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

[moropus.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that comics are nothing more than thinly veiled erotica for teenage boys who aren't old enough to buy the real stuff and those that act like them. I came to this conclusion when I was in high school, had mono, and my brother let me read all his comics because I didn't go to school forever. He had several boxes of them, and I was bored enough to read them.

I have to admit I love Batman, but only when there's no Robin. Robin is dumb. So there.

I feel like there must be other industries dominated by males and full of creeps and freaks. I wonder what it would be like for a lady to work in construction? Or be an auto mechanic? The military was OK because once they had proof, they went all ballistic on the offender.

[exedore.livejournal.com]

Ironically, DC's Bat-line is about all I'm reading for US comics nowadays, and I don't bother if one of the side characters isn't in the main book...reading Batman, Gotham Knights, Nightwing, Teen Titans, and Robin (Tim Drake is great).

The last time a major female death occured in Batman, it was incredibly brutal - and portrayed graphically. I don't think it was meant to be a turn-on, and it was just plain ugly on the page. Haven't read WW in ages, but Titans is far more egalitarian on TV than in print.

On that note, ya think maybe this is the reason why readers (especially women and minorities) are flocking to manga? They like the format but it took the import boom for appealing content to appear on store shelves.