{"id":4048,"date":"2016-10-29T08:31:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T13:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=4048"},"modified":"2016-11-02T06:32:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T11:32:25","slug":"misogyny-let-me-give-you-a-brief-history-lesson-of-the-comic-book-industry-and-its-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=4048","title":{"rendered":"Misogyny?! You need a history lesson on the comic book industry and it’s fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Certain types of blogs I do always generate backlash, they are blogs about the comic book industry and they always generate the same type backlash<\/span><\/p>\n

– I don’t care about the comic book industry. I don’t want to read about the comic book industry. Let the tights and capes people do what they are going to. It is boring.\u00a0 No one cares. I just want to read about how your life is a train wreck. I just want to see sneak previews of Arsenic Lullaby. –\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s like clockwork.\u00a0 Because my work is unique and seen in more than one media type, the bulk of my readers only really care about\/read one comic book… the one I do, and me talking about inside quibbling in comic books wears thin quickly.\u00a0 Alright…Fine…I’ll move onto something else…right after another three pages about the comic book industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

See, it’s just that…I handled the issue very calmly, and rationally\u00a0 in an open letter explaining why saying there is a misogynist problem in comics is unfair assertion, and did so in a mature level headed way…and I can’t go out like that. I just can’t, it goes against my very DNA, I won’t be able to sleep at night.\u00a0 This lady rolls into the industry for about two cups of coffee and lays out a claim about misogyny because all hell broke loose on a twitter page, where she has zero way of knowing if any of the bad apples where even comic books fans.
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I can’t stress that enough.\u00a0 She wanders onto twitter completely oblivious to it being the land of a-holes, as though she is some 65 year old who’s grand kids set up her account, runs into a bunch of a-holes, and then blames comics…because she is apparently completely unaware of the 70 plus years of contributions to the comic book industry by women and massive support of them by fans.<\/strong>\u00a0 Apparently completely unaware that comic books with female action heroes, and worked on by women, have been not only common place,but topping the sales SINCE BEFORE WORLD WAR TWO. <\/span><\/p>\n

Take all the charged emotion out of it and look at the simple equation.\u00a0 She writes a comic book and on her twitter feed she receives a flurry of negative comments. \u00a0 She writes a comic book and on her FB page and she does not receive a flurry of negative comments.\u00a0 What’s the variable there? hmmm?\u00a0 I watched her FB page while this was going on, she made similar posts and comments about the situation and did not receive the\u00a0 hassle on FB that she did on twitter… and yet normally rationally thinking people FAIL TO SEE THAT THE VARIABLE IS THE TWITTER PLATFORM. This is like dropping a brick of dry ice in a sandbox and not seeing any smoke form and dropping it into water and seeing smoke form and not realizing that the reason it started smoking was the difference between the two elements it was exposed to and not the dry ice itself.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps that was too complicated,\u00a0 what with it being hidden by all sorts of eye pollution like other words you have to read, so I’ll break it down again…<\/span><\/p>\n

Female writer + female comic book +twitter=she has to delete her page because of problem with vile comments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Female writer +female comic book + Facebook=she does not have to delete her page because of vile comments<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0That is the simple equation of it all and not one thing that has been written changes it any more than it changes that the chemical makeup of water is H2O.
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Misogyny-noun<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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1.<\/span><\/span>a<\/span> person<\/span> who<\/span> hates,<\/span> dislikes,<\/span> mistrusts,<\/span> or<\/span> mistreats<\/span> wome<\/span>n.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

The word Misogynistic got thrown around a lot last week on many comic related web sites, and was directed at fans of the comic book industry, “not all of them”.\u00a0 People like to say “not all of them” when they mean “all of them” or when they mean “all of them, except the ones who agree with me”.\u00a0 I know…I do it all the time. It’s the “sorry, not sorry” of insulting an entire group of people.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

See, in this day and age, in the climate we live in, when you say “some” of the comic book fans are “misogynists”, ALL comic book fans are viewed through a very cynical lens, and the industry itself is tarnished and credibility harmed.\u00a0 Because if it is boosted in part by misogyny, then it must be okay with misogyny to some degree. \u00a0 It was not just implied, but declared that there is a level of “misogyny” in the comic book industry fans, above and beyond what you find in other industries<\/strong>.<\/span> Which is, as I will point out, a statement that flies in the face of reality.\u00a0 And now there is comic book news article after comic book news article questioning whether or not there is a “misogyny” problem inherent in the comic book industry. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

***update, I made that sentence in blue…because even making part of it bold<\/strong> was not enough for some morons to understand what the premise I am arguing against is. read it slowly…pay attention to the bold print…after that read the rest of the blog slowly, morons***<\/p>\n

And the internet being what it is, nobody reads past the headline<\/strong> to see this is in question over a handful of incidents out of the THOUSANDS of comic book pros who interact with millions of people and that the incidents were occurring on twitter, and WITHOUT THEM BEING COMPARED to incidents of the same or worse nature, in a higher ratio everywhere else, in every other industry, in every corner of twitter, or even comparing them to the interactions by the same creator, at the same time, on a different social media platform.\u00a0 This is the ole “unfair dial” cranked up to 11 on the comic book fans.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the comic book industry had a misogyny problem, to the degree that was claimed,\u00a0 it wouldn’t have made it this far because a GIANT\u00a0 percentage of it’s talent, characters, innovations, and SALES ( money spent by fans on work done by women) is owed to female creators.\u00a0 And these are not token women or throw away titles.\u00a0 The women who have and had careers in the comic book industry earned those jobs and beat out men to get them and kept those jobs because fans supported their work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This lady, as evidence of misogyny, said she got tweets from “comic book fans” disgusted that a female character had her own book.\u00a0 WHAT?!\u00a0 She’s believed this was actually from a comic book fan? In what country?\u00a0 Yemen?! About half of the top 25 best selling comic books in the last sales figures (sept.2016 sales directly to comic book stores) either have a female creator, a lead female character on a team with the female prominently featured on the cover or is the solo book of a female character.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In the top 25 in sales, the order of popularity of characters with solo books goes like this 1-Batman 2-Supergil 3-The Flash 4-Harely Quinn 5-Superman 6-Wonder Woman 7- Spider-man.\u00a0 HARELY QUINN AND WONDER WOMAN BOTH OUT SELL SPIDER-MAN<\/strong>.\u00a0 And Deadpool, Captain America, and Green Arrow don’t even come close to either of them in sales. More comic book fans buy Harely Quinn or Wonder Woman than Thor, Dr.Strange, The Avengers, The X-men, Green Lantern, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hellboy, Daredevil, the Punisher…you name it, they outsell it. SUPERGIRL’S BOOK OUTSELLS EVERY SINGLE OTHER MALE CHARACTER’S BOOK EXCEPT BATMAN.\u00a0 <\/strong>I don’t have time to break down the whole top 100 down for you but there are a whole lot of other female comic book characters and female professionals all up in that mix. <\/strong>So how could anyone in their right mind see that tweet and not realize it was some random lunatic who has probably never laid eyes on a comic book rack.\u00a0 If that person reads comic books and is “disgusted” that a female has her own book…he must be in a living hell every time he walks into a comic book store.<\/strong>\u00a0 IF…he actually reads comic books (which he doesn’t), and isn’t just some twitter troll (which he is).
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This would be like saying that there is a viable percentage of people who watch pro golf who hate middle aged white guys, because some trolls on the internet said middle aged white guys shouldn’t play golf. That…is looking through the wrong end of the telescope. <\/span><\/p>\n

Comic books about about female super heroes aren’t just accepted, or have a following, or are doing well…they are kicking the ass of most other books.\u00a0 Now if Cain is going to roll into an industry that she apparently knows nothing about, out of the clear blue at age 40 something, write 8 issues, and then cast an aspersion on the industry based on a sampling of trolls on twitter…that’s on her.\u00a0 But you ought to know better.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the people who are going on as though this woman, who wasn’t savvy enough to avoid a typical twitter clusterf*ck, is some brave pioneer who has weathered slings and arrows, to fly in the face of the norm, and challenging some misogynistic comic book patriarchy breaking new ground being a female creator in the comic book industry…Are sh*tting me?
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\"marieseverin1\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This industry had women in major roles, on major books, for major publishers, who were free to be innovative and add their voice to the projects, back when other industries were still restricting the contribution of women to them picking up lunch at the automat, and this was all able to happen because the FANS didn’t give a sh*t who worked on the book as long as it was good.\u00a0 This industry has a right to be proud of itself for it’s track record and everyone working in it, and fan of it, has a right to hold their head up high.\u00a0 And has a right to respond to the ludicrous accusations with “our track record speaks for itself, take your projecting somewhere else and don’t involve us in the rest of the world’s bullsh*t”<\/strong>…I would add “now buy something or move the f*ck on” but that’s just me.
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The first woman who popped into my mind as “misogynistic” was being flung around, was Marie Severin <\/strong>(photo above) who\u00a0 colored for EC comics in the 1950’s and eventually illustrated on Marvel super hero books. She co-created SpiderWoman in 1974.<\/strong>\u00a0 “What’s that?\u00a0 There was a female super hero with her own book in 1974?\u00a0 You mean…the female super hero books out now aren’t pioneering that?!”\u00a0 No…they are not…neither was Spider Woman in 1974, she was about 35 years late, but more on that later. \u00a0 In between those two highlights was a formidable career in which Marie worked on many other books, FROM TOP PUBLISHERS…books that were successful BECAUSE FANS SUPPORTED THEM, too many for me to track down, much less remember off the top of my head.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

**correction, I have been informed that Spider-Woman actually first appeared in 1977 not 1974…eh, that’s pretty close for just off the top of my head.\u00a0 No doubt the misogynist male comic book fan remembers that date because it was such a dark day for the comic book world***<\/p>\n

And her work mattered to millions of fans.<\/span><\/p>\n

EC comics is and was the gold standard of quality in the industry and her innovative coloring of their celebrated horror comics was a big reason why.\u00a0 Yeah, Horror comics, they didn’t just, because she is a woman,\u00a0 regulate her to funny books or romance comics. She colored Tales From The Crypt<\/strong>….perhaps you’ve heard of it?\u00a0 She helped make that book a success. I remember her coloring in particular because she had a technique that was really innovative and groundbreaking.\u00a0 She would color some particular image with just blue, inside of a full color panel.\u00a0 For instance, the disemboweled body would be all in blue in the foreground and the rest of the panel would be full color…like somehow only the body was in shadow. This dialed back the gore and focused on the gore at the same time…ingenious.\u00a0 I am of the opinion that in most cases, what you imagine to be happening is often more horrific than what anyone can draw.\u00a0 So gore that happens off camera can be very effective. EC was big on showing gore, but coloring the gory part in blue dialed it back enough to give your imagination some free reign and gave the books a more classy and creepy feel than their over the top competitors.\u00a0 I might not be explaining that well. I’d just show you a page but my scanner isn’t working.\u00a0 Just ask ANY comic book fan to show you her work, they probably have a EC collection you can look at, it’s pretty much a staple of any comic book collection…just don’t tell them Marie is a girls name or they’ll throw it out the window because you know…Misogyny demands it of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, the point is she was given the freedom to be innovative and the titles she worked on where some of the best selling books of the golden age (OVER SIXTY YEARS AGO). Meaning more FANS bought HER books than most others, including books colored by men.\u00a0 Her work has been praised and reprinted and collected into hardcover editions continually since.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 She got work on some of the best books and fans bought them by the millions.\u00a0 And this happened at a time when giving a woman a job that a man wanted was a rare thing…much less giving her the best job in the office.\u00a0 60…years…ago,\u00a0 the industry was doing this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever watch MadMen?\u00a0 Donald Draper promoting Peggy to a creative position was head turning…that was set in 1960, and the scenario was used to show the progress that was just beginning in that, and other industries, at that time.\u00a0 Marie was working in a prominent creative job at THE major comic book publisher in 1950.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever hear of Wonder Woman?\u00a0 She was co-created by Elizabeth Holloway Marston in 1942.\u00a0 and edited by Alice Marble<\/span><\/p>\n

But the first female action hero in comics created by a woman was Miss Fury. Created by June Mills in 1941.\u00a0 1941…and that’s not even the first female action hero, that’s the first female action hero created by a woman.\u00a0 Was there a whole lot of female action hero’s in movies then?\u00a0 I can’t recall any. How about female movie directors?\u00a0 any?\u00a0 1941, Female comic book character created and written by a woman, and FANS bought the hell out of it.\u00a0 The character even got painted onto a plane or two by U.S. Air-force MALE COMIC BOOK FANS.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would be remiss to not mention Ann Nocenti who had a hand in a whole lot of marvel books and was driving creative force in Marvel when I was growing up as, either an editor or writer, including some of the best selling issues of Daredevil.\u00a0 From what I understand Ann had a dust up or two with Marvel management about things she wanted to do.\u00a0 I say that to point out that we aren’t talking about “yes women” who would go along to get along.\u00a0 These women wanted to and did leave their unique mark on the books they helped become successful.
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Those are just a few women who were blazing the trail decades ago, with innovative work that was wildly supported by fans. and whose careers flourished because the fans paid their hard earned money for their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you think, perhaps in recent years, the industry and importance of female characters and writers somehow drifted back to the stature and attitudes about women from the industrial revolution…
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Allow me to introduce Faith, to those of you still not aware of her.\u00a0 Published by Valiant Entertainment. And yes, Jody and Marguerite are girls names…women worked on this book.
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\"faith_001_cover-b_sauvage\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Not exactly the normal body archetype for a female super hero is it?\u00a0 This industry, as usual<\/strong>, is at the forefront of expanding acceptance of characters outside the usual archetype.\u00a0 Those of you looking down on this industry.\u00a0 Is there a popular video game character who looks life Faith? Tell me the last action movie you saw with a female lead that looked like Faith?\u00a0 HMM? Or an action t.v. show, or for that matter any movie or t.v. show with a female lead that looks like Faith, that isn’t a comedy? Name some….I’ll wait…you got NUTHIN’.
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It’s a Female lead character, with a female writer, with a body positive message, and it has been going on for years.\u00a0 and it’s not just a gimmick. It’s a well written book, with a character that is integral to the rest of the Valiant comic book universe.\u00a0 AND…the character got her own series because THE FANS, wanted it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could give you other examples of women doing great work in today’s market…but I work in this industry too and that’s gonna get counterproductive in regards to my bottom line. Needless to say, there are women right now in the field that are loved by fans and so good at their job that I ain’t gonna give them a free plug, for the sake of my own career.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve probably made my point already, but since I found the accusations so vile, unfair, and IGNORANT of the actual attitude of the industry for the past 70 YEARS, I am going to pile on.\u00a0 And if you are one who cast the aspersion that this industries fans has a level of misogyny not seen elsewhere, and begin to feel embarrassed in seeing all the books that were created by women..and succeeded because the FANS loved them, be double embarrassed because I a GUY am the one who is having to tell you this.\u00a0 ME, Douglas Paszkiewicz, I am an awful human being and everyone knows it, and I revel in it.\u00a0 If there was a level of misogyny in this industry of a higher degree or percentage than other industries…I …WOULD…KNOW IT.\u00a0 I would be off somewhere cackling with them and making lewd comments, instead of educating your ignorant ass about all the women who where\/are vitally important to this industry. \u00a0 I am a compete jerk who, by and large, doesn’t give a rats ass about anyone’s book by my own, and even I am well aware that the industry is where it is because of the work of women and the fans supporting that work. <\/span><\/p>\n

You oughta be ashamed of yourself, that you are learning this from ME, rather than YOU knowing this yourself, or you yourself touting all the great comic book work women have done.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would wager the comic book fans you slighted and called misogynist would be able to give you even more examples of great work by women.\u00a0 This industry owes more to female creators and characters than probably any other industry and there isn’t a comic book fan out there that doesn’t know that.
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Rather than combat any a-hole, who claims to be a comic book fan ,who feels there should not be a female comic book, with the DELUGE of examples of how important female characters and pros are and have been…you declare the industry has a problem.<\/strong> \u00a0 So, who is the real misogynist here?\u00a0 Because it seems to me, that YOU ignoring the hard work of women and crediting the existence of an entire industry to men and claiming it is a world of men, is pretty F*CKING MISOGYNISTIC.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>These claims against this industry are ignorant, repugnant and absurd. And this industry should be defending itself against piss ant, pot shots with the nuclear bomb of it’s 70 plus year history of work by women on the most popular projects from the largest publishers, being supported by fans.
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If there is any misogyny problem in any percentage the comic book industry, it is not inherent to it, it is inherent to a percentage of all of humanity.\u00a0 I present to\u00a0 you as evidence …the incident report files from every human resources department in any other industry on earth.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

…Industries that have no where near the track record of supporting women as this one does, or going back as far as this one does.\u00a0 The comic book industry has a misogyny problem?! What the f*ck world are you living in?!\u00a0 Maybe stop spending so much time on twitter and research a little…maybe…hmmm?…maybe that’d be a good idea, so that you actually know what you’re talking about before you claim misogyny of an industry that has a 70 year and still counting track record in the EXACT OPPOSITE DIRECTION, and puts most other industries to shame with it’s support of female characters and creators.<\/strong>
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…but I digress…<\/span><\/p>\n

The Phantom Lady was one of the biggest hits’ of the golden age and has been collected and reprinted at the demand of fans ever since…most of it written by Ruth Roche.\u00a0 On a side note, Phantom Lady was drawn by Matt Baker who was Black.\u00a0 …My memory could be fuzzy on that, but I’m almost positive I’m right.\u00a0 If I’m right and Matt Baker drew the Phantom Lady, then you had a top selling book being written by a woman and drawn by a Black man in 1950.\u00a0 Wanna find me some other industry where the two best jobs in the office were owned by a woman and a black man in 1950!?\u00a0 I’ll wait….<\/span><\/p>\n

Tigra\/Greer Nelson is a Marvel character that ebs and flows in popularity.\u00a0 She was a super hero who’s origin was steeped in women’s lib and created by Linda Fite in 1972!\u00a0 How about you ask HER about her “feminist agenda”…you’ll need a time machine to take you back 40 years, when she was first intertwining a feminist message into a super hero comic book.\u00a0 <\/strong>Oh, you thought ground was being broken in comics on that in 2016?…you’re adorable.\u00a0 It was probably being addressed long before that for all I know.
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…actually, now that I think about it, it was, Lorna the Jungle Girl’s entire running gag was that she kept saving a male chauvinistic supporting character.\u00a0 That was a golden age book…sometime in the EARLY FIFITES.\u00a0<\/strong> and it had BIG sales.\u00a0 I think Werner Roth drew some of it, don’t remember who wrote it…go ask some misogynistic comic book fan. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most influential FAN magazines of the 80’s and 90’s Comics Buyer’s Guide, was run by Maggie Thompson.\u00a0 This was a magazine that helped make careers of comic book pros, and guided the dispositions of fans, and helped give a voice to comic fandom and helped it grow into what it is today.\u00a0 Maggie is a woman…In case my point was too subtle.\u00a0 In case it got by you…a WOMAN helped pioneer making “fandom” a thing.\u00a0 Fandom grew into what it is today …in part because of Comics Buyer’s Guide…which was run by a WOMAN.<\/strong>\u00a0 I hope you got it that time because I do have some comic book fans who read my blog and if I use the “w” word one more time they’re gonna punch the computer screen and run to their therapist to scream about how much they hate their mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are just some examples off the top of my head from different eras, fields, and genre’s, of important work by women and supported by fans. But you know what, I’m still not satisfied.\u00a0 I think a full on curb stomp, of the notion that there is a misogynistic undercurrent that exists only in the comic book industry, is called for.\u00a0 Here is a list of some other NOTABLE female contributors to an industry that employs, celebrates, and owes much of it’s success to women and has, even way back at the beginning, when other industries would not consider letting a woman rise past the level of secretary.\u00a0 Keep in mind that in order to have a successful career you need FANS who support you and buy your work. Scroll down nice and slow so you realize what ignoramuses the people who declared that comic fandom has a misogyny problem are… not all those people, just “some of them”.\u00a0 These are just SOME notable examples.\u00a0 There are many many other examples not listed, because trying to make a list of prominent female comic book contributors is asinine in and of itself…it’s like trying to make a list of Latino Baseball players.<\/strong> Want some more?\u00a0 Ask some “misogynistic” comic book fan.
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I’ll let myself out while you read through the list, I just realized my colorist is a woman so I have to go fire her before the fans figure out her gender and take back all the praise they’ve been giving her work. <\/span><\/p>\n

Platinum Age (1897\u20131937)<\/span><\/h4>\n