More on the "comic books are not for you" story - if you're female. Shoot, if you have a pulse....

[kyburg]

When I was a teenager I worked at my local comics shop. The staff consisted of the kindly and cantankerous older middle-aged comics fan and a cast of lovable zanies. I had a great time. Until my boss asked me if I could stay late at work one day to help him bag some comics. And so I stayed late and started bagging the comics. And my boss took the opportunity to tell me that he found me sexually arousing. And he asked me to have sex with him. And I started to silently cry--pretty babyish of me, huh? Should I have punched him in the nuts? I didn't--I cried silently. I was 16, he was in his late 50s. The man expressed complete bewilderment that I responded in this matter. He said that he assumed that when I consented to stay late with him there to bag the comics I was "inviting" him in some manner. Gee is "bagging comics" some sexual euphemism that I am unaware of? I totally trusted this guy; he was like an uncle. So I was devastated, and I'm sitting there crying into this copy of Ghost Rider or Darkhawk or whatever--totally de-minting it, I might add. And the guy gives me some promotional buttons for this comic or that as a "gift".

No, you're never there because you like the books. Or, maybe - you are. But if you're there, you're never there because you want to work in the industry in the same place the males work. Standing on your own two feet, drawing and writing. Just like they do.

What she has to say about Wonder Woman is priceless.

And I quit comics a long time ago, I just never advertised it. Yeah, I read all the manga I can get my hands on - and I love Alex Ross' stuff - but you can't drag me into a "classic" comics store anymore. It just isn't my bag.

Comments

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

I still love the idea of comics, just not the industry. What I want to know is where can someone go to put forth a good egalitarian/progressive comic idea? I'd sell my eyeteeth and a kidney to get a chance to work on something new that didn't depend on bullshit old school t-a and ultraviolence to sell.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I keep remembering Elfquest - every time someone says this. Indie from the get-go, and every time they stepped away from it, they got burned and ended taking the reins back. (Last time I checked in with them, I see they're handing the reins off again - I hope this time it sticks. It's a huge property now.)

[inagawayuu.livejournal.com]

For me when I think comics, I think ElfQuest. It was the first comic I ever read. I was five years old, and in the beginning I read them with my brother and mom. It's what I grew up reading. I did move on and read other comics, but I always went back to ElfQuest. On my honeymoon we went to San Diego Comic-Con, and I finally got to meet Wendy Pini who has always been one of the women I've admired most. I remeber cying and her hugging me. We talked for hours at her booth. I cant begin to describe how much it meant to me. I wish I could meet her again. I grew up wanting to write and draw comics because of EQ.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to hook up with Wendy for years; Richard, I met at a ComicCon in 1996 -

Really, it's a shame that working relationship is such a rarity - it produces really good work!

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

I had no idea. See, my comics history is spotty. Not allowed to read them as a kid, and then I read about 2000+ starting with the Watchmen (then X-Men, then Alphaflight) when I had a nervous breakdown in 1995 and didn't get out of bed for weeks. My interest was rekindled when a friend sent me scans of over 400 X-Men comics, which I read with great interest last year. Now, I'm hooked. Not only on the comics but on the meta issues around them.