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women in comics in UK/Ireland – redux
The promised follow-up to the British women in comics blog post in January. I’ve written an overview of this entry also. A list of female writers and artists (colourists, inkers, pencilers, etc.) who work in sequential storytelling in the UK and Ireland. I’ve created a permanent page for this list on my web site – it’s linked on the sidebar. This post will no longer be updated. All further updates will be on the page. Update: for a comprehensive overview of the history of women who have worked in the comic book industry in the UK read The Inking Woman, edited by Nicola Streeten and Cath Tate, published by Myriad.…
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warren ellis in Galway
Last night at the National University of Galway the Literary and Debating Society and the Comic Book Society showcased a public interview with legendary British comic book writer Warren Ellis. When I arrived for the event I met Galway cartoonist/caricaturist Allan Cavanagh and writer/editor Stan Carey, and we all sat together. This turned out to be a dogsend because we discovered the Lit and Deb Soc were going to have an hour of their usual debates before the event. Thus, the three of us were subjected to two discussions: “That the House Welcomes the Queen of England to Ireland with Open Arms” and “That the House Endorses Gender Quotas in…
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zap!
I thought this image might catch your attention. I snapped it in Dublin last weekend. This is the window of MAC cosmetics in the large department store Brown Thomas on Grafton Street. Last weekend MAC launched its limited edition Wonder Woman line of cosmetics. To celebrate they had colourful window displays (see below) and body-painted a fit young man to look like a walking piece of comic book art. It was interesting that this event was going on the same weekend as P-Con, with just the length of Exchequer Street between them. Yet, they might as well have been on different worlds (Earth and Themyscira I suppose). When I inquired…
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artistic inspiration
My mind is currently full of research and ideas for my next graphic novel project, which I’m writing at the moment. Whenever I do a period piece I soak up as many images from the era as possible. Most of the 1920s was a truly inspiring time – change was in the air, and the young people in particular embraced it. It absolutely was the beginning of what could be termed modern life. I’ve been looking at a lot of the artwork from the 20s, including magazine covers, and I’m entranced. The above image is the February 1921 cover of French Vogue, drawn by Helen Dryden. I love the sense…
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British women in comics
After blogging about the absence of women in the line-up of the Kapow! comic book convention I had a number of lively discussions about it. I also discovered that Mark Millar twittered about this issue back on the 7th of December 2010, when someone else pointed out there were no female guests. His response, over two tweets: You realise this is being put together by 5 women, don’t you? The reason the comic guests are mostly male is because the biggest names in UK comics are male. Who is the big british female pro they’re missing here? I’m amused by ‘the comic guests are mostly male’ bit, when the guests…
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smile, get girls reading comics
Over the past year I’ve increased the amount of comic books/graphic novels I’m reading. Partly because I’m writing coming books now, and also because it’s such a fun, diverse medium. There are so many great titles being published to suit all tastes. When I was a girl I was not encouraged to read comics – I wasn’t discouraged either, but I didn’t know another girl my age who loved them the way I did. I’ve no idea where I got the notion that ‘comic books were for boys’, but it was something I understood. I didn’t agree, but I knew that my liking comic books was not the norm. It…
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Kapow!, no women
I got an email from a regular commentator on my blog pointing me to the new comic book convention that Mark Millar is organising this coming April in the UK called Kapow! ComicCon. He hinted that I might discover something missing from the event. Well, yes the omission is pretty glaring to me: not one woman among the forty guests. This is strange. It’s not like there are no top-class women working in comics. Anyone who suggests otherwise is not paying attention. For instance, I’d recommend reading the excellent ‘She Has No Head‘ column by Kelly Thompson on Comic Book Resources for plenty of examples of the fine work women…
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Involuntary Muscle
Issue 35 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction is now out and it includes my short story ‘Involuntary Muscle’. Thanks to editors Stephen Theaker and John Greenwood for choosing to include my story in this issue. It also features work by Matthew Amundsen, Douglas Ogurek, reviews by John Greenwood, Stephen Theaker and Howard Watts, with cover art also supplied by Howard. I find myself somewhat finger-tied at the prospect of writing a preamble or summary of ‘Involuntary Muscle’. I suppose the best I can offer is an anecdote from when I attended Clarion West, and Maureen McHugh was our mentor for a week. She said one time that when you write a…
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Little Crackers
Over the past couple of years the satellite broadcaster Sky has been venturing into commissioning original television programmes, which is generally a good thing as I’m always happy to see screenwriters getting work. Even though Sky is part of the Murdoch MegaCorp, it can have its benefits (as long as you avoid the news channels). This holiday season Sky has been airing a series of short films by male and female comedians called Little Crackers. Most of them are autobiographical, or at least represent the essence of the comedian (and the comedians usually appear in the short as a character). I’ve seen five of them so far and they are…
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atwood interview
There’s a very interesting interview from yesterday’s BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour with Margaret Atwood about her seminal text, The Handmaid’s Tale, which is twenty-five years in print this year. In the past Atwood has dismayed those of us who enjoy genre writing by trying to disassociate herself from science fiction, but thankfully when the issue of The Handmaid’s Tale being within a science fiction tradition was raised in the interview she didn’t argue against it – although she seemed more comfortable associating herself with the likes of Huxley and Orwell. I didn’t read the book when it first came out, but I was eighteen when it was lent to…
