Gail Simone's Blog, page 922

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:FRIENDSHIPWhen you’re willing to fight the hordes of hell itself in...

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

FRIENDSHIP

When you’re willing to fight the hordes of hell itself in order to get your BFF laid :D

You know, sometimes I forget some of the material that we got in Secret Six. I’m not positive if any other mainstream superhero book talked this casually about some topics.

When I started at DC, we were not allowed to imply pee or poop in any context, and that drove me nuts to wear I felt I HAD to reference it.

But with Secret Six it was much more a function of the reality of each character. I think the fact that this stuff wasn’t presented as * tee hee giggle naughty giggle * helped us get things through. It wasn’t for leering, it wasn’t about Penthouse poses. It was just what the characters were thinking.


I miss the book tremendously, but I have to give DC props…hey never once asked me to tone down this kind of thing.

I did get a note once, “Can we do without the necrophilia and beastiality in this issue?”

Seems fair.

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:FRIENDSHIPWhen you’re willing to fight the hordes of hell itself in...

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

FRIENDSHIP

When you’re willing to fight the hordes of hell itself in order to get your BFF laid :D

You know, sometimes I forget some of the material that we got in Secret Six. I’m not positive if any other mainstream superhero book talked this casually about some topics.

When I started at DC, we were not allowed to imply pee or poop in any context, and that drove me nuts to wear I felt I HAD to reference it.

But with Secret Six it was much more a function of the reality of each character. I think the fact that this stuff wasn’t presented as >tee hee giggle naughty giggle

Quick question: Is Batgirl #0 a separate issue from the rest of the series, altogether? Like a one-shot kind of thing?

It is a stand-alone issue, for the most part, because it is its own complete story. But it will be very helpful to have it as the ongoing book continues!

You've said in the past that you are under no circumstances allowed to read fanfiction. Why exactly is that? I mean, I assume you are allowed to read published content from rival companies and independent groups. Just wondering what the reason behind th

For legal reasons. Publishers don’t want writers who work for them to read fanfic of licensed characters due to frivolous lawsuits.

I have an award-winning author friend whose career was highly derailed by a lawsuit from someone saying she ripped off their story YEARS BEFORE THEIR STORY WAS EVEN PUBLISHED.

It doesn’t have to be true, the claim can be transparently false and still cause problems. On top of that, and I want to say this delicately, but there are some people out there who have a tenuous grasp on reality for whatever reason. I’m not saying they are bad people or anything, but I have letters from people (we all do) who genuinely think we are spying on them and trying to ruin their lives. One guy is convinced that lots and lots of DC and Marvel writers are all part of a big conspiracy to humiliate him in particular…none of us have ever met him, or know a thing about him, but nothing anyone says will convince him of that.

I want to stress these are separate issues…most fanficcers are lovely people just participating in their own kind of fandom. It’s art, it’s writing, I’m not denying any of that. But there are a lot of people out there who are convinced of the idea that pro writers want their ideas (we don’t, we have our own, that’s why we became writers). And if you have some people out there who lack perspective, it’s a dangerous combination.  But I stress again that this is VERY VERY RARE.

It’s not the fanfic community at large in ANY way. And it sucks that this tiny, tiny percentage forces everyone to be a thousand times more cautious.

So it’s better for everyone simply not to expose yourself to it in any way. I would strongly recommend people who are going pro cease reading fanfic not just to protect themselves, but also as a courtesy to the remaining fanficcers, who deserve the peace of mind of knowing you’re not out there taking their ideas.

It’s oil and water, sadly, it just doesn’t mix well.

You've said in the past that you are under no circumstances allowed to read fanfiction. Why exactly is that? I mean, I assume you are allowed to read published content from rival companies and independent groups. Just wondering what the reason behind th

For legal reasons. Publishers don’t want writers who work for them to read fanfic of licensed characters due to frivolous lawsuits.

I have an award-winning author friend whose career was highly derailed by a lawsuit from someone saying she ripped off their story YEARS BEFORE THEIR STORY WAS EVEN PUBLISHED.

It doesn’t have to be true, the claim can be transparently false and still cause problems. On top of that, and I want to say this delicately, but there are some people out there who have a tenuous grasp on reality for whatever reason. I’m not saying they are bad people or anything, but I have letters from people (we all do) who genuinely think we are spying on them and trying to ruin their lives. One guy is convinced that lots and lots of DC and Marvel writers are all part of a big conspiracy to humiliate him in particular…none of us have ever met him, or know a thing about him, but nothing anyone says will convince him of that.

I want to stress these are separate issues…most fanficcers are lovely people just participating in their own kind of fandom. It’s art, it’s writing, I’m not denying any of that. But there are a lot of people out there who are convinced of the idea that pro writers want their ideas (we don’t, we have our own, that’s why we became writers). And if you have some people out there who lack perspective, it’s a dangerous combination.  But I stress again that this is VERY VERY RARE.

It’s not the fanfic community at large in ANY way. And it sucks that this tiny, tiny percentage forces everyone to be a thousand times more cautious.

So it’s better for everyone simply not to expose yourself to it in any way. I would strongly recommend people who are going pro cease reading fanfic not just to protect themselves, but also as a courtesy to the remaining fanficcers, who deserve the peace of mind of knowing you’re not out there taking their ideas.

It’s oil and water, sadly, it just doesn’t mix well.

You've said in the past that you are under no circumstances allowed to read fanfiction. Why exactly is that? I mean, I assume you are allowed to read published content from rival companies and independent groups. Just wondering what the reason behind th

For legal reasons. Publishers don’t want writers who work for them to read fanfic of licensed characters due to frivolous lawsuits.

I have an award-winning author friend whose career was highly derailed by a lawsuit from someone saying she ripped off their story YEARS BEFORE THEIR STORY WAS EVEN PUBLISHED.

It doesn’t have to be true, the claim can be transparently false and still cause problems. On top of that, and I want to say this delicately, but there are some people out there who have a tenuous grasp on reality for whatever reason. I’m not saying they are bad people or anything, but I have letters from people (we all do) who genuinely think we are spying on them and trying to ruin their lives. One guy is convinced that lots and lots of DC and Marvel writers are all part of a big conspiracy to humiliate him in particular…none of us have ever met him, or know a thing about him, but nothing anyone says will convince him of that.

I want to stress these are separate issues…most fanficcers are lovely people just participating in their own kind of fandom. It’s art, it’s writing, I’m not denying any of that. But there are a lot of people out there who are convinced of the idea that pro writers want their ideas (we don’t, we have our own, that’s why we became writers). And if you have some people out there who lack perspective, it’s a dangerous combination.  But I stress again that this is VERY VERY RARE.

It’s not the fanfic community at large in ANY way. And it sucks that this tiny, tiny percentage forces everyone to be a thousand times more cautious.

So it’s better for everyone simply not to expose yourself to it in any way. I would strongly recommend people who are going pro cease reading fanfic not just to protect themselves, but also as a courtesy to the remaining fanficcers, who deserve the peace of mind of knowing you’re not out there taking their ideas.

It’s oil and water, sadly, it just doesn’t mix well.

You've said in the past that you are under no circumstances allowed to read fanfiction. Why exactly is that? I mean, I assume you are allowed to read published content from rival companies and independent groups. Just wondering what the reason behind th

For legal reasons. Publishers don’t want writers who work for them to read fanfic of licensed characters due to frivolous lawsuits.

I have an award-winning author friend whose career was highly derailed by a lawsuit from someone saying she ripped off their story YEARS BEFORE THEIR STORY WAS EVEN PUBLISHED.

It doesn’t have to be true, the claim can be transparently false and still cause problems. On top of that, and I want to say this delicately, but there are some people out there who have a tenuous grasp on reality for whatever reason. I’m not saying they are bad people or anything, but I have letters from people (we all do) who genuinely think we are spying on them and trying to ruin their lives. One guy is convinced that lots and lots of DC and Marvel writers are all part of a big conspiracy to humiliate him in particular…none of us have ever met him, or know a thing about him, but nothing anyone says will convince him of that.

I want to stress these are separate issues…most fanficcers are lovely people just participating in their own kind of fandom. It’s art, it’s writing, I’m not denying any of that. But there are a lot of people out there who are convinced of the idea that pro writers want their ideas (we don’t, we have our own, that’s why we became writers). And if you have some people out there who lack perspective, it’s a dangerous combination.  But I stress again that this is VERY VERY RARE.

It’s not the fanfic community at large in ANY way. And it sucks that this tiny, tiny percentage forces everyone to be a thousand times more cautious.

So it’s better for everyone simply not to expose yourself to it in any way. I would strongly recommend people who are going pro cease reading fanfic not just to protect themselves, but also as a courtesy to the remaining fanficcers, who deserve the peace of mind of knowing you’re not out there taking their ideas.

It’s oil and water, sadly, it just doesn’t mix well.

Are you done writing Batgirl?

Absolutely not!

I hope to be on this book for a long time!

if you were told you could bring back one and ONLY one character from each series you have worked on in the past, (for DC) which ones would you bring back?

Hmmm.

Well, let’s see.

QUEEN OF FABLES from ACTION

MISFIT from BIRDS OF PREY

RYAN CHOI from ATOM

SCANDAL SAVAGE from SECRET SIX

ALKYONE from WONDER WOMAN

I think those are my choices. That’s a tough one!

Hi Gail, random question. There have been many MANY bizarre comicbook crossovers over the years like Spider-Man and SNL, He-Man and the DCU and even Jimmy Olsen and Don Rickles (Kirby was a genius, but holy crap was he weird, in an awesome way) but I was w

I actually think it’d be huge fun to have Barbara Gordon show up in Riverdale. Seriously.

Over at Marvel, hmmm. I love the Black Widow now, I would think she would be up there.  Batgirl and Spider-man, especially Miles, would be a blast.

This is fun.