Comicsgirl

Some of the creators of this sent it along to me and I’m glad they did. It was made by a group of students from the University of Bergen in Norway as a part of a scriptwriting class.

Director Stian Hafstad wrote that he wanted to make a script people would related to and that in terms of the desire for superpowers, it’s the “slightest possibility that it could happen to anyone makes it worth dreaming about.” He also said he wanted to explore male friendships and that maybe for some “finding an archenemy is easier.”

I really liked this — it’s a surprising meditation on what makes a hero and also what makes a friend. Watch it embedded below or click through to see it in HD.

This is an amazingly strong project for these students. I wish them the best of luck in what they do next.

“They have to relinquish their assertiveness and their identity. So their fantasy tends to be about being able to be strong and assertive and not be called an unwoman for it. Sailor Moon gets to be powerful and wear a flowing dress and get the guy and no one insists that by saving the day, she’s castrating Tuxedo Mask.”

– Barbara Guttman

Anime News Network’s Chicks on Anime discuss the differences (and sometimes similarities) between U.S. comics and manga with comic artist Barbara Guttman. It’s a great round table and I’m glad they’ve let us into the virtual room for this one.

Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew links to a commentary by Danny Hayes saying that the people who worked on Coraline were mostly men.

Amidi doesn’t necessarily disagree with that, but does point out that women are making a lot of cool animation (and commenters there do point out the contributions of women in the production of Coraline).

Animation is maybe a little bit more difficult than comics, but with programs like Flash and such out there now, animation isn’t off-limits to anyone who wants to try it. If the Coraline production was a boy’s club and unwelcoming to women, that’s disappointing to me, but I do have hope that it was these particular circumstances and not a conspiracy.

While the contributions of women in mainstream animation may be currently lacking, Amidi concludes with this:

“In other words, the animation world is currently experiencing an unprecedented diversification of its gender make-up, and as a result, the art form is becoming much richer and more interesting to watch.”

And I can only hope these voices begin to get wider recognition.

Publishers Weekly brings us What a Girl Wants is Often a Comic, which is partially about writing goddess Jane Yolen‘s upcoming comic for Dark Horse, The Last Dragon with art by Rebecca Guay (where has she been all my life?), but it’s about comics for girls in general and, well, just comics.

I liked Minx and I was sorry to see it go, but the article brings up the good point that teenage girls are pretty smart and often resist blatant marketing attempts toward them.

I think Umbrella Academy, which is discussed here, is a good example. Girls like Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance — why wouldn’t they pick up a comic by him? But it wasn’t specifically marketed as “a comic for girls.” Dark Horse just presented it as being a comic.

I think Dark Horse also does interesting things with their product lines — I have more than one stationery set from Dark Horse and a couple of journals. No, they’re not comics and often not even comic-related, but there’s something to the name recognition. They’ve created a brand that feels more inclusive.

Mostly, though, the major point here is that teenage girls, like most people, just like good stories. Sometimes that’s different that what boys like, but it doesn’t have to be (and I’m glad SLG president Dan Vado mentioned that teenage girls do like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac quite a bit. It’s not what most people would think of as a “comic for girls” but lots of them like it, just the same).

So: The way to get girls to read comics is to make good ones. Maybe not every girl is going to pick up a comic but I’m delighted that more and more are doing so.

(Uh, didn’t I say I’d write a review tonight? Um. I said “possibly.”)

Image from Rebecca Guay’s website. Yes, I want comics that look like that.

/Film reports that Angela Robinson is looking into continuing D.E.B.S. in comic-book form.

I’m not exactly sure if I made it through the entirety of D.E.B.S., which is kind of sad, because a movie based around the concept of “lesbians spies in school girl outfits” should be a winner. It’s not a terrible movie but I think the ideas are more fun than the execution of them. I’m going to guess the short-film version of it is better.

But I think it would actually work well as a comic series. The inherent campiness of the plot would work well in the medium and I think some of the problems with the movie (uneven performances, for instance) won’t be present in the series. I’d like to see this happen — I can just imagine the fun manga-inspired art that this title would have.

(The all-knowing Wikipedia informs me that director Angela Robinson drew D.E.B.S. comics while in college, which doesn’t surprise me. It just seems like a natural fit.)

The /film article also mentions a possible Veronica Mars comic series. I really like this medium-jumping. I think comics and TV series have a lot in common — they’re both serial and can tell larger, longer stories, but also need to be entertaining on their own.