Alex goes to the comic shop, pt 2

[terra]

So sometimes I post on those giant comics messageboards. It can be cool, I've had discussions with creators/had Ed Brubaker tell me to stop being so continuity-obsessive, but oftentimes it reminds me what a cesspit of racism and misogyny the comics fandom can be. Like, yesterday, when I stumbled upon this gem of a post:

Marvel is loaded with strong and aggressive SuperHeroines. The negative quality of the Sue Storm's leadership is that portraying her as aggressive and extremely powerful makes her just another Marvel SuperHeroine. Some of us old timer guys still think that Sue is most effective when she emphasizes her traditional feminine qualities that she excelled at during the Silver Age (or should I say "Golden Age" of Stan and Jack), such as crying, screaming, acting afraid, being a wonderful mother, looking gorgeous, having to be saved by the men a lot, etc.

Yeah, this guy is confirmed not a troll, and several people either flat-out agreed with him, or parrotted his general thesis in slightly less blatantly offensive terms. (It's not that Sue can't lead because of her gender, it's because she's too much like a overemotional adulterous single mom!!) A fair number of sane people pointed out...you know, that this stuff is crazy sexist. But it just reminded me that one of the (many) reasons women are underrepresented in comics is because quite a few comics fans are misogynist toolbags. And one thing I can personally do to help counter this phenomenon is to buy a ton of comics featuring the ladies.

tl;dr rec me some comics involving womenfolk

Comments

[cuddlesquid.livejournal.com]

I remember Kabuki being wicked awesome, but all my issues of it are elsewhere and I have no idea if it's still going on so uh. There's that. ._.

Girl Genius has loads of awesome ladies from the title character on down.

I was incredibly fond of Meridian and Ruse but I have no idea what happened to CrossGen so... can you tell I don't read a lot of mainstream superhero stuff..............

Also TANK GIRL ALWAYS AND FOREVER

[insourarmor.livejournal.com]

/sees you

[taughttolisten.livejournal.com]

/hides behind a tree

[terra]

I have some issues w/David Mack just because I found out how much of his stuff he was plagiarizing. But I can still check out Kabuki.

I already follow Girl Genius :) Foglios!

I've heard good things about Ruse already. AND AM GENRALLY FOND OF THE CROSSGEN STABLE of artists.

Is there a reccomended place to start with Tank Girl or could I just pick up one of the recent specials?

[taughttolisten.livejournal.com]

Wait, he what? D: DAVID MACK >(

What I have of Ruse (the first... two or three volumes?) is a really fun read. Meridian sort of tickles me more because its concept just hits all my happy buttons hard, but I'm ridiculously fond of both.

I... am not entirely sure, I just started with the recent specials and am wondering about back issues and such because om nom delicious writing.

Wish I could come up with others, but alas, the comic book store closest to me is like 45 minutes away and I am poor :(

[terra]

There was a big kerfluffle about it a year or so ago, when he drew an issue of Avengers that kinda just blatantly ripped off Adam Hughes and Alex Maleev. But it's quite possible that Kabuki predates his excessive photoreferencing; even Land was good once.

Yeah, I've heard the concept of Ruse and it delights me, so :) I'll definitely look for backissues.

If you can enjoy the recent specials then that's good yeaaah!!

And no, don't feel bad these are great recs :)