Or excuse me, asap, since lower-case letters are cool. But I guess I didn’t realize that women write and draw graphic novels. I guess someone lost their copy of A Century of Women Cartoonists.
I know, I shouldn’t complain too much and I really have nothing but admiration for the creators mentioned in the piece, but as these sorts of things go, it seems like the writer wanted to highlight only the “serious” comics by women. Where’s Jill Thompson? Where’s Raina Telgemeier? Where’s Colleen Doran? Where’s Megan Kelso? Where’s Chynna Clugston? Where’s the five dozen up-and-coming “manga” artists? (Since no one wants me to go on, just go here and Friends of Lulu will help you out.)
I’m all for women doing comics, obviously. I am, in theory, all for women who are doing comics getting written about (Telgemeier and her Babysitter’s Club adaptations were the topic of an Associated Press article last weekend, which delighted me). I guess, though, it’s that there’s all kinds of women doing all kinds of comics. The asap piece makes it seem like women who do comics are only doing one sort of thing — realism that’s quite often grittyy. That’s not at all true. Women in comics are a diverse group and I want them to be treated as such.
But small steps, I guess. We’ve barely escaped the “comics aren’t for kids anymore!” articles and the “young girls are reading lots of manga!” articles. This is kind of refreshing compared to that. In a way.
