Due to having gotten hired full-time by the place I’d been temping for all summer, I was only able to go to the New York Comic Con for two days instead of four this year. As a result, I had to carefully pick and choose which panels I attended, making sure that nothing overlapped too much and that I had ample time to get from one panel room to the next before the official start time.
The very first panel I attended on Saturday was for Womanthology, a highly successful Kickstarter-funded project whose aim is to bring more attention to writers and artists who want to create comics by pairing up new and unproven talent with other creators who have already been working in the industry. The unique part about this project is that all of the creators involved are female.
I’m pleased that I was able to get in to see this panel, and when you listen to the audio, you may understand why as well. Show notes after the jump:
- Once again, here’s the roster of the women on the panel (from left to right) with their links as provided by the Womanthology website: assistant project manager Laura Morley, who also acted as the panel moderator and narrated the Kickstarter video, Bonnie Burton (senior editor for StarWars.com, author of The Star Wars Craft Book), Mariah Huehner (associate editor at IDW Publishing, writer of the True Blood comics), Nicole Falk (illustrator for StarWars.com, writer/illustrator of Wolfboy), Suzannah Rowntree (editor at Archie Comics, character designer of Jinx!), and finally, Womanthology project manager Renae DeLiz (artist of The Last Unicorn comic).
- Here’s a link to Global Giving, the charity to whom they’ll be donating all of the profits from the book, if they get that far.
- In the interest of disclosure, there has been some criticism of the anthology from both men and women, pros and journalists (here are a few links; you can Google-search the rest and the official responses from the Womanthology editors on your own).
- As mentioned by Burton, “Awkward Embraces” follows the lives of three women who work for a romance novel publisher and was nicely reviewed by the New York Times. And if you haven’t seen an episode of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” yet, you can catch it on U.S. cable network The Hub, or via some well-meaning YouTube account holders.
- At this point, I’d like to apologize for the dodgy sound quality during the Q&A section of the panel because I’d moved away from my seat near the speakers and into the line for the audience microphone. I tried to fix as much in post as I could, but obviously it’s not the best. Next time, I’ll bring my audio cable so that I can plug my recorder directly into the sound board.
- The Wonder Woman “action slacks costume” is one that was adapted to be used in the now-defunct “Wonder Woman” reboot TV series. As for the version in the “New 52″ books? She’s gone back to her patriotic bathing suit.
- Here’s that Twitter roll-call once again: Laura Morley (@morleylaura), Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl), Mariah Huehner (@tiredfairy), Nicole Falk (@nicolefalk13), Suzannah Rowntree (@suzanimated), and Renae DeLiz (@renaedeliz). If you’d like to follow all of them at once, you can use this handy list that I created on the @geekingoutabout account: Womanthology-editors.
Personally speaking, as the submissions editor and contributor to a different kind of female-empowering comics anthology which will also be doing a Kickstarter campaign this December to help with publishing costs, I love the idea that people can come together so quickly to produce a quality product. I also have my reservations about some of the ideas and suggestions put forth in the panel, which I may discuss in a future Geekly Speaking About podcast.
Interestingly, a final note I have to add about why the idea behind Womanthology is so important comes from the result of a random search I did when I couldn’t remember what time the panel started and I found myself at Mindy Steffen’s website. Steffen is the creator of AER HEAD, an indie comic she created last year. She was also in the audience for the panel and was an attendee at last year’s NYCC as well; the difference between the two years for her was vast:
I noticed a significant difference in people’s general responses to me this year when I mentioned that I colored Marvel comics as Kyle Baker’s assistant. (I was careful not to look like I was blatantly name-dropping, and didn’t bring it up with everyone. It naturally came up in conversations). I had a published Deadpool Max comic to show as an example too. Last year, I toted my portfolio around to publishers and asked advice, and was told at worst that my style wasn’t what they were looking for, and at best to just submit samples online to the company’s general email, not to anyone specific. (I don’t like online art submissions, because like job submissions, I think they go into a black void and my time was wasted). But this year, people paid attention to me more! I got lots of positive feedback from the AER HEAD mini comics, and I may have gotten some possible leads to future projects – fingers crossed!
Now, I may just be a cynical so-and-so sometimes, but were the publishers and editors this year responding to her art and talent more on its own merits or the fact that she has worked with a known quantity and is therefore an approved member of the comics-making club? Will the same kind of recognition extend to all of the unknown talent in Womanthology? I most certainly hope so.
Comments? Feedback? Rebuttals? I look forward to hearing from you below.
