I first saw Jacob Mazer of Animal Kingdom Publishing discuss his work and the anthology of comics, prose, poetry and criticism he edits. It’s still a young publication, but I definitely think there’s room in the world for more things like this, allowing comics to reach audiences they may not otherwise. Not everything in the second issue is to my tastes, but there is some thought-provoking work in it.

Then I saw Gareth Hinds, whose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet came out last year. He talked about always loving to draw as a child and comics ended up coming naturally to him. He worked in video games for a long time before quitting to create graphic novels full-time. He broke down his process for each book and I was interested to hear he changes techniques and styles for each specific book. He also spoke about the challenges of adapting classic literature.

After that, it was my turn. I talked about comics by women (what else?) and I think it went well for it being such a big topic. My concept was not to give history but offer up titles that people can buy right now. I had a good discussion with the attendees too.

You can download my PowerPoint presentation or a PDF of it, but I’ve also created a list of the creators and titles I discussed below (with links to their websites where appropriate).

I have reviewed some of these books and written more about some of these creators. You should be able to find what you need through the tags.

History/background

• Trina Robbins: Pretty In Ink

 Mainstream: Superheroes

• Kelly Sue DeConnick: Captain Marvel
• G. Willow Wilson: Ms. Marvel
• Gail Simone: Birds of Prey, Batgirl, Red Sonja

Mainstream: Sci-fi/Fantasy

• Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios: Pretty Deadly
• Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke A. Allen: Lumberjanes
• Carla Speed McNeil: Finder
• Fiona Staples: Saga

Children and Young Adult Comics

• Raina Telgemeier: Smile, Drama, Sisters
• Faith Erin Hicks: The War at Ellsmere, Friends With Boys, The Adventures of Superhero Girl
• Hope Larson: Chiggers, A Wrinkle in Time
• Jennifer Holm: Babymouse

Autobiographical

• Alison Bechdel: Fun Home and Are You My Mother?
• Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis
• Mari Naomi: Kiss and Tell, Dragon’s Breath
• Ellen Forney: Marbles
• Ulli Lust: Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
• Nicole J. Georges: Calling Dr. Laura

Manga

• Kyoko Okazaki: Pink, Helter Skelter
• Moto Hagio: A Drunken Dream, The Heart of Thomas
• Takako Shimura: Wandering Son
• Moyoco Anno: In Clothes Called Fat, Insufficient Direction

UK, Europe and Around the World

• Mary Talbot: The Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, Sally Heathcoate: Suffragette
• Isabel Greenberg: Encyclopedia of Early Earth
• Julie Maroh: Blue is the Warmest Color
• Marguerite Abouet: Aya series
• Rutu Modan: Exit Wounds, The Property

Online comics

• Molly Ostertag: Strong Female Protagonist
• Allie Brosh: Hyperbole and a Half
• Meredith Gran: Octopus Pie
• Kate Beaton: Hark! A Vagrant
• Danielle Corsetto: Girls with Slingshots
• Kate Leth: Kate or Die!

Minicomics & cutting-edge creators

• Seo Kim
• Corinne Mucha
• L. Nichols
• Yumi Sakugawa
• Andrea Tsurumi
• Whit Taylor
• Jen Vaughn
• Jenn Woodall

Publishers, groups and events

• Koyama Press
• Team Girl Comic
• Dirty Diamonds
• Laydeez Do Comics
• Drink & Draw Like a Lady

Top Picks of Comics by Women for 2014

• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
• How to Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
• Operation Margarine by Katie Skelly
• Over Easy by Mimi Pond
• This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
• Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Likewise, Glasgow-based Team Girl Comic has grown and changed from its early days into a group that can absolutely not be ignored. If you haven’t been paying attention to Team Girl Comic, Issue #10 is the perfect place to start.

As explained in the opening story by Claire Yvette and Gill Hatcher, in Team Girl Comic #10, Hatcher didn’t feel like her comics were quite fitting in to the scene she saw around Glasgow in 2009. In an effort to find a community, she began seeking out other girls and women making comics. They began publishing anthologies and holding events, but the companionship and camaraderie they found in each other was the most important.

The diversity of styles and subjects is delightful. MJ Wallace‘s sweetly thoughtful “How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Me” illustrates how she made peace with her body image in touching detail, even including some sketches from her life drawing classes. Shona Heaney‘s “The Winston Churchill Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” delivers on the title’s promise in both hilarious and disturbing ways in bleak, scratchy pen drawings.

There’s diversions into the fantastic, like “GEMS Saltire Squad” by Amanda “Hateball” Stewart, and into the surreal, like Donya Todd‘s “HC.” Many of the stories, though, do deal with what life is like for the modern woman, like Iona “Nondo” Mowat’s all-to-real “Small Talk Frustrations” and Lucy Sweet‘s charming reflection on getting older, “What Will I Be Doing When I’m Forty?”

The centerpiece of Team Girl Comic #10 is, without a doubt, “The Extraordinary Occurrence That Took Place at Comicon, in July 2013” written by the legendary Trina Robbins and illustrated by Hatcher. Robbins writes about how, last year, other than the predictable outcome of a bunch of men winning in the Eisner awards, a surprising number of women won. Hatcher draws the reactions — disappointment and boredom to men winning and happiness and surprise to women winning — in a playful way. What is a simple anecdote becomes an entertaining glimpse into how comics is constantly changing for the better.

By bringing together women creators of all ages and experience, Team Girl Comic #10 definitely feels like the party that’s illustrated on the cover. It’s one where you have friends and you’ll make new ones. Everyone is welcome and everyone is going to have fun.

And I know I’m looking forward to the day when I’m reading Team Girl Comic #20.

PDF provided for review by Team Girl Comic.

Comicsgirl: What brought you to comics? 

Barbara Slate: In the 70s, I created the first feminist greeting card line featuring a character called Ms. Liz. We sold over two million greeting cards. I appeared with Ms. Liz on the Today Show, and drew a Ms. Liz comic strip which appeared monthly in Cosmopolitan magazine. Ms. Liz was my obsession for nine years but competing with Hallmark was no easy task and for various other reasons, I was definitely looking for something else. So, when a friend suggested I contact Jenette Kahn, president at DC Comics, I did. Luckily, the timing was fortuitous. Jenette was looking to create a girl’s line of comics.  

CG: What makes you prefer that over other forms of storytelling? 

Slate: Comic books have it all! I can create my own characters, draw them, and write their stories. I think comic books are beautiful in their simplicity. Every month my work appears in a 24 page story produced on cheap paper and held together by staples! How lucky can a girl be?! 

CG: What keeps you wanting to create comics?

Slate: I love telling stories. My latest graphic novel is Getting Married and Other Mistakes. I also love teaching teens and adults how to do a graphic novel. I find this work rewarding and it takes me all over the country as a teacher and speaker on the subject.

CG: How did Angel Love come about? It did seem like it was part of an era where DC Comics was trying new things.

Slate: In the early 80s, the comic book reader was 95% boys, 5% girls. Jenette and her staff liked Ms. Liz, so she asked me to create a character for DC Comics. Writing and drawing greeting cards is very different than comic books. Although Ms. Liz has a personality and point of view, she did not have the depth of a character like Angel Love where a Character Bible and Plotline were part of her backstory. I am forever grateful to Jenette. She handed me the Wonder Woman Bible to study and had her two vice presidents, Dick Giordano and Paul Levitz, teach me how to plot using color code. Then she introduced me to my editor, the amazing Karen Berger. In a month’s time, my education through DC Comics was like attending a four year college in how to do a comic book.  

CG: I know you teach graphic novel workshops. I constantly hear from other teachers of sequential art classes that their classes are at least half female, if not more than half.  Has that been your experience?

Slate: When I first started teaching, I was afraid there would be 15 super hero inspired boys but instead it was half boys and half girls. That is a wonderful thing to see. The super hero genre is usually about 15% of the class. My book You Can Do a Graphic Novel breaks down the steps  so anybody can learn to do a comic book. It may not be a graphic novel that gets published by Marvel Comics, but it is a fun and rewarding process.  

CG: Is it important to you to encourage girls specifically to make their own comics?

Slate: It’s a funny thing about being a woman in comics. There is an unwritten code that you are supposed to “empower girls.” When I first started, it was just me and Trina Robbins writing and drawing comics for Marvel Comics and DC. That was the time to encourage girls specifically to make their own comics. Today, I teach girls who are already empowered.  I really don’t see the purpose of encouraging girls specifically over boys. Writing and drawing comics is an equal opportunity passion. 

CG: What changes in comics overall have you seen in comics during your career?

Slate: Certainly, computers have changed the way comics are created, especially in coloring and lettering. Another big change is that the comic book reader is now 50% girls due mostly to the Japanese manga influence. When Angel Love hit the market in the 80s, there was no place for her in comic book stands. She was literally squeezed in between superheroes. It is disappointing to see that Marvel and DC Comics still have not embraced a line of comics for girls; however, mainstream publishers saw that kids love comics and have created their own divisions. The change is that they call them graphic novels. 

My theory is that the name “comic books” was so demonized in the 50s, that main stream publishers thought if they changed the name to “graphic novels”, the mothers wouldn’t notice that their kids were really reading the dreaded comic book. (Will Eisner was the one who originally coined the name “graphic novel” with his publication of his book, A Contract with God.) 

And it worked! Teachers today use comic books as a teaching tool. Librarians have special sections for the graphic novel. It is a proven way to get teens into the library. The movie industry uses the comic book series to create block buster movies and art critics take the genre seriously. Even mothers are encouraging their children to read comics. 

Today, more and more women are writing their stories in graphic novel form. My dream is that one day there will be enough female graphic novelists that we will have our own section in a bookstore instead of being scattered everywhere amongst superheroes and novels. Yes, we’ve come a long way baby, but boy, we still have a long way to go. 

Near Miss is a semi-regular feature that will be appearing on Comicsgirl throughout 2013. This project is sponsored by Big Planet Comics.

Meet Misty, the 1985 limited series from Marvel’s Star Comics line, actually came with an impressive pedigree: It was written and drawn by comics legend Trina Robbins. Trying to update earlier comics like Millie the Model (Millie shows up as Misty’s aunt), it was focused on clothes, boys and fame, but not without a measure of confidence and independence. Yeah, there’s the typical mean rich-girl enemy, but Misty also is cool enough to hang out with rocker Spike and hip Shirelle.

Oh, it’s overly lightweight, as you’d expect — most of Misty’s crises involve a broken zipper and minor misunderstandings with friends. Still, she’s a kind, likable character and the clothes are fun (you may recognize some of the names that “created” the designs — people like Mike Madrid and Gilbert Hernandez. I’m sure those were inside jokes that flew far over the heads of most 8-year-olds reading this comic). Overall, though, despite Robbins’ undeniable presence, it doesn’t feel significantly different in tone or theme than any issue of Archie and the like. Understandably, that’s what the intention was, but I think there’s a reason this comic has basically been swallowed by time. It’s forgettable. (It’s also almost impossible to find now — I wasn’t able to track down all six issues.)

So let’s talk about Barbie. When I started gathering titles for this project, I had a rule of “No toy tie-ins” but Barbie feels bigger than just a toy. She’s a cultural icon. For good or bad, she represents a lot of different things to a lot of different women. To dismiss the Barbie comics felt like it would’ve been a mistake.

Here’s a confession: I really like Barbie. I understand the complaints — the unrealistic proportions of the doll, the focus on consumerism, etc. — and yeah, I don’t want to turn this into “I played with Barbies and I turned out OK so that should be everyone’s experience!” But I still think Barbie — like playing dress-up — can be a positive experience. She can be anyone, go anywhere and do anything. And she’ll look good doing it.

Between 1991 and 1996, Barbie, published by Marvel Comics, ran for a surprising 63 issues. Its companion series, Barbie Fashion, ran for 53. I think that’s pretty notable for a title aimed at girls in the early- to mid-90s. I was a little too old for it when it debuted, but I’m kind of sad I missed it. It’s actually a lot of fun.

It is, delightfully, a female-dominated title. Creative teams vary, but the line-up includes Barbara Slate, Lisa Trusiani, Mary Wilshire and Amanda Conner. (While I don’t have those issues, even Trina Robbins wrote for it.)

Both titles can mostly be summed up with “Barbie goes on adventures and wears cute clothes.” Barbie Fashion may be a little more fashion-oriented of the two, but since both titles share a lot of the same creators, they feel very similar. That’s not a bad thing, though. Clearly, Marvel just wanted to have two Barbie titles out at the same time, but in this case, it is “the more, the better!”

Barbie is always helpful and smart without ever feeling like a pushover. She’s beautiful but approachable and friendly. Still, though, Barbie’s never given too many individual character traits, letting her be a stand-in for the reader herself. She’s easy to identify with. It’s easy to want to be like Barbie — or whatever the reader imagines Barbie to be. That seems to be the point and it does feel empowering.

Most of the humor is pretty sweet, For instance, on short story is about Barbie accidentally grabbing the wrong top and bottom of a two-piece swim suit and is forced to wear the mismatched set to the beach. But by doing so, she sets off a new trend. There are light craft projects (string buttons to make a necklace!) and visits with fashion professionals who give the most basic details about their jobs.

It’s not a deep comic, no, but it seems to respect its audience, thanks to the strength of the women working on it. I actually think there’s a lot of room for Barbie comics of this sort to make a comeback.

Near Miss is a semi-regular feature that will be appearing on Comicsgirl throughout 2013. This project is sponsored by Big Planet Comics.

You’d actually be surprised. This traveling exhibit (it originated in New York at the Yeshiva University Museum) may seem a little small at first, but as soon as visitors begin to explore it, does it richness and diversity become apparent.

It may not cover the depth of comics being created by women (even Jewish women) but that’s not the point — it’s meant to be about Jewish women and their stories and why they’ve chosen to tell them in the form of comics.  There’s a delightful range, from legends like Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Diane Noomin and Trina Robbins to the younger generation of artists like Sarah Glidden and Miss Lask0-Gross.  Some have specific stories to tell about their lives while others just seek to capture moments.

I was awed at the different styles and techniques of the artists on display. Some have loose, open styles that are then reduced down to the printed page. Others draw in tiny refinement. Blue pencil marks can still be seen, as well as sections of White-Out and other corrections. I love looking at original art anyway because hidden process behind creating comics becomes much clearer. It’s fascinating and beautiful to see these pages as they are.

No, it’s not a huge exhibit, but I don’t think it needs to be. After spending quite a bit of time feeling jealous that my New York friends had this and I wasn’t going to get to see it, I was more than excited to see it was going to be in D.C. I was not at all disappointed. I’m only sad it’s only up through Sept. 2, which means that people in the area for Small Press Expo won’t get a chance to check it out.

I am, however, sending everyone I know in the area to it. It’s absolutely worth seeing and I’m quite proud D.C. is one of the places that gets to have it.

Chicagoland Detective
Agency #2:
The Maltese Mummy
Buy on Amazon.com

Our three favorite young detectives (well, two of them are young; the other is a talking dog) return in the second volume of Trina Robbins‘ and Tyler Page‘s Chicagoland Detective Agency series, “The Maltese Mummy” (Graphic Universe, 2011).

Megan wins a contest to see her favorite musician, Sun D’Arc (whose name and style evokes Japanese band L’Arc-en-Ciel — let it never be said that Robbins and Page haven’t done their research), but becomes suspicious when a new girl Jazmin seems a little too interesting in coming along and when Sun himself expresses a strange amount of interest in her friend William.

And what does all of this have to do with a traveling exhibit featuring the mummy of Ra-Hotep’s sarcophagus?

Now, of course the plot points are pretty obvious and most readers, even younger ones, will probably seem them coming. But that’s not so much the point. Megan’s a feisty heroine whose independent nature sometimes gets the better of her (she likely would’ve been better off trusting Jazmin from the beginning) but she does learn that teamwork the way to go. Even though Raf spends much of the book sick in bed, his insights do move the story forward. I wanted talking dog Bradley to have a bit more to do, but understandably, there are places dogs can’t go.

Robbins is clearly having fun and her wit never talks down to this book’s target audience. Kids are appreciated for being savvy and smart. Maybe some of them won’t quite get the jokes that compares aging rock stars to mummies, but I still love that Robbins includes those sorts of things here.

Page’s art continues to be animated and playful. There isn’t as much action here as there was in the initial volume, but his sense of page layout and facial expression keeps the book moving. He has a great way of making otherwise static scenes of two people talking seem dynamic.

I do think you do need to read the first one for this to make sense, but this is turning into a really fun little series. I’m sad there’s only going to be three of them.

For whatever reason, I feel like I don’t read too much about what Graphic Universe is doing, but as far as comics for children go, they are getting almost everything right.

Advance reading copy provided through NetGalley.

Chicagoland Detective
Agency #1:
The Drained Brains Caper
Buy at Amazon.com

We first meet 13-year-old Megan when she walks into Raf’s family’s pet supply store looking for a tarantula. Instantly, readers are pretty sure she’s the most delightful kind of trouble — she dresses in Gothic Lolita-lite clothes, reads manga, writes haiku, and got kicked out of her last school for starting a fire.

She would have trouble fitting in just about anywhere, but there’s something odd about her summer school, Stepford Preparatory Academy and Megan’s determined to get to the bottom of it.

In the first volume of this series from Graphic Universe, written by the legendary Trina Robbins with art by Tyler Page, we meet a fun, feisty heroine, a nerdy and capable young man and even a detective-movie-obsessed talking dog. What’s not to like?

Robbins handles Megan with grace — she’s not a completely likable character as she’s a little stubborn and full of herself — but she’s presented as being intelligent and resourceful. I also love that Megan’s vegetarianism is presented as a positive thing and not just another throwaway act of teenage rebellion. The story has a few twists and turns, but at least adult readers are going to know what’s going on pretty quickly (the middle grade audience this is aimed at may not quite catch the “Stepford” reference, though).

Page’s art has an indie-comics-meets-manga vibe that’s lovely and appropriate for this book, and I love that he made Megan actually look Asian. His page and panel layouts are dynamic and keep the book moving quickly. If I have one complaint it’s that it was hard for me to tell how old Raf was initially — we are eventually told he was 13, but I was under the impression he may have been a bit older since he was working in his parents’ store.

These characters are great fun and their adventures through movie (detective and monster, among other things, I’m sure) clichés will no doubt be wonderful. I greatly look forward to the next books in this series.

Advanced reading copy provided by Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group through NetGalley.

Robbins’ prose is smart and sparkling — this book is a quick read but also incredibly informative (dazzle your friends with fun facts about how legendary creators like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby wrote and drew many romance comics!). Robbins, of course, also covers women’s contributions to the underground comics scene of the 1960s and ’70s (something that I don’t think gets enough attention) and discusses titles like Love and Rockets and Strangers in Paradise as comics created by men but still featuring prominent female characters and perspectives.

The design of the book is fun — lots of comic images splashed across the pages and phrases highlighted — but it can be a little too much at times. Still, this isn’t mean to be a dull, academic read but rather conversational and playful.

Obviously, I think younger women and girls who are just getting interested in comics will find a lot to like here. But even if you like comics and know quite a bit about them already, you have nothing to lose by seeking out this book and reading it.

(Robbins herself may still have a few copies left for purchase, and there are some available through Amazon resellers. But also check your local library — mine has it on the shelves.)

The Supergirls

I wanted to love The Supergirls (Exterminating Angel Press, 2009). And I certainly feel like Mike Madrid has his heart in all the right places. I also want to give this book to any budding female fan of superheroines that needs some perspective.

But for me, it was just sort of a miss. I think I may have been expecting different things from it.

This isn’t really a history of the superheroine, although there’s a lot of history here. It’s more of a collection of essays chronicling the ups and downs of female characters in mainstream comics. Madrid sticks to Marvel and DC for the most part, and while he discusses girlfriends like Lois Lane, it deals mainly with the female characters with super powers (as the title would suggest). That’s a huge topic in and of itself, and while I didn’t really expect this to cover the portrayal of women in all comics everywhere, all the time, the subject does get repetitive.

While it is arranged in, more or less, chronological order, the chapters do sometimes overlap each other. Supergirl and Wonder Woman have chapters focused exclusively on them, but they also tend to pop up all over the place. This is understandable to a certain extent since they are two of the most significant female characters in comics, but it begins to feel repetitive.

I also think the book could be organized a little bit better. Some chapters focus on characters, others on time periods. I guess I wish it had focused on one or the other. I think as separate essays, each chapter works, but taken all together, I just felt like I got the point.

Having said that, though, it’s a light and intelligent book and Madrid isn’t afraid to pull some punches. I sometimes think he’s a little harsh about some things, like his discussion of celebrity debutantes like Paris Hilton (it’s relevant, really) but I think a lot of these issues are issues that need to be brought up with some aggressiveness.

I particularly loved his section on Betsy Braddock — who started out as a frilly girly-girl who was transformed into a scantily-clad ninja. I think in this part alone, Madrid most clearly illustrates the problem with the way superheroines are portrayed — they’re either harmless and sexless or overly sexy. Neither comes across as particularly powerful for women.

Still, I didn’t get as much out of the book in total as I got from that part. But yes, I’ve read plenty of books about comics and women in them (I do, after all, love Trina Robbins, as we all should). For someone new to comics, this book probably has more value.

So yes, I know that’s a pretty ambivalent recommendation of The Supergirls, but it’s still a recommendation. It’s a worthy read, sure, but don’t expect too much.

Given all of the above, do I really need to tell you I love this? I swear, it’s like someone went into my brain made a comic just for me.

But let’s get past all the initial giddiness and just get to how awesomely good all of this is.

First of all: Marvel, please please please make a poster of Colleen Coover‘s intro piece. It deserves to be hanging in every girl’s bedroom. I will buy five of them if you make it into a poster. And it’s not just me — I have friends who also want it as a poster. I love it.

Starting with a lyrical, nearly wordless tale written by G. Willow Wilson with art by Ming Doyle, Girl Comics #1 definitely starts off right — it’s feminine and mysterious but not stereotypically “girly” at the same time.

The next story by Trina Robbins and Stephanie Buscema is, however, but playfully so. Robbins tells the story of Venus trying to return to her job on earth as a fashion magazine editor, only to find things have changed, and not for the better. Buscema’s retro-inspired art is a delight and all of this is cute and romantic and way too much fun.

Valerie D’Orazio‘s Punisher story, with art by Nikki Cook is probably the most straightforward and traditional of all of the stories here, but these four pages do a lot with a little — an entire backstory is told through several, simple images — and the effect is very powerful.

Lucy Knisley‘s Doctor Octopus story is hilarious and adorable, and Robin Furth’s and Agnes Garbowska‘s steampunkish retelling of Hansel & Gretel, featuring the Richards kids is inspired and different.

Concluding the issue is a dreamlike take on the Jean Grey/Cyclops/Wolverine love triangle by Devin Grayson and Emma Rios.

I absolutely adored the profiles on Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin (also, Marvel, when you’re making a poster of Colleen Coover’s intro image, will you also manage to collect some of Marie Severin’s work into a book? Please?). These were unexpected and fun bonuses.

This is an awesome showcase of the diverse talent of female creators — and just comic creators, period. I can’t wait for the next one.

It’s a wonderful little anthology, but it’s more than that.

I started Comicsgirl way back when as a teenager because I knew there was more to comics than what most people saw. I knew that comics had some great things to offer women. But even now, especially in mainstream comics, I often don’t feel like I’m recognized. Sometimes, I have to struggle to see myself in the comics I read. But Girl Comics makes me feel like I’m being acknowledged. No, maybe it’s not going to be everyone’s thing, but I wish I could go back in time and give this to my 17-year-old self. I wish I knew a bunch of 15-year-old girls I could buy copies of this for. And for me, that makes this is a beautiful thing.