tie to the classic Blackhawks made it all the more fun. I love timelost characters, in any case.
So, when they decided to blow up the clocktower, and we got the Aerie One, I started thinking of a pilot, which meant either Hal Jordon (unlikely) or a Blackhawk, since we wanted to use a DC character. I picked Zinda, but I wanted to amp up her personality a little bit. So we gave her a 40’s Oklahoma patois and a ‘keep ‘em flying!’ attitude. I also wanted her to be more of a hard-drinking, hard partying gal.
The readers took to her immediately. She was originally going to JUST be the pilot, but people loved her so much that she ended up being almost a full team member. One of the things I miss most about the book was writing Zinda’s simpler, but honest, view of the world. It’s not nostalgia, really…just a different way of seeing things.
The amazing thing is, after Zinda got in the group, Bop co-creator Chuck Dixon wrote and told me that he had tried to get Zinda in the group for ages, but had been denied. Total coincidence, that we had the same exact idea for a relatively obscure character.
The fact that you are on tumblr is awesome, because it's so easy to ask you questions and get creator's insight; if only more DC creators would do that. How does someone get in contact with some of the other creators, though?
There are quite a few on Twitter, I think; Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, Kyle D Higgins, Scott Snyder, Marcus To, Scott Lobdell, lots more.
I haven’t seen as many on Tumblr as of yet. Good luck!
Gail, could you let your followers know that Villains United and Secret Six are on sale this week at Comixology? 99 cents an issue! (along with a bunch of other villain based books.) Good way to get it all in one go!
Thank you for reminding me…I mention it here only because I get asked so much about how to get these issues, and the out of print collections are RIDICULOUSLY expensive!
So, I stocked up on these at the DC app myself, can’t beat the price. Thanks for the reminder!
ceebee-eebee:
MINE MINE MINE! My latest commission, this time...
MINE MINE MINE! My latest commission, this time from the talented Aaron Lopresti. The lovely and magnificent DCWKA picked it up for me at NYCC because she is AWESOME and I love her. \o/
Damn. That is one beautiful Dinah!
strangerwmf:
Today I thought, “I wonder why I don’t see this on...
Today I thought, “I wonder why I don’t see this on tumblr more.” And then I thought I’d be the change I’d like to see in the world.
Context: Dinah is captured by a gang, and told that she should be making their dinner “naked.” She responds.
I waited a long time to make those sentences credible. I love Dinah, I wanted it so that when she said this, everyone fucking believed it.
“Tonight, I am the BLACK CANARY. And I take shit from precisely NO ONE.”
mastercarrothead:
According to National geographic, redheads...
Dick is not happy about it
According to National geographic, redheads might become extinct by the year 2060. Dick Grayson is not happy about it - source
WOW sad face. *propagates*
Hahahahaha!
Wait.
APE IN A CAPE: Dear To My Heart
THE GARLICKS fundraiser signal boost, with pictures!
Lea Hernandez’s fundraiser for her project THE GARLICKS really needs your help.
Her characters are adorable. The art is superb. The story looks exciting. And OH MY GOSH the incentives are awesome (I’m going for the $75 drawing kit myself :)
And c’mon. A shape-shifting vampire baby named HAM! You just gotta!
Please support this independent artist!
The Indiegogo link: http://www.indiegogo.com/divaleathegarlicks
The web site: http://thegarlicks.net/
gailsimone:
I want to take a moment to talk about a project that means a lot to me.
You guys have been so amazing about supporting the few crowd-funded projects that, for one reason or another, really felt important to me. You guys helped make my friend, mouth artist Larime’s book a huge success in its last…
Also, please reblog. Thank you :)
Yay!
Great illustrations by Lea, thanks for grabbing those!
Dear To My Heart
I want to take a moment to talk about a project that means a lot to me.
You guys have been so amazing about supporting the few crowd-funded projects that, for one reason or another, really felt important to me. You guys helped make my friend, mouth artist Larime’s book a huge success in its last few hours, you helped push Jamal Igle’s MOLLY DANGER book over its minimum in the last day of pledges, and you have supported my own book, LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS to a ridiculous level of success.
I try not to do this full-on endorsement thing often, I don’t want to flood people’s dashboards with this stuff. But there’s a project that is very meaningful to me that I hope people will take a look at in its last day and a half of pledging. And it’s got a ways to go, so I hope many of you will.
It’s Lea Hernandez’ vampire family ogn, THE GARLICKS.
Quick background, without Lea Hernandez, I might not even be in comics right now. She was the first pro to ask me to write something for her to draw.
I loved her work, her fabulous steampunk graphic novels, which are beautifully illustrated and written. We met in a chat room, and hit it off right away…eventually, she asked me to write something for her to draw.
This was astonishing to me…I didn’t even dream something like that could ever happen to a hairdresser in the boonies in Oregon.
What we came up with was the brutal, but funny, KILLER PRINCESSES, a book about the entitlement of the privileged, and how dangerous anti-intellectualism could get. It’s filthy and funny and I love it to this day. And Lea drew the HELL out of it. It was my first professional comics project and still one of my favorites.
I adore Lea’s art style, she was ages ahead of the manga boom, and never a slave to it in the first place—she found a way to make her own style, infused with an unfailingly perfect design sense. She does ‘charming’ like few artists can even approach, let alone master.
Her current project, THE GARLICKS, is the story of a family of vampires, where the older sister has none of the vampire powers, even though her baby sister is blessed with the whole gamut. Every piece of art I’ve seen is so adorable you just want to take it home and cuddle it, and Lea is a master at tugging on the heart strings.
It looks like it’s going to be a masterpiece…here’s a link to check out a bit about the book and the story:
I really want this book to happen. We all know how difficult it can be to think of a decent ogn that is appropriate for people who don’t follow comics. Well, THIS IS THAT BOOK, the kind of thing anyone can share and enjoy.
Lea is asking a very reasonable 19k as her minimum to print. She has less than two days to go and is not yet halfway there. She can make this, with enough help!
She also has some of the coolest reward bootie you will ever see. I have bought several pieces of Lea’s art, and I’m not kidding, I treasure them.
Lea is also the single mother of two wonderful, special needs children. The dedication it takes to make comics in her situation is remarkable, and she’s determined to do this without compromising on the quality of her vision.
This is a special book. I have reread every Lea Hernandez book I own many, many times and this would be her first major work in years. It needs to happen.
Kurt Busiek is so convinced that this book needs to happen that he is willing to literally eat a bug, and no, I’m not kidding.
So, please, go take a look. You will be glad you did, just for the art alone, but if you can, the ebook starts at just ten bucks. Ten bucks, and you help make this beautiful book a reality.
Even if you can’t pledge, I’m asking everyone, please spread the word. If you want charming comics, beautifully written and drawn comics, fun comics, comics created by strong women creators, comics with great female protagonists, or just plain great comics, you will love this book forever, honest.
Help if you can, spread the word if you can’t, okay? You will be making comics better!
Less than two days left!
Gail Simone's Blog
- Gail Simone's profile
- 1223 followers
