In the mass of programming at this year’s NYCC, I was able to make it to a couple of panels aiming to discuss diversity and representation in comics. (There weren’t that many such panels to choose from, unfortunately, as has been pointed out.) The first was “Women in Comics”, moderated by Megan Kociolek (Youth Services Librarian at Nutley Public Library) and featuring comics creators Becky Cloonan (DEMO, Batman), Erica Schultz (M3), and Amy Chu of AlphaGirl Comics, as well as Emily Weisentstein from the Madison Public Library and Laura Pope-Robbins and Claudia McGivney, both of Downing College.
The panel kicked off with panelists highlighting what they’ve been reading recently, and progressed to a discussion of who has had the most impact on women in the comics universe. Batgirl writer Gail Simone was the first person mentioned, but Amy Chu also responded with a note of respect to writer Larry Hama: “Hama had a significant impact in terms of representation of women in mainstream comics. If you look at his comics in the ‘80’s with G.I.Joe and the way he rendered women and built women characters. They were real characters they weren’t just pinups.” Weisenstein also mentioned the influence of Jennifer Holm and her series Baby Mouse in getting both girls and boys to “go out and pick up a book with a pink cover.” Chris Claremont’s work in classic X-men stories, specifically taking Jean Grey from Marvel Girl to The Phoenix, was also cited as influential, as was the creation of Wonder Woman.
The creators on the panel discussed working in the comics medium and were quite positive about their experiences in the industry. “I’ve never felt any sort of exclusion or favoritism,” said Cloonan. As the discussion progressed, the panelists touched on disparity in the number of women working in mainstream comics – “The Big 2” – versus those involved working on projects that have wide distribution but are still considered indie, as well as the number of women working in Manga and producing web comics. Cloonan cited some statistics gathered by the blog DC Women Kicking Ass, showing that while 40% of attendees of last year’s NYCC were women, only 6.5% of the featured guests of the con were women this year. “We have to work on this,” she said. Schultz suggested that it would be great if there wasn’t a need for a Women in Comics panel. “I think if you have the talent, your gender or you orientation or whatever, none of that should come in,” she noted.
Another major topic of discussion was marketing of books to and by women. Amy Chu spoke about her successful Kickstarter projects and the ways technology is facilitating self-publishing and web comics. On the topic of reaching readers outside the standard demographic (18-35, male), Pope Robbins cited the success seen by Japanese manga publishers: “They grew the audience from children right through adults. There’s manga written for senior citizens. There is manga for every age and every interest.”
The panel indulged in their own fandoms a bit, highlighting some of their favorite female characters in comics. Erica Schultz named Rogue of the X-Men, eliciting cheers from the audience. Becky Cloonan cited female characters from manga and video games, and Buffy Summers was another popular choice among the panelists. The mention of Wonder Woman steered the panel in an interesting direction. “Her character is almost a victim of her success as an icon,” said Cloonan. Origins of popular male characters like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are well known in popular culture (even beaten to death in many cases) but most people aren’t fully aware of Wonder Woman’s background, largely due to her popularity as a symbol, above all. “That’s myth building,” Cloonan said of the origin tales, “and with Wonder Woman, I feel like she needs to have that. She needs her Killing Joke… she needs that one iconic story that everyone’s going to remember.” The panel further discussed the nature of the character through time, from her “Rosie the Riveter” style in the 40’s, to her portrayal as the secretary for the JSA in the 50’s. Said moderator Megan Kociolek, “It went from ‘You can do anything’ to ‘OK make babies and pies now please’.” The panel concluded with a brief discussion of upcoming projects and the panelists took questions from the audience, with topics ranging from their readership to the presence of women of color in their works.
NYCC also featured the well attended panel “LGBT & Allies in Comics,” presented by Geeks OUT and Times Out (of New York Times). Before the discussion started, they showed a charming video of fans discussing their favorite LGBT characters in comics and pop culture, from well known characters like Willow of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to characters like X-Force’s Rictor. New York Times Book Review Staff Editor Jude Biersdorfer moderated the discussion with comics creators Greg Pak (X-treme X-Men); Rich Bernatovech (Sentinels); the creator of openly gay Archie Comics character Kevin Keller, Dan Parent; author and comics writer Marjorie Liu (Astonishing X-Men); and Marvel Editor Daniel Ketchum.
The panel began with each creator talking a little about their LGBT characters and creations. Dan Parent mentioned an anecdote about Kevin Keller’s first on-page kiss and the controversy about Toys ‘R Us featuring Archie Comics with Kevin. Despite some upset amongst mothers, “The outrage caused the book to sell out,” Parent said. “Now I want them to protest every thing I do.” When asked about other feedback from parent groups, he said, “I get most of my responses from parents who are really happy to see a gay character in the Archie books, just because it opens the conversation.” Marjorie Liu, who wrote the ground breaking 2012 issue of Astonishing X-Men, in which the X-Man Northstar married his longtime boyfriend, talked about her disappointment at not yet being able to create a romantic interest for lesbian X-Man Karma, and her challenge writing the bisexual character Daken.
Greg Pak next discussed the “show vs. tell” aspect of the gay relationship between the characters Howlett (an alternative universe Wolverine) and the Greek demi-god Hercules in his book X-treme X-men. “For decades, the X-Men have been a stand in for minority groups of all kinds,” Pak said when asked if her were intentionally trying to get readers to rethink hetero-normative definitions with this version of Wolverine. “I did not feel like I was doing anything revolutionary when I was doing it. It just felt right … Howlett just seemed like the right partner for (Hercules). They’re adorable together.” Daniel Ketchum then responded to editorial questions regarding the Young Avengers character Prodigy coming out as bisexual. “Back when I started,” said Ketchum, “the question of a character being gay, or even the suggestion, we had to vet that all the way up the food chain. What’s amazing is that with Prodigy… it was no big discussion. It was just a really cool, natural outgrowth for that character.” He also discussed the element of depicting teen gay couples, specifically fan favorites Hulkling and Wiccan of Young Avengers. “There was a point at which we were told, you can’t show Hulking and Wiccan kissing on camera. Obviously that’s fallen away since, but there was a road to get there.” However, he pointed out, the world moving forward means these characters can now be depicted much more openly, especially after laws in New York state changed and legalized gay marriage. The introduction of Prodigy to their group no longer was pigeonholed as “the two gays on the team, and they’re gonna get together.” Ketchum was clearly excited to be able to explore how real gay relationships work in a world with multiple out characters.
Biersdorfer next purposefully addressed the T in LGBT with a discussion of popular transgender comics characters. DC comics famously introduced what they claimed to be the first trans* character in mainstream comics earlier this year in Batgirl, and Pak discussed the X-Men character Sasquatch. When Walter Langkowski died, his spirit was brought back to life in the body of fellow Alpha Flight member Snowbird, and for a time became Wanda Langkowski, even legally fighting to be recognized as “alive.” Fans applauded this discussion, and discussion by Pak about the changing gender definition of Loki over the years.
The panel also discussed the recent DC scandal regarding the entire creative team of Batwoman quitting after claiming DC would not allow Kate Kane to marry her girlfriend, Police Detective Maggie Sawyer. When asked to respond to DC’s editorial comment that superheroes shouldn’t be happy in their private lives, Liu referred to is as “lazy storytelling” and Bernatovech stated bluntly, “DC doesn’t want my money,” saying that the company had alienated a lot of their fans with these ideas and with the reboot of their line as the New 52. Pak did remind the audience, “If anything good ever happens to a superhero, eventually it will be turned over,” touching on the nature of dramatic storytelling all fans know to be true. “If your favorite superhero gets killed, don’t worry,” he joked. The conversation continued with Pak raising the discussion of the negative portrayal of gay characters as mentally and emotionally unstable, saying that in response to that, there is often a strong impulse then to create characters who are intentionally very stable. Pak said, “No one character should have to sustain the hopes and dreams of an entire community; we should be creating tons of characters so that no one of them has to be everything, because no one of us represent everything about our community.”
Biersdorf then likely set the Tumblr-verse aflame (we hope) asking the creators if they had any dream LGBT pairings in the comics world, characters they would like to see get together. Liu had previously spoken of her thoughts on the X-men Jubilee and X-23, who had shared an unforeseen sensual moment in X-23 #10. In that book Jubilee, now a vampire, had bitten X-23, and when the artist Sana Takeda drew the image, there was an implied sensuality that Liu had not expected. She also drew applause form the audience when speculating on the coupling of Daken and Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm. Let the shipping begin!
Wrapping up the discussion, panelists took questions from the audience regarding asexual characters in comics and the progress of LGBT characters in comics as real world laws change over time. Ketchum reminded everyone that in order to see more of the content readers love they should vote with their dollars. Liu added that it’s very important to continue such discussions in a hetero-normative climate, to raise awareness that “there is more complexity to sexuality; there is more complexity to race and gender than what is being presented.” She added, “It’s important to keep having this discussion because otherwise the conversation dies away.” The session concluded with the panelists autographing several copies of the posters that were created for the panel, the proceeds from which would be donated to an LGBT charity.
Both panels did a good job of presenting positive views on women and LGBT characters in comics, and both had their flaws. The Con itself could also have worked to be more inclusive, obviously, but these discussions are a step in the right direction, and steps that must continue to be taken in the future. Certainly there were other parts of NYCC that upheld these beliefs as well (though I was unable to attend, I’m told the Women of Marvel panel was positive as well), and we can hopefully look forward to more such content in the future.
