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The Un-Feminist First Question Of The Women Of DC Comics Panel At New York Comic Con

Published Sat, 11 Oct 2014 19:00:36 -0500

Last updated Sat, 11 Oct 2014 19:03:18 -0500

Madeline E Ricchiuto writes for Bleeding Cool from New York Comic Con

Attending:

Shelly Bond, executive Editor for Vertigo
Bobbie Chase, executive editor for DC – Batgirl and Nightwing
Marguerite Bennett – Earth 2
Becky Cloonan – Gotham Academy, The Kitchen
Amanda Conner – Harley Quinn
Meredith Finch – debuting next month for Wonder Woman #36
Caitlin Kittredge – Coffin Hill
Gail Simone – Secret Six on Dec 3rd, The Clean Room – Vertigo Debut
Babs Tarr – Batgirl #35

"How did you all get into comics?"

For some reason that is the first question for all panelists in these "Women in Comics" panels. It never gets asked in less women-focused panels and almost seems a bit un-feminist to me. Because the stories are all the same. Either a family member or friend introduced the panelists to comics, TV or film first introduced them to a character, or they were into art in general or manga and somehow shifted into comics. How many ways can you actually be introduced to comics? Its a time filler of a question and something that people only ever ask women in the business. Because Comics are always perceived as something for boys or even for men. From there the panel was essentially a short Q&A about current projects, much like the usual Women of Marvel panel.

Questions to:

Caitlin Kittredge: How does your experience as a novelist Compare to your work on Coffin Hill?

Caitlin: "Coffin Hill is my first comic, but I've written novels… Coffin is supernatural horror and its a balance between too much description and letting it be seen from the characters eyes… I think experience plotting long stories helped me transition to comics."

Shelley – "When you work in comics its a collaborative process…"

Caitlin: "if you screw up, in writing a novel, its all on you. Being a collaborator isn't a safety net but I feel I have someone to rely on."

Babs: how do you connect to Batgirl? How do you decide the fashion?

"I was a 21 year old girl at one point.. I know what thats like and I'm excited to show that. In terms of fashion I'm trying to give them all a different style… We're trying to show what Babs is like outside of the costume…" Trying to show what Babs world is like, from the details of life as a girl, seems to be Babs Torr's goal.

Meredith: What is your connection to Wonder Woman and what do you want to be remembered for in your run?

"She has a power to her convictions… I'm hoping my story will have an emotional ring to it. I'm hoping the story that resonates with us resonates with them. I'm hoping people connect with her in a new way.

Becky: What's it like not being the artist?

"I try not to tell him what to do. He has his own vision… This is the first book I've not written for my self on, its made me focus on my writing more."

Becky: Do you have more of an edge as a writer now being an artist yourself?

"Yeah I think so. Its made me a better writer having to spell things out for someone else."

Gail: you have books coming from DC and Vertigo in the coming months. How is the creative process at DC different from Vertigo?

"Tonally they're different. I like for all my books to have a different tone… With DC I'm working with team dynamics. With Vertigo we're working with something that hasn't been done before. Its very adult… The characters are very different…"

Marguerite: what makes earth 2 so interesting to you?

"I love Huntress and Powergirl. I've gotten to write these stories about friendship and love between two women and I love showing that"

Amanda: how does your creative process work?

"We meet for lunch and look around and go "that's a bit of a Harley moment" and we run with that… We love Powergirl so. U h we just had to put her in Harley for a few issues…Our rule with Harley is that she's a murderous psychopath but a loveable murderous psychopath… She's never too dark, she's always chasing happiness… We just write around the crazy moments."

For a panel designed to be better than the "Women in Comics" panel, "Women of DC" was nothing new.

But Gail Simone did include that The Ventriloquist will be joining Secret Six, along with Catman and Black Alice…