When the idea for this article about the impact of women on the comic industry came up, I couldn’t think of more than a handful of names right away. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the actual number of contributions women have made.
Comics have been, traditionally, thought of as a boy’s club industry. At least that has been my impression since I was a young girl in the 90's and 2000's. While it is true that comics have been predominantly male-centered in terms of creators, women have played a hand in many well known series. I’m going to be completely honest here, I knew it wasn't necessarily true that women couldn't make comics, but why couldn't I name them?
After doing some research, here is what stood out to me. There are far too many women who stand out in the history of comics to credit in a single article. A lot more than I anticipated. You can find a list of my sources at the end of this article for additional reading. This article isn’t about the portrayal of women in comics. This is about the real-life women who worked in the industry and changed it from the inside out, for the better.
The first big source for information I found was She Changed Comics by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF). The 160-page book, released in 2016, tells the stories of 60 different women who made their mark on the comics industry. I would highly recommend reading this book for anyone wanting to know about some of the history of women comics. It was incredibly successful on its Kickstarter Campaign, raising $66,741 with 1,570 backers. Quite a feat considering its initial goal was a modest $10,000.
Medium.com’s article about the history of women in comics and She Changed Comics pointed out that one of the highest paid cartoonists of all time, of any gender, was a woman from the early 20th century, Rose O’Neill. Rose was a suffragist who penned the comic strip called The Kewpies as early as 1909. Yet, I’d never heard of this woman, not even in my Illustration History or Art History classes at art school. How tragic, that a woman who was so successful in her day, and modern era by comparison, was never once mentioned to art students. I should note that for a long time, female students weren't even allowed at many art colleges. This barrier to getting educated in arts, or educated at all, certainly didn't help aid women in their desire to pursue comics.
Image Comics even picked up She Changed Comics so that it could be distributed in comic book stores across the country. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel was also successful, and was even made into a Tony Award-Winning Broadway Show. That sort of success for female creators was, and still is, an exception to the rule.
Even the National Cartoonists Society didn’t have any female members until 1950, 4 years after its creation in 1946. Despite Hilda Terry being inducted into the society, it was objected for numerous reason, including a concern from current male members that they “wouldn’t be able to curse” with her present. Once Terry was allowed in, she did start nominating fellow women, probably to the ire of her male peers.
Lots of women have their fair share of negative stories about working in comics. I certainly have my own list of negative interactions that I could share. However, I'll share two experiences from other women instead. Lauren Beukes (Fairest, Wonder Woman "The Problem with Cats", Survivors' Club, and many more) shared one with Variety:
“My landlord a few years ago told me he was proud of my success, but he’d never read my books because he doesn’t read books by women or about women,” Beukes says. “It’s the first time I’ve had it said to my face, but I imagine it happens a lot in comic shops and bookstores where guys just don’t pick up books with a woman’s name on the cover.”
Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Doll Bones, Lucifer, and many more) also pointed out some problems with gender bias:
“The discrimination I’ve seen manifests mostly in being overlooked,” Black says. “Whether that means getter fewer reviews, or having your work considered to be less universal or less serious, or not being asked to do panels that aren’t specifically about women — it’s largely subtle stuff that, unfortunately, adds up.”
In terms of diversity of creators themselves, within DC and Marvel, men outnumber women 9 to 1. Compare that to the estimates of the readership of comics, showing that 40% of readers are female. It’s also estimated that about 50% of the attendance of comic conventions are female. A lot of female creators will use gender-neutral or male names. Personally, I use a penname as well on my own series as well. Some choose to use female-only publishers, such as Wimmen's Comix which I'll get to next.
Another large step forward for women was the anthology Wimmen’s Comix by Trina Robbins, which featured only female creators during its 20-year run. All comics during those years, 1972 to 1992, were eventually features in a book from 2015 of the same name. In addition to her work with Wimmen’s Comix, she:
- Became the first woman to draw Wonder Woman comics starting in 1986
- Co-created Vampirella over 50 years ago
- Co-created It Ain’t Me, Babe Comix with her friend Barbara Mendes, the first ever woman-only comic book
All of that said, the spaces for women to feel included in the comic industry has changed. It has improved over time. Women are still struggling, as many of the top-challenged books over the last few years are by women creators. Many of them end up on the banned list for covering “adult topics” such as reproductive justice, sexuality, feminism, sexual harassment and even coming of age stories. One such title that has had notable amounts of trouble is “This One Summer” by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. The graphic novel was the first ever of its kind to be awarded.
In the past few years, #VisibleWomen created by the legend that is Kelly Sue DeConnick, has helped bring more attention to female creators. Trina Robbins and Louise Simonson, among many others, have been celebrated using the tag. Both creators, up in years now, are hardened veterans of the industry.
Simonson started her career at Warren Publishing, who eventually published works like Vampirella, where she was eventually promoted to Senior Editor of the comics line too! Later in her career, she worked for Marvel as an editor and writer on many titles: Red Sonja, The New Mutants, and Uncanny X-Men. According to ScreenRant, one of her best accomplishments was co-creating Doomsday, Superman’s deadliest enemy as well as the crossover, “The Death of Superman”.
Going back to Kelly Sue DeConnick, she herself has made some massive contributions to the comic industry besides her famous hashtag, including the founding of Bitch Planet with Image Comics. Other titles she’s worked on include, Avenger’s Assemble, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, and Detective Comics. Her work was a major factor in creating a space for more women to enter not only the professional business world with her #VisibleWomen tag, but also the comic industry specifically. She still yet added room to allow for more female characters to take the spotlight, and not just be sidepieces, damsels in distress, or victims of violence also referred to as “refrigerator women.”
We can’t possibly discuss women impacting comics without bringing up women of color. Women creators of color and women characters of color, have had a particularly tough time breaking the barriers into comics. In recent years, Marvel had the first-ever writing team with black women. Said team included Sana Amanat, Roxane Gay, Yona Harvey, and Ta-Nehisi Coates among many more, on Black Panther: World of Wakanda. While it's nice to note, it's only one example of change. It's not enough either, we need more change, more visibilty to truly have a proper voice for women creators of color.
Another woman of color making big waves in the comic industry is Myisha Haynes. Arguably, her most known project would be Gwenpool and The Substitues. Gwenpool stood out to me since I’ve made sure to keep up with releases. I had no idea that Haynes had penciled four issues! Why? I never really invested any time into checking the credits for what her specific role was, and honestly, I've been too lazy for a while on a lot of comics I read. I feel so guilty about it now. It’s sad what amazing creators we all could be missing out on if we are too lazy, some would argue too busy, to check who is making the content we are reading. Some of them would definitely surprise you! How often are you checking who is making your favorite comics?
Other notable women of Color that you need to check out are:
- Shequeta Smith, who created the first Black standalone superherione, “Rayven Choi”. This was a major step forward in representation as a creator and character. She also has launched her own publisher, Shero Comics.
- Erika Alexander and her Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spinoff, “Giles” among many others. She's also a successful and established Actress, Producer, and Writer. Quite the full plate!
- Amandla Stenberg’s contributions vary, but the most notable is a personal favorite, a co-creator for the Niobe series with Sebastian Jones at Stranger Comics. The two major comics here are Niobe: She is Life and Niobe: She is Death. I have each issue of this series, and it is a fantastic read!
In all honesty, before writing this article, I had very little knowledge of some of the major contributions in the comic industry being done by women of color, or even women at all! It’s really put my lack of knowledge about the history of my industry into perspective. Almost shameful that I knew so little.
Another creator making waves. that I'd like to feature here is G. Willow Wilson. Wilson converted to Islam during her college years and in the time since, has been able to contribute comics touching on the topics of religion and moving beyond gender and their stereotypes. One of her most notable works is Ms. Marvel, a teenage Muslim shapeshifter. The stereotype of the Muslim community, is admittedly, quite negative as stereotypes tend to be, and Wilson's work seeks to change this. It's been met with criticism and praise from many corners, even reaching talk shows. Approaching the topics of race and religion is difficult, with many readers and creators demanding that politics have no place in comics. However, I and many others, would argue that politics have always been part of this industry.
Seeking to change societal norms, or at minimum, question them. Sometimes used as propaganda. Comics are not immune and have been used in political agendas. With this in mind, what is the difference between the war propaganda below and speaking out about current injustices in society? Why is it, that these sorts of comics were deemed acceptable back then, but challenging societal now norms are not? Is war not abnormal in society?
Probably one of the women most outspoken in comics would be Gail Simone. Famous for many viral tweets, she starts conversations about gender, sexual orientation and race. Her confidence in addressing these topics shows up often in her work with many publishers, including Marvel and DC. One particular list gained a lot of attention, the “Women in Refrigerators” mentioned earlier in this post. The list contains stories that feature women put in demeaning and traumatic situations purely as a plot device to motivate male characters into acting. Not only does this reduce women to a non-sentient plot device, it glorifies the idea of men having to be a savior for women. This gives no credit to a woman’s own ability, or desire, to save herself or act on her own accord.
Gail herself has had other impacts on comics, such as her inclusion of LGBT characters in her works during a time there it’s still considered negative and pandering to do so. Some of the more popular titles she has contributed to include, Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, Deadpool, and Domino.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone, the women in comics also includes indie creators. There are lots of comics and magazines that feature women. We discussed a few of them above. One more collective seeking to promote more female voices is Women in Comics International. From their own website,
Women in Comics Collective International, (WinC for short, pronounced "wink"), is an artistic and informative initiative that began in May 2012.
WinC serves to highlight the merit and craftwork of marginalized voices, especially that of women and Queer folx of color, who work in various industries, such as comics, publishing, gaming, media, education, and multimedia. We host educational and professional events across the country.
We currently have multiple issues of WinC on Globalcomix! To get started, here is the first issue:
There are so many more creators I want to include in this article. I could write for days about all of the women that I read about in my research. I feel like I missed out on some form of childhood not knowing about these women and their impacts. I wish I had known then that the industry of comics was not too unobtainable. Maybe if I had known, I might have started sooner.
Please read through my sources to learn about even more amazing women (including women of color). It’s definitely not an exhaustive list, but it can be a fantastic tipping off point for anyone wanting to learn more about this hidden history of the comic book industry.
Resources:
- She Changed Comics by CBLDF
- She Changed Comics Honors Trailblazing Women Creators
- How Female Writers Changed the Comic Book Industry
- 12 Women Who Have Helped Transform the Comic Book Industry
- 10 Women Who Changed the Comic Book Industry ( & How)
- Women's History Month: Black Women in Comics
- Working in the Margins: Women in the Comic Book Industry
- Women Quietly Become a Force in Comic Book World
- WinC Magazine
Thank you all for reading! If you found this article insightful, please share with a friend or someone else who might enjoy this article! Have a wonderful rest of your week.
ArtCrumbs and the GlobalComix Team ~