Call for submissions: The history of Lois Lane

Looking for a few good guest posts.

As part of 75 Years of Lois Lane (Lois 75, for convenience), we’re putting together a series of posts on the history of Lois Lane, but there’s so much history that we can’t cover it all! We’re calling out to all you Lois experts, to make sure Lois is celebrated as she deserves to be: thoroughly, provocatively… and only after fact checking.

  • Subject: Overview of a specific era or adaptation, thematic essays, comparative essays, or a spotlight on a particular relationship or aspect of the character. Or something else amazing.
  • Length: 1500-3000 words (but it’s negotiable).
  • Deadline: May 13.

Get in touch with WWAC editor Megan Purdy for more details.

Master Post: Summer Movie Mini Carnival

womenwriteaboutcomics:

We hosted a mini carnival on this summer’s embarrassment of geek movie riches. Claire and Jess gave us their take on the Summer of Geek, and we organized a roundtable investigation into the State of Geek Cinema, with Claire, Maddy (3 Chicks) and Skalja (Fuck Yeah Spider-Wife).

Thanks again to all of our participants and readers!

Round Five: Summer Movie Wrap Up

womenwriteaboutcomics:

Don’t forget that we’re doing a mini-carnival this weekend! We want your thoughts on this past summer of the geek. Which movies did you love? Which did you hate? Which ones are you looking forward to? And what’s it all mean, anyway?

Tag your posts #wwacomics on Tumblr and Twitter, and we’ll pick them up for the carnival roundup.

Reblog please, my comics reading lady friends!

Round Five: Summer Movie Wrap Up

womenwriteaboutcomics:

Round Five: Summer Movie Wrap Up
September 15-16
#wwacomics on Twitter and Tumblr

Participating for the first time? Check out our FAQ.

It’s time for another round of the Women Write About Comics blog carnival, and this time we’re talking movies. This was supposed to be the summer of comic book movies, and certainly Avengers, Dark Knight Rises and Spider-Man filled seats. But how impressed were you with their ticket sales (considering their immense production and marketing budgets)? Did you fall in love with Black Widow and Catwoman? Or for other genre hit girls like Katniss and Merida? Have we reached comic book movie total saturation?

We want your highs, lows, predictions, and hell, your whole summer movie experience in review.

Reblog reblog reblog!

Harassment

*Repost as Tumblr ate the last one. I won’t lie though, it’s been massively rewritten.

*TW: discussion of harassment and rape threats.

This post is part of the Women Write About Comics blog carnival: Harassment and the Geek Blogosphere.

It’s funny. I linked to my first Women Write About Comics interview on Facebook. My friends and family were complaining that I didn’t post enough about my blogging exploits, and that it was hard to keep up. So I posted a link, with a short note about how exciting I found this moment—not just that’d I’d had the chance to interview Corrina Lawson, but that I’d given myself the opportunity to do it. It’s a small thing, but it was a long time in coming.

The WWAC interview project is designed to help women in comics, find other cool women in comics. But I also started it for myself. I needed a reason to take the leap from commenting on other writer’s work, to engaging with it more meaningfully. I also needed to learn how to interview people. I’m not a journalist. Through trial and error (and imitation), I taught myself how to write reviews, but interviews were a whole other terrifying kettle of fish. Maybe I wasn’t good enough, is the thing. Maybe this whole WWAC thing would backfire on me, and I’d have to deal with hordes of trolls. Maybe I’d embarrass myself in public, or fail, or, attract the wrong kind of attention.

I came of internet-age in pseudonymous fandom. Blogging under my own name, first at Toronto Comics Review, and now on WWAC, is still a big deal for me. In giving up my pseudonym, I gave away a layer of protection, in exchange for—hopefully—new opportunities, personal and professional. I’ve done a few email interviews now and things are going great. I’ll be doing some in-person interviews later this summer, and in the process, peeling back another layer of protection, and with it, another layer of anxiety.

The first comment I received on that interview was a trolling sideswipe. Someone came by, via that Facebook post, and told me to quit while I was ahead. Or rather, to quit now, before I could fail any harder than I already was. Typical trolling, and not something I’d usually take to heart. It hurt though, coming from someone I know, maybe a friend or a colleague. The next comment I received was incredibly nice and encouraging, and everyone else in my life has been sweet and supportive. They understand that posting my first interview is a big deal. Chances are, my troll got that too—that was the point, wasn’t it? Trolling doesn’t work if your target isn’t invested.

Read More

An interview with Saranga of New Readers... Start Here!

womenwriteaboutcomics:

I talked to Saranga of New Readers… Start Here! about Supergirl, LGBTQ representation in comics, and how the Big Two could do better at reaching new readers.

Check it out:

They don’t advertise enough. They especially don’t advertise outside of comics fans. In the UK, many people don’t even realise you can buy regular monthly Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, X-Men comics. It’s not advertised. With all the recent superhero films DC and Marvel should be advertising their websites as part of the pre-movie trailers. They should be giving sample comics away at the screenings. They shouldn’t rely on Free Comic Book Day, because the only folks that go to that, are already reading comics.

The comics industry should advertise themselves in magazines, on TV, on national or local news sites. Not on internet comic forums, or in their own books, or on the Big Bang Theory. They should advertise in arenas where people who have never heard of DC and Marvel will see the adverts. They should send samples to school and public libraries.

And when they do that, they should widen their target market. Don’t restrict themselves to 18-35 year old males (they are already buying the comics). Don’t create covers of iconic characters that look like Catwoman #0. Concentrate on telling good stories without succumbing to crossover hell. Create comics for young children, older children, teenagers, adults and old adults. And then tell them about the [rest of their] comics.

Read more.

This was fun.

Make Mine Manga, an interview with Melinda Beasi

womenwriteaboutcomics:

Melinda Beasi is founding editor of Manga Bookshelf and a great manga blogger in her own right. WWAC contributor, Claire Napier, interviewed her. It’s a long and awesome conversation. Go check it out.

I think an argument could be made that, in the simplest terms, this demonstrates the universal power of storytelling. That a middle-aged lady in western Massachusetts can feel such a strong connection to stories told by writers thousands of miles away, despite numerous cultural differences, is a pretty powerful testament to both the skill of those writers and the power of the medium they are working in.

I mention the medium specifically, here, because I think its visual nature is actually a major factor in making that connection so quickly and easily. As a reader, I don’t have to rely on my imagination alone to envision the world the artist has created, so things that might otherwise register as a cultural barrier are actually quite clear.

I am not sure what this says about either culture, except perhaps that I expect there is value for each in listening to the stories of the other. I have some pretty highfalutin’ ideas about the value of storytelling, including a deeply held belief that it is through stories that we (humans) share the most vital truths about ourselves and the universe we live in. I honestly believe that storytelling, in all its forms, is the most important thing we do as a species. So with that in mind, certainly cross-cultural storytelling can be an important tool for understanding each other.

Read more.

I love both of these women. That is all.

The Revolution Will Not Be Digital (Only), an interview with Corrina Lawson

womenwriteaboutcomics:

Corrina Lawson is a journalist-turned-blogger who’s written extensively about comics and the comics industry. She’s a contributor to GeekDad and Sequential Tart, and a senior editor of GeekMom. Corrina is also a fiction writer, and has just had her first comic book story published by Greyhaven Comics.

We talked about her writing and blogging, women’s spaces in the geekosphere, and about the future of the comics industry.

Here’s an excerpt:

One of the things I’ve noticed on the internet is that while men tend to talk to each other about stuff and keep it there, women build communities. They connect, they react out to each other emotionally, they build friendships and support each other. I was a weird kid in high school. I was a geek before it was cool and I was a girl who was a geek. Doubly problematic. It wasn’t until the internet that I found other groups of women who shared my interests, in writing or in comics or geeky pop culture. The moment when I realized that there were others like me out there and they were as glad to meet me as I was glad to meet them…it was huge for me.

All women may not need this but I think a great number of us feel the need to spend time with people who speak the same language, whatever that may be. I’ve found the best female friends in my life through the internet.

Read more.

Our first WWAC interview! There are lots more (seriously, LOTS MORE) coming.