CAN MEN WRITE "WOMEN"/CAN WOMEN WRITE "MEN"?
One of the most influential comic series I've ever read in my life was
Love and Rockets. I found the women that Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez wrote to completely believable. I found Maggie's journey to be identifiable and authentic. I found the fact that Maggie actually gained weight to be strangely life-affirming, at least for me. And Luba's very large chest never detracted from the seriousness and poignancy of her story.
So, based on Los Bros. Hernandez, I would have to say yes, guys can write good comics about women.
Can women write good comics about male characters? Ann Nocenti wrote a mean Daredevil in the 1980s. Back then, it seemed normal to me that women would write superhero comic books. It never felt "special" that Ann was writing Daredevil; which is not to say that her stories weren't special, but that it didn't feel like a gimmick or an oddity. She was just another Marvel comic writer, writing cool comics.
Can women write "men?" Certainly, Harry Potter is not quite a man, but a woman has done a pretty successful job writing him. Ditto that Lestat lady.
Can men write "women?" Joss Whedon. (Yes, I know there are some who might quarrel with this, but in general...)
And so we know that you do not have to be the same gender as your protagonist in order to write an awesome, believable character. The potential is there, at least.
THE OBAMA PERCENTAGE
So have comic book marketers actually come up with a specific percentage of increased sales that take place when they put a picture of Barack Obama on the cover? Like, do they figure that in? We could call it "The Obama Percentage."
I was flipping through the latest Previews the other day, and there was a comic based on Obama's dog. With alternate covers.
I was going to ask: do these things actually make money? But if anything, a comic about "Bo The Dog" might have more of an appeal than some titles from the Big Two; because you know, you're playing to the masses here. You could sell "Bo the First Dog" at the supermarket checkout line. And you know what other mass-market comic would do well? Illustrated horoscopes. I s**t you not. And I'm copyrighting that idea, so don't even think it!
BRILLIANT NEW IDEA THAT ALL THE KIDS ARE TALKING ABOUT
Okay, so here is my pitch for my revolutionary new concept for comics, "Illustrated Horoscopes":
Every month, "Illustrated Horoscopes" (we can also call it "Horoscopes Illustrated" – I'm not married to the title) features the star readings for all 12 signs. But "Illustrated Horoscopes" doesn't just give you your forecast: it
presents it, in ALL FOUR COLORS!
For example, we can do my sign, Pisces. "You will be making plans for a vacation." And we can draw all this out! Hell, we can even construct a little story around it! And we can turn the fishies into like a superhero character or something.
FLASHFORWARD
As I've already mentioned on my blog, I am not going to San Diego Comicon this year. And really, I'm happy not to go, because it gives me more time to spend with my friend's dog while she goes to San Diego Comicon.
But seriously, folks, the last two years I made plans for SDCC at the very last minute, and it was as stressful as hell. I mean, it was literally like a week before the con, and for whatever reason I had to go. So you take any flight that's offered, and usually end up with about ten other comics people who also waited until the last minute. Seriously, you find them all in the waiting area of Jet Blue.
And last-minute accommodations are the best. This involves a lot of begging and uncertainty. You get offers like: "well, there are already 16 people sleeping on the floor of my hotel room already...but I think the bathtub might be free." Then there is the reasonably-priced hotel room that just happens to be 20 miles away from the convention center. On the first day of the con, you figure this schlep won't be too bad. By Day Four, you decide to just stay at the hotel and use the swimming pool.
I had sworn to God last year: "not again." No more last-minute plans. So I, working under a new ethic of extreme foresight and efficiency, will be spending my SDCC time planning out NEXT-year's attendance. HA! In fact, I am now living solely in 2010. Which will be news to the IRS.
FLASHBACK
With such a strong return to alternate/incentive covers with all the shiny bells and whistles, can I go back to 1991 now? I was so much more supple then.
BRAGGART
Last week in the column, I mentioned that I had just finished writing one of the best things I have ever written. It's still really f**king awesome. I'm going to slowly milk this for MONTHS. Milk it like Bessie's cow.
AND THIS HAS BEEN...
...the (god, I don't even know anymore, but I better figure it out quick 'cause I haven't invoiced) *something* edition of Comics-Op. Howard Stern used to make fun of Larry King's newspaper columns, because they were like these stream-of-consciousness things where he'd be giving a celebrity story in one paragraph, and then be like: "you know what I like. SOCKS."
SOCKS.
You can check me out at
Occasional Superheroine!
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Valerie D'Orazio is a former editor at DC Comics, is presently president of the Friends of Lulu and is probably best known as the Occasional Superheroine
Comics-Op is ©2009 Valerie D'Orazio
