Hi Gail! One common argument defending the sexualisation of women in comics is the appeal to sales numbers, ie "sex sells, so we need scantily clad women on our covers" argument. Do you know if these claims have ever been substantiated in any way?

I don’t even know the numbers of the book I write, it’s just not something I pay a lot of attention to. But three of the more successful recent Marvel books featuring females all seem to be written with respect, rather than titillation, in mind; Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, and She-Hulk.

"Sex sells" is kind of bullshit, anyway, the landfills are full of shitty comics that were shameless in their cheesecake or softcore attempts to appeal that no one bought. The top titles right now have very little in the way of sexual content at all, and what IS there is mostly not traditional wank material.  Batman, Spider-man, Walking Dead, Forever Evil, on and on, you have to go a way down the list to get to a book that routinely fits this so-called truism.

I don’t think it’s a great argument, and this is coming from someone with a fairly highly tolerance for flesh and sex in comics.