Oh No What Is This

ladiesmakingcomics:

Every so often, someone decides to throw together a list, or sometimes even an exhibition of “great cartoonists/comics artists”, and it’s inevitably almost exclusively men.  This is followed up by a week or so of blogging about “why aren’t there any great women comics artists? Or who is going unrecognized?”  Inevitably, as these things go, it becomes just a cluster of wank where no one’s mind gets changed about any thing and we all walk away wanting to scream into our pillows.

Rarely do these discussions delve into the definition or rubric of “greatness”.  If they do, the criteria is almost always self-justifying, the subtext of which is “it’s the same guys ~everyone~ have always said were great.”

I’ve observed and even been party to a few of these discussion, it was a topic that arose at the SPX Secret History of Women in Comics panel, and it is a question that has been much on my mind lately, since the new Catwoman and Starfire depictions (and ensuing wank) had the odd fortune of coming out the same day as Craig Thompson’s Habibi—which left me wracked with weeping, heaving sobs of both agony and ecstasy after a four-hour marathon reading session, followed up by me hand-writing Thompson begging him to submit the book to the Pulitzer committee, because Spiegelman has had those exclusive bragging rights for far too long.  

Basically, I almost couldn’t bother to pay attention to the Catwoman and Starfire controversies because it all seemed so empty after reading Habibi.  Don’t get me wrong, sexist depiction of ladies are always a problem, and nor have I transformed into an indie snob who is ~so above~ “long underwear” (and transparent bikini) comics.  Just that in one remarkable moment of synchronicity, I couldn’t bring myself to care.  I have to some extent returned to the initial transcendent high that first got me reading comics, when Sandman blew my 16-year-old mind, soon followed by V for Vendetta, From Hell, and of course Watchmen. In short, I started thinking about what makes comics “great” again.

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(Source: ladiesmakingcomics)