planb-becomeapirate:gailsimone:One of the things I was very...

planb-becomeapirate:

gailsimone:

One of the things I was very proud of in my first run of BOP is that we had no serious romantic subplots through the entire five year run. I felt it was important to show that a book with female leads didn't HAVE to be about romance or the girls talking about boys. There's nothing wrong with that, but how many media portrayals of straight female leads actually manage to NOT have that element constantly?  It's a way of saying that women have no value absent from their relationship and value to men.  Male action heroes can go without a romantic subplot and no one blinks twice. But there is a constant buzz in the air around all female leads about who they should be sleeping with.

To read this meant a lot to me. The graphic novel I'm working on has a female lead and the story is heavy on action but is about family, about finding yourself, about a girl trying to rescue her father amidst navigating a whole strange new world with a gift she does not know how to use. One of the biggest complaints I've received so far on it is the lack of a love interest.

Don't misunderstand me, there are plenty of males, the antagonist is a male, the mentor is a male. But people cannot get past the fact that this nineteen year old female protagonist does not have a guy that she is invested in. There is a character that she feels an attraction to but he serves more as a representation of a "normal life", and she has to make a choice about whether she wants to try to live her own life or give it all up to get her father back. The story is compelling, the concept is solid (it's about a girl who can walk through people's dreams for cripes sake), but there's this hang up on her social life or lack thereof.

Why does she need a guy? Or even a girl? Why does she need a love interest?

There is plenty of love in the story, the love of a man for his wife, the love of a daughter for her father. It's bursting with love and it is beyond frustrating to be told that it's not the right kind.

(via fuckyeahbirdsofpreycomics)

I am sort of in love with Adriana Melo's art in this sequence. WOW.