Gail Simone's Blog, page 946
August 17, 2012
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Gail Simone has worked on...
Gail Simone has worked on everything from Wonder Women to comics for The Simpsons and Justice League, but her favorite project ever was the critically acclaimed, fan beloved Secret Six series with artist Jim Calafiore. Ever since then, the creative duo have been seeking out an opportunity to work together again — enter the über-dark, horror graphic novel Leaving Megalopolis. The story follows a band of citizen survivors as they roam the streets of their city, attempting to flee a crew of superheroes-turned-homicidal maniacs. It’ll make you laugh, cry, cringe, and squeal — we’ll make it our Project of the Day.
Congrats to Gail and Jim for making Project of the Day! They’re fully funded already, but if I were you, I wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun perks you can get along with a book I know you’re all going to read anyway! Go on then…
Hooray!
Thank you so much, everyone!
Gail, I've developed a deep interest in Jeanette here recently. Can you point me to GOOD sources for her backstory, preferably CBR files I can look at so I can learn all about her?
I hate to say this but I honestly don’t know what CBR files are, is that from Comic Book Resources?
The only truly reliable info is in the comic or from my own fingers, but I am sure there is good stuff out there.
Basically, Jeannette is a banshee. She can smell death or NEAR death before it happens. She has a cry that unleashes the agony of her execution (by axe) on anyone who hears it. Because it’s a psychic assault, it is effective even against the most powerful meta-humans, and once took down even Wonder Woman.
She has enhanced strength, she can easily lift a car, but is unlikely to show such prowess as she finds it a bit show-offy. She heals quickly and is highly resistant to physical pain.
She seems to be caught somewhere between life and death. Her body temperature is low, but not the room temperature of a cadaver.
What makes her history unique is that she has lived many lives. She is always killed the same way, decapitated when betrayed by a lover. After that occurs, she is reborn as a baby, and she forgets her previous lives for many, many years. She has been shown in canon to have lived in Ireland during the Iron Age, and in Hungary, where she eventually became a handmaiden of the notorious Countess Erzsebet Bathory. After witnessing (and being forced to participate in) Bathory’s murderous whims, Jeannette took over her care in house arrest, and slowly murdered the countess with ground glass in her food. It has been discussed in the book, but not shown, that Jeannette also survived the Russian gulags, at the same Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was incarcerated.
During that time, she was imprisoned with Scandal Savage, and the two were briefly lovers.
It was also shown that she had been imprisoned at Kilmainham Gaol, during the Rising, and had suffered horrible abuse at that time.
The pattern of her life is always the same.
She is born, she matures, she falls in love, and on the night she marries, she remembers her past lives, including her deaths. No matter what she does to try to break the cycle, she is inevitably betrayed by her lover, and eventually, is decapitated. Because she remembers the terror of each death, even the suggestion of decapitation can cause her to faint or weep.
She carries a scar around her neck, which she hides with a choker. She carried definite physical connections to Superman foe THE SILVER BANSHEE but that connection has not been explored in canon.
Hope that helps!
Trying this on for size.
We’ll see how this goes. Another place to share my often-random thoughts and to occasionally vent my spleen.
And now, back to trying to figure this thing out….
I absolutely love you on Moon Knight!
;)
Welcome, Greg!
APE IN A CAPE: A Reason Why I Miss Secret Six
I know this book gets brought up a lot, and to be honest, while I miss the characters terribly, I am happy that we got to end the book on a solid note, the way I had always hoped we would. IGN called our last issue the best single issue of any ongoing that year, so we were really pretty fortunate.
a) Now everyone knows about my favorite moment from GeekGirlCon (and trust me, there were nothing but great moments).
b) While I’m sad there isn’t another comic that fills the void of Secret Six yet, I am really excited for Leaving Megalopolis (check out the kickstarter, it sounds amazing).
c) I WAS really nervous because I’d never been that close to someone I respect and admire so much. You would think after getting a freaking theater degree I would be able to act cool and collected while nervous but it was really a struggle for me to make coherent words. Which was silly because Gail Simone and her husband are, like, two of the nicest people ever. (Much like every person I met at GeekGirlCon. It really was a nice, welcoming space and I’m glad I got to go.)
Oh, sweetie, please don’t be nervous, it was a JOY to meet you! I didn’t want to use your name in case you were not completely out on any of those things with your followers, hope it’s okay that I told the story (I know I was paraphrasing, a lot was happening at once!).
Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I MISS GEEK GIRL CON ALREADY.
I'm turning my Buff McFlartenham erotica fanfic into a full-length novel. There's a scene with him sexily dunking a teabag while petting his cat for 10 pages that I think you'll really like! Do I have to change his name? "50 shades of Buff" is such a good
To me, this joke will never be old. BUFF McFLARTENHAM LIVES!
I want to fanfic the fanfic!
I'm turning my Buff McFlartenham erotica fanfic into a full-length novel. There's a scene with him sexily dunking a teabag while petting his cat for 10 pages that I think you'll really like! Do I have to change his name? "50 shades of Buff" is such a good
To me, this joke will never be old. BUFF McFLARTENHAM LIVES!
I want to fanfic the fanfic!
Hi Gail. Do you feel that there has been a backlash against Barbara Gordon as Batgirl from fans of Stephanie & Cass? I keep reading all these supportive posts about Steph & Cass, but I am finding that a lot of Steph fans are falling into the trap of takin
Okay, sure, there’s been some backlash from Steph and Cass fans, for a lot of different reasons.
But, well, I don’t blame them at all. I haven’t sat and argued with them, because at the base of it, what most of them are saying is they want Cass and Steph back. I not only agree with that, I tried really hard to make that happen.
Everyone has a Batgirl they love, if they love Batgirl at all. Or they like more than one. I am in no position to tell people what version to love. The truth is, the reason I turned down Misfit-as-Batgirl AND Steph-as-Batgirl when they were assigned to me is that I had become a massive Cass fan. Even loving Steph as much as I came to love her under BQM’s pen never totally took that sting away.
Honest to god, the early Cass Batgirl stuff and BQM’s Steph run were some of the best comics DC has published with female leads EVER. I don’t expect people to stop loving those characters because a new girl is in the suit. It’s understandable to be a little resentful. I don’t want to argue those readers out of it, it wouldn’t work and it’s obnoxious to try.
Every time a character takes a mantle, some readers, maybe a LOT of readers, will complain about the character who is now out in the cold. I can’t complain about people complaining, I have felt the exact same way myself. I feel that was NOW about some books.
But also, ‘backlash’ is kind of a tricky word, it makes it sound like a tidal wave or a conspiracy. It’s just opinion and opinion is always fine.
There are some hard facts that sometimes, people don’t want to face. The new Batgirl sells twice what the old one did, it gets tons of rave reviews, the hardback tpb collection made number four on the New York Times bestseller list, the highest position of any New52 book that month, it got a great review in the New York Times, Starburst, and lots of other well known non-comics media, it’s a very high volume digital seller, I am told. You know, it’s a success by any standard that is meaningful, EXCEPT that some people might not care for it, whether because of Cass, or Steph, or the loss of Oracle…all those things are valid. I have no problem with anyone who won’t try it for those reasons. OR if it’s simply not to their taste.
But sometimes I see on Tumblr, in particular, people saying it’s unsuccessful or horribly reviewed, and that does seem a little bit of a stretch.
The main thing is, I get that Batgirl, like a lot of choices in the new52, are things that some readers really passionately object to, and I understand and sympathize. I wish those characters were back, too.
I don’t think it’s a ‘backlash,’ really. It’s just opinion, opinion is always fair game. I feel bad for readers who miss their pre-new52 favorites. I am an optimist, I hope they come back in some recognizable form.
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