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Comics Debbie Likes

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By Debbie Lynn Smith

This week I thought I’d talk about a few of my favorite comics and why I’m hooked on them.

Lazarus
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Michael Lark

My favorite comic right now is Lazarus. In a dystopian near-future, where there is no government other than the Families who have carved up all the world’s resources and those without, known as the Waste, have very little hope of improving their circumstances. A handful of Families rule, jealously guarding what they have and exploiting the Waste who struggle to survive in their domains. Forever Carlyle is the family Carlyle’s Lazarus, a cybernetic warrior pledged to carry out the family’s dirty work on their path to control their population. Forever is our protagonist and has far more depth than her role as coldhearted killer would initially suggest.

I absolutely love Forever. She is a complex character who is strong and lethal, and yet harbors a soft interior. She actually works against her “programming” as she begins to discover the truth of her heritage and question her allegiances.

Even though Forever lives in a dystopian future very different from our own, I find her journey realistic and compelling. I can’t wait for each issue to come out.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Written by Ryan North
Art by Erica Henderson

Squirrel girl couldn’t be more different than Lazarus. It is clever, funny and, once again, has a compelling female protagonist.

Squirrel Girl comes from Marvel. Yes, you heard correctly. And yes, I’m not a fan of superhero comics, but this one is totally different.

Squirrel Girl herself, created in 1992 by Will Murray and Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spider-Man), but given her very own comic book only this year, is Doreen Green: a chubby-cheeked, awkward, yet preternaturally confident first-year student studying computer science at a college that looks a lot like NYU. She “secretly has all the powers of both squirrel and girl.” For example, she has a tail, and talks to squirrels, and they talk back. Doreen’s favorite pet squirrel, Tippy-Toe, came with her to college, though squirrels aren’t allowed in the dorms; Tippy-Toe lives in a nearby tree and gives Squirrel Girl advice.

What I like the most about Squirrel Girl is that she solves problems not through direct confrontation (squirrel powers vs. cosmic force: not a good match) but through the kind of cheerful turning aside of wrath, the playful offering of alternatives, that actual kids are often told to use in playground fights.

Finally, Squirrel Girl is softer, rounder, shorter and more realistic than your usual super hero.  She’s a great role model for girls and women alike!

The Spirit
Written by Matt Wagner
Art by Dan Schkade

Growing up I was a fan of detective shows. I loved Mannix, Mike Hammer, Honey West, The Cat, 77 Sunset Strip… I could go on and on and I haven’t even mentioned Humphrey Bogart movies!

So when I saw that Dynamite had brought out a new The Spirit comic, I couldn’t resist. I was not disappointed. This comic has all the mystery, noir atmosphere and camp needed to delight that little girl in me.

Set in the classic period of The Spirit’s golden age, the 1940s, the first 12-issue story arc follows the strip’s most beloved characters, Commissioner Dolan, his daughter Ellen, Ebony White and Sammy as they attempt to uncover why The Spirit has been missing, and presumed dead, for the past two years. Has the famous blue-masked hero finally fallen victim to one of the malicious felons or beautiful femme fatales from his lengthy rogues’ gallery of enemies? In the words of Central City’s most prominent headlines: “WHO KILLED THE SPIRIT?”

There are only two issues of this comic out, but so far I’m a fan, though I am NOT a fan of all the advertisements in the middle of the book breaking up the story and assaulting my eyes with images of women with impossible bodies.  But alas, that is the way things are these days so I simply let my eyes glaze over as I look for the next page of story.

I chose to give you an overview of just three of the comics I’m reading these days. I’m reading many more, some of which I’ve already mentioned in previous posts

A Shout Out to Men Supportring Women in Comics

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 By D. Lynn Smith

When I decided to found Kymera Press, I was somewhat hesitant because of all the press about online rape and death threats women in comics were receiving. I was afraid that might happen to me as well. However while some women continue be harassed, I have not been harassed at all. As a matter of fact, I have found men to be very supportive of what Kymera Press is all about.

At conventions I’m constantly talking to men who are looking for comics with strong, women protagonists that are drawn realistically to buy for their daughters. Recently, I got a letter from one of those men:

I am a long-time comic fan and have been enjoying this iconic form of storytelling since I was a little boy. I read the information you provided on your webpage and I find it fantastic that the medium has inspired you to create comics. I’ve recently realized the voice and experiences that people are not getting in the comic world due to the lack of women’s vantage points and style being present.

A woman’s ideas and vantage point are necessary to be able to get a full life’s experience and one of our greatest ways of sharing with one another is with storytelling. My daughters are amazing and I don’t want anyone, or more importantly any idea/culture breeding into their minds that they are supposed to be a certain way or have limits because they are females. I feel comics are a medium that can get positive, supportive, influential concepts, and cultural ideologies out there in our society even though so few people read comics.  I admire and respect very much what you are doing with Kymera Press and the people who are doing it with you and I wanted to just say to keep on keeping on and to make more amazing female characters for women and men to appreciate.

Curtis Shellman

This is just an excerpt of a much longer letter. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have men sending me letters like this. And I’m not alone.

I attended a panel at the Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con on women in comics. One of the women on the panel was Renae Geerlings, the managing editor of Darby Pop Publishing. When this issue came up on the panel, she also commented that she has received nothing but support from the men she works with and from male fans.

At the Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con, a Marine who was working at a recruiting station stopped by and picked up Gates of Midnight. He came back the next day and told me how much he enjoyed the comic. A marine! This told me I was doing something right with Raven’s character.

There is still a very real problem out there when it comes to women in comics. Just this past month at Gen Con a Women in Comics panel had all men scheduled on it. When women were added, the moderator interrupted and generally treated them with a lack of respect. So the fight for women continues.

However, as with all things, not all men are like this. But as with all news reporting, we only hear about the bad things that happen, and not about all the support many men are giving to the advancement of women in comics. So this blog post is a shout out to all you men who are supporting women in comics and are looking for a strong, women protagonist for your daughters. Thank you for your support, your comments, your reviews, and your letters. They mean the world to all of us.

Richard Matheson and Lynda Carter in New Comics

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By D. Lynn Smith 

You all know I’m a big fan of horror. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love a good horror story. Like many people my age, I used to run home from school to watch Dark Shadows every afternoon. During the same period of time, I discovered the late-night horror host Ghoulardi and saw horror movies that would never be considered anything other than B-movies, but were great fun to watch.

It was also during this time period that I saw the movie, The Incredible Shrinking Man, adapted by Richard Matheson from his own novel. The thing that really has stuck in my head after all of these years is the scene of a man, tiny enough to make a bed in a matchbox, using a needle to fight off a spider that towers over him. It’s the stuff that nightmares are made of. So imagine my delight when I go to my neighborhood comic bookstore, Alternate Realities Comics, this past week and find The Shrinking Man comic! Just looking at the title, with Richard Matheson’s name prominent at the top, took me back to my childhood.

At lunch that day I described the “spider” scene to my husband who has never seen the 1957 movie. He promptly googled the movie and found a picture of the very scene I was describing, delighting in my shudder when he showed it to me on his phone.

In case you don’t know who Richard Matheson is, he’s one of the most revered horror writers there’s ever been. He wrote I Am Legend, Hell House, Duel, Trilogy of Terror (who can forget Linda Black fighting the little devil doll) and Nightstalker. And then there’s the lesser known Dead of Night, with the segment called Bobby, which scared me even more than the Devil Doll ever did.  Richard Matheson inspired more of my nightmares than any other horror writer and I love him for it! (For those of you who are not horror enthusiasts, Matheson also wrote the movie classic, Time After Time, staring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve.)

What’s great about the comic is that Ted Adams, who did the adaptation, lifted some of Matheson’s dialogue right out of the novel. This is a man who loved Matheson’s work and who has created a comic faithful not only to Richard Matheson, but to my own memories. It’s now on my pull list.The Shrinking Man

 

Whereas The Shrinking Man took me back to the 60s, this graphic novel brought back memories of a decade later. In the 1970s, Lynda Carter starred as Wonder Woman on CBS. The graphic novel, Wonder Woman ’77 Special, celebrates the television series. The art is all based on the actors from that series and there are six vignettes that come straight from actual episodes.

Reading Wonder Woman ’77 Special transported me back to when I was just graduating high school and trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. Wonder Woman presented a strong, independent woman who was an undercover spy right alongside her male counterpart. She claimed her place in history as a modern heroine in a man’s world. (I was a big fan of The Bionic Woman, which was also airing at the time.)

Wonder Woman 77 SpecialThe WW graphic novel took me back to a time when I was trying to figure out what it meant to be an adult woman and it reminded me how far I’ve come since then.

So this past week was about nostalgia for me, a time for thinking about where I’ve been and where I’m going, and a time for being very proud and happy I’m working in this field.

What Fun Home and Bitch Planet Have in Common

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By D. Lynn Smith

A while back, Fun Home won the Tony for best musical. And guess what? It’s based on a graphic novel written by Alison Bechdel. Here is what Fun Home is all about…

"Funhomecover". Via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Funhomecover.jpg#/media/File:Funhomecover.jpg
“Funhomecover”. Via Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Funhomecover.jpg#/media/File:Funhomecover.jpg

“In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the “Fun Home.” It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.”

In this world where superheroes dominate the cinema, it is exhilarating to see a graphic novel about a very real woman in a very real relationship garner so much public attention and accolades. It also lends credence to the fact that graphic novels aren’t just for kids, but are great reading for everyone. However, reading a graphic novel is not the same as reading a prose novel.

The other day, a friend of mine who had asked for copies of Gates of Midnight, but was not a comic book reader, told me he had a very difficult time reading the comic until he remembered what I had told him, the story isn’t told by the words, it’s told by the art. Once he remembered that, he went back and was able to enjoy the comic, though it was a lot slower reading than he expected.

Alison Bechdel is quoted as saying, “It’s very important for me that people be able to read the images in the same kind of gradually unfolding way as they’re reading the text. I don’t like pictures that don’t have information in them. I want pictures that you have to read, that you have to decode, that take time, that you can get lost in. Otherwise what’s the point?”

Graphic novels and comics are an art form that takes time to appreciate. It also takes time to learn how to read them in order to catch every nuance, every bit of storytelling on the page. Whenever I hear someone say that they don’t read comics because they don’t have the depth of story as a short story or a novel, I have to think that they simply haven’t taken the time to learn to read the art as well as the words.

"BitchPlanetcover01" by Valentine De Landro - https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/bitch-planet-1. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BitchPlanetcover01.png#/media/File:BitchPlanetcover01.png
“BitchPlanetcover01” by Valentine De Landro – https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/bitch-planet-1. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BitchPlanetcover01.png#/media/File:BitchPlanetcover01.png

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet is a great example of the art telling the story. Bitch Planet is a women-in-prison sci-fi exploitation riff. Any woman who is noncompliant is sentenced to Bitch Planet. It also happens to be the place… “…where inconvenient women are disappeared.” It is unapologetically feminist and great fun to read.

In issue #2, artist Valentine de Landro draws three women running and talking. One woman falls behind. The action in the foreground revolves around the two women as they keep running; this is where the dialog happens. But in the background a guard is attacking the third woman. As each panel progresses, there are more guards and more inmates joining the fray. While we get important information from the women in the foreground, a full-blown prison riot erupts in the background.

So if you’re only reading the words, you’ll completely miss the prison riot, which adds loads of layers to the story, and is important in showing just how brutal Bitch Planet really is.

I’m still working on my ability to write layered stories like this. But when I read something like Fun Home or Bitch Planet, I’m inspired to keep working on my craft in order to bring a richer reading experience to Gates of Midnight.

On a side note, I highly recommend Bitch Planet not just for the awesome, in-your-face, no-holds-barred story, but also for the excellent essays included in each issue.

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