I posted this previously because...well, read the post and you will see, but the main reason ior point was this: I do not care if you are gay, bi, trans or whatever your sexuality is. I do not care which ethnioc group you originate from or the colour of your skin. What I care about is whether ypou can write and draw or show promise worth promoting.
I got tired of hearing that "there are very few female comic creators" and "Women never get into comics". Also "How can I mansplain this to you?" Those statements prove that you have no interest or knowledge of comic books but are just another SJW meddler.
To prove a point I listed female creators, as you'll see, and the response came from three women who were extremelyy condescending as well as outrightly rude. "We don't need you to legitimise us but as a man you probably thoughht you were being kind". And so on. Did that stop me from having the opinion that it is your ability or potential to be a comics creator that I am interested in? No.
It has not been easy to promote female creators. I can cite three instances where I explained (as I always do) that in an interview I wanted to include old and new sample art -it shows a creators progression. I then, as always, forwarded the full interview which included the art and asked whether there were any changes needed or whether the art -that THEY selected- was okay or if they wanted to put another replacement piece in somewhere? No -all approved and then posted.
In the following days I heard that these creatorswere "unhappy" with the art I used -that THEY had chosen. I didn't really believe what I was hearing so I visited the creatpor web pages or forums and...it was true. In one case I pointed out on the forum that the person involved had supplied the pages: their choices. They approved the post. I got blocked from the forum for "embarrassing a friend" -who painted me up as some kind of bandit.
Did that stop me from promoting female creators? NO.
I love comics. There -said it. I am interested in every aspect of comic books including the boring stuff like Benday dots and wood-cut. I do not necessarily want to be bosom buddies or Face Book friends (my friends list totals 10 I think ). Comics. Boring I know.
So, when you read the names of the female creators in this post please check out their work and make special note of Marie Duvalle!
************************************************************************************
The only reason I am writing this post is because I am bored. It is not as though I need to show appreciation for the loyalty of CBO readers who have never shown loyalty. I just wanted to make that clear because I do not want to raise hopes of there being more newer, lengthier posts -those are all still stored as drafts.
Hark at me getting all bitchy....and before I pointed out you can help keep CBO going by donating to the little box on the right. I'm keeping it real, man.
As already noted across the internet if you call a boss at Marvel Comics a racist (when he clearly is not) and pull the "I'm black" card but have zero experience in comics...that 'racist' boss is going to hire you and put you on several titles. I should not really have to cite all the examples of how awful Marvel has become and its very sad decline into the realm of extremely low sales. I read Marvel comics from the age of 6 years on and there are issues of X-Men (the original not the 26th generation of villain/anti hero characters we have now), The Mighty Avengers and Fantastic Four that just seeing the covers brings back the sights, sounds and smells of that time.
No secret that I at one time wanted to write for Marvel Comics. Could you imagine having to write for one of the Marvel characters today based on...uh...a "few years" of being an avid reader since the 1960s?
Here is the problem, however, if you hire a writer who has no experience in writing comics, hates comics and continuity and will only write what THEY want to write and no one, including (I hate to call them this) 'editors', will tell them that they are writing for established characters (created decades before they or maybe even their parents) were born and not for political agendas you are screwed. "I have the same hairstyle as that character and am a person of colour" is not an acceptable qualification.
Back in the 1980s there were -I hate to point this out to these morons but...- "black", "Asian" and characters from other ethnic groups. Male and female characters and on the whole not "stereo-typed" either. Marvel Comics pushed the boundaries and had "black" characters well before DC had -the credit for DC "black" characters being introduced is often given to Jack Kirby.
I used to get a lot of flack back in the 1980s because I often gave female comic creators more space in publications and went out of my way to promote their books. I was once accused of "preferring to give a female creator more publicity than men" (that should have read "than male creators" but...). Yes. I admitted it several times and it was no secret.
There were female pro comic writers as well as artists in the UK and US comic scene going back to the 1960s. Now, if I have to tell you who they were then you have proven your own ignorance for which there is no excuse especially in the internet age. You want false claims fed to you as facts then please go over to Bleedingcool.
In The Hooper Interviews I think that there is a fair enough balance. Some of the interviews come from the old CBO (Yahoo360, WordPress, FreeServers) and Zine Zone International. For instance: Donna Barr is a pioneering comics creator and her decades of work -including The Desert Peach, Stinz- even today is not as widely publicised or known as it should be. Roberta Gregory is a "pioneering female comics creator" whose work goes back to the 1970s -including Naughty Bits which featured her character Bitchy Bitch. Incredibly, her work is even less well known than Barr's!
How about the talented Sonia Leong, creator of UK Manga or her colleague Emma Viecelli. To this duo I can add the sensational Yishan Li -whose work can surpass sublime. Their names are rarely spoken of on comic forums and it is almost staggering that they are not as well known as are many lesser male artists.
Karen Rubins -another British female creator well worthy of note. Again -how well is she known in comic circles?
Another American creator Tania Del Rio...heard of her? If not why not?
Kate Glasheen -an artist whose individualistic art style actually had me breathless when I first saw it? Again, an original female creator ignored out of ignorance...or convenience.
Laura Watton?
Willie Hewes?
Holly Golightly -now if you have not heard of her or seen her work then all I can say is that you are being very selectively blind to female creators.
Vanessa Wells?
Morag Lewis?
I could name others. Any of the creators from the now defunct (2017) Team Girl Comics?
Donna Jo Napoli who drew the amazing Fish Girl graphic novel?
I got tired of hearing that "there are very few female comic creators" and "Women never get into comics". Also "How can I mansplain this to you?" Those statements prove that you have no interest or knowledge of comic books but are just another SJW meddler.
To prove a point I listed female creators, as you'll see, and the response came from three women who were extremelyy condescending as well as outrightly rude. "We don't need you to legitimise us but as a man you probably thoughht you were being kind". And so on. Did that stop me from having the opinion that it is your ability or potential to be a comics creator that I am interested in? No.
It has not been easy to promote female creators. I can cite three instances where I explained (as I always do) that in an interview I wanted to include old and new sample art -it shows a creators progression. I then, as always, forwarded the full interview which included the art and asked whether there were any changes needed or whether the art -that THEY selected- was okay or if they wanted to put another replacement piece in somewhere? No -all approved and then posted.
In the following days I heard that these creatorswere "unhappy" with the art I used -that THEY had chosen. I didn't really believe what I was hearing so I visited the creatpor web pages or forums and...it was true. In one case I pointed out on the forum that the person involved had supplied the pages: their choices. They approved the post. I got blocked from the forum for "embarrassing a friend" -who painted me up as some kind of bandit.
Did that stop me from promoting female creators? NO.
I love comics. There -said it. I am interested in every aspect of comic books including the boring stuff like Benday dots and wood-cut. I do not necessarily want to be bosom buddies or Face Book friends (my friends list totals 10 I think ). Comics. Boring I know.
So, when you read the names of the female creators in this post please check out their work and make special note of Marie Duvalle!
************************************************************************************
The only reason I am writing this post is because I am bored. It is not as though I need to show appreciation for the loyalty of CBO readers who have never shown loyalty. I just wanted to make that clear because I do not want to raise hopes of there being more newer, lengthier posts -those are all still stored as drafts.
Hark at me getting all bitchy....and before I pointed out you can help keep CBO going by donating to the little box on the right. I'm keeping it real, man.
As already noted across the internet if you call a boss at Marvel Comics a racist (when he clearly is not) and pull the "I'm black" card but have zero experience in comics...that 'racist' boss is going to hire you and put you on several titles. I should not really have to cite all the examples of how awful Marvel has become and its very sad decline into the realm of extremely low sales. I read Marvel comics from the age of 6 years on and there are issues of X-Men (the original not the 26th generation of villain/anti hero characters we have now), The Mighty Avengers and Fantastic Four that just seeing the covers brings back the sights, sounds and smells of that time.
No secret that I at one time wanted to write for Marvel Comics. Could you imagine having to write for one of the Marvel characters today based on...uh...a "few years" of being an avid reader since the 1960s?
Here is the problem, however, if you hire a writer who has no experience in writing comics, hates comics and continuity and will only write what THEY want to write and no one, including (I hate to call them this) 'editors', will tell them that they are writing for established characters (created decades before they or maybe even their parents) were born and not for political agendas you are screwed. "I have the same hairstyle as that character and am a person of colour" is not an acceptable qualification.
Back in the 1980s there were -I hate to point this out to these morons but...- "black", "Asian" and characters from other ethnic groups. Male and female characters and on the whole not "stereo-typed" either. Marvel Comics pushed the boundaries and had "black" characters well before DC had -the credit for DC "black" characters being introduced is often given to Jack Kirby.
I used to get a lot of flack back in the 1980s because I often gave female comic creators more space in publications and went out of my way to promote their books. I was once accused of "preferring to give a female creator more publicity than men" (that should have read "than male creators" but...). Yes. I admitted it several times and it was no secret.
There were female pro comic writers as well as artists in the UK and US comic scene going back to the 1960s. Now, if I have to tell you who they were then you have proven your own ignorance for which there is no excuse especially in the internet age. You want false claims fed to you as facts then please go over to Bleedingcool.
In The Hooper Interviews I think that there is a fair enough balance. Some of the interviews come from the old CBO (Yahoo360, WordPress, FreeServers) and Zine Zone International. For instance: Donna Barr is a pioneering comics creator and her decades of work -including The Desert Peach, Stinz- even today is not as widely publicised or known as it should be. Roberta Gregory is a "pioneering female comics creator" whose work goes back to the 1970s -including Naughty Bits which featured her character Bitchy Bitch. Incredibly, her work is even less well known than Barr's!
How about the talented Sonia Leong, creator of UK Manga or her colleague Emma Viecelli. To this duo I can add the sensational Yishan Li -whose work can surpass sublime. Their names are rarely spoken of on comic forums and it is almost staggering that they are not as well known as are many lesser male artists.
Karen Rubins -another British female creator well worthy of note. Again -how well is she known in comic circles?
Another American creator Tania Del Rio...heard of her? If not why not?
Kate Glasheen -an artist whose individualistic art style actually had me breathless when I first saw it? Again, an original female creator ignored out of ignorance...or convenience.
Laura Watton?
Willie Hewes?
Holly Golightly -now if you have not heard of her or seen her work then all I can say is that you are being very selectively blind to female creators.
Vanessa Wells?
Morag Lewis?
I could name others. Any of the creators from the now defunct (2017) Team Girl Comics?
Donna Jo Napoli who drew the amazing Fish Girl graphic novel?
Non UK/US creators -the most famous from the days that set up comics as we know them: Isabelle Émilie de Tessier (1847 – 1890) she worked under the pseudonym of Marie Duval, she was a French cartoonist, known as co-creator of the seminal cartoon character Ally Sloper.
Peggy Adam ?
Pénélope Bagieu?
Claire Bretécher?
Marie Caillou?
Florence Cestac?
Okay, so not big on French creators how about German?
Franziska Bilek ?
Aisha Franz?
Cornelia Geppert ?
Nora Krug ?
Marie Marcks ?
Lona Rietschel ?
Elke Steiner ?
Gisela Zimmermann?
There are hundreds working in cartooning, small press, Independent comics and so on all over the world. If you cannot name 20 off the top of your head and you call yourself a comics fan....you ain't.
You are definitely NOT a comics fan if you have not heard of Ramona Fradon whose work began (SHOCK! HORROR!) in 1950. She is an American comics artist known for her work illustrating Aquaman (the work I still find superb today, many years on) and Brenda Starr and for co-creating the superhero Metamorpho.
Jan Duursema known for her work on the Star Wars comics franchise and is the creator of Denin and Vila from Naldar, the Twi'lek Jedi Aayla Secura and the Kiffar Jedi Quinlan Vos. She also worked on Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men and Hulk. Oh, and Heavy Metal -all going back to the early 1980s (Shock, horror etc etc etc...all before 2018).
Marie Severin comics artist and colorist best known for her work for Marvel Comics and the 1950's EC Comics. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2001.
Not one of them openly attacked an editor or publisher on social media (there weren't none back then in some cases) and called them a racist, bigot and demanded a job because "I'm queer"/"I'm a person of colour". No, do you know what they did? This is serious and you probably will think that I am making it up.
They all worked to build up a portfolio of scripts or art and they garnered support from those in the then free (ie they were not mouth pieces for political agendas or companies who got 'exclusive' news) fan and comics media. They got their work showcased or produced covers, illustrations or articles and then they got enough experience and wrote to editors -this was in the days when editors actually did work by editing -and did not call people very rude names beginning with "C" as in the case of a certain editor at a Scottish publisher- or insult fans at events and over social media. Editors would give them a chance and if they proved that they could write or draw and keep a schedule...they got work.
When I was due to meet a comic artist back in the 1980s someone asked me "You know he's gay?" I just stared back and replied "Can he draw?" (I left out a few words there such as "Why the **** should I ******** care? Can he ****** draw?"). I had several conversations with the late Lionel Gracy Whitman of Willy Prods/Small Time Ink (who published Heart Break Hotel, Blam! and Matt Black (about a gay super hero) and I was once asked if I knew he was gay?
Hey, I purchased AARGH because there was great art involved as well as supporting the cause (AARGH -Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia was a 76-page one-off comic anthology published by Mad Love in 1988 and was designed to aid the fight against Clause 28, which was a controversial amendment to the Local Government Act 1988, a British law which was designed to outlaw the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.
The point is that for every loud-mouthed, name-calling social media no talent demanding a job because they are trans, gay, "a person of colour" or has the right hair style, there are many who faced REAL prejudice at a time when the law did not care.
There have always been women in comics and there have always been gay men in comics. They got their work because they had talent and for the most part respected fans and fans respected them.
Small Press for fun or experience, Independent Comics or mainstream comics it does not matter.
KNOW your comics history and find out about those who created the characters and comics -Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were very old school and just one word from either could kill a career. They knew who was gay and do you know something? They worked or employed them because of their talent.
Clarence Matthew Baker -"Matt Baker" (10th December, 1921 – 11th August, 1959) was an American comic book artist who drew the costumed crime-fighter Phantom Lady, among many other characters. He was active in the 1940s and 1950s and he is the first known African-American artist to find success in the comic-book industry and tragically died young from an heart attack aged 37. He is well known as a "Good Girl Artist" and drew some of the "sexiest women in comics" -Phantom Lady (still in comics today) being a prime example. He was also gay. I once had someone glorify his Good Girl work but then declare "I was shocked to learn he was a gay!" Oh ffs. As far as I know -and I am NOT a scientist- if you are a gay man you CAN (despite what Ian Fleming wrote) whistle and you CAN draw attractive women! Likewise, I know a gay woman can whistle (when it comes to singer LP to a world standard gold medal level!) and they can also draw good looking men.
Who would have guessed?
You can be yellow, green, pink, polka-dot or blue. You can be heterosexual, gay, trans, Pixar animated or whatever. I just do not give a crap. I once had an artist approach me (never met him before) and introduce himself as "a gay artist". I responded with: "Sorry, I'm sure there are publications out there but I don't produce anything focussed on illustrations of gay people". He was taken aback: "No. I am gay!" My response: "I don't care: can you draw comics?"
You have friends and acquaintances that come from various backgrounds -ethnicity or sexual orientation- and you talk to them and that is life. Every day living and I support their rights to be who ever or whatever they are.
But when it comes to comics the only thing that matters is can they write or draw comics and can they be respectful to the people who buy and read those comics?
Nothing much else matters.
To learn about some of the creators mentioned above why not pick up a copy of The Hooper Interviews?
Information on WHO is interviewed can be found here:
You can order from here:
Comics ARE Fun!
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