Not Your Goddamn Comics Pet

Go to technorati.com.
Search for "lea hernandez", quotes and all.
Read the entries that come up.
See how using Miller and Lee's ass panel as an example of what's wrong with comics and on eof MANY reasons I walked away has turned into, in the hands of bloggers who are only reading other bloggers, my "last straw."

CORRECT YOUR BLOGS, PEOPLE. I NEVER SAID THAT.

It's facile to suggest someone just "start a company" and add some balance to the business. Anyone saying that knows two things about my career: JACK and SHIT.

I launched and edited a comics site of works aimed at women, girlamatic.com, from its inception in March 2003 until July of 2005.
I've written and drawn three graphic novels (and working on two more) BY MYSELF, and co-created one more with Gail Simone.
I started the anime and manga column at Wizard in 1995, being in the enemy camp and all, yo.
I retouched, and later rewrote, manga. My experience in that field encompasses most of my career, and includes What's Michael, which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Humor.
I've written a book on manga technique.
I've taught weekend courses at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Savannah College of Art and Design, two of the pre-eminent art schools in the U.S.
I had a creator-owned series at Image comics, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie.
I moved that series from print-to-web in 2003 (to finish its run for it's readers), predating Girl Genius and Finder by a couple years.
Been raising two special-needs kids.
Sunday school teacher for a couple years.
Helped build the foundations of the present-day anime and manga business.

That's just the stuff I can pull off the top of my head while yelling at the damn cats to stop growling. This doesn't even touch on countless unpleasant personal and professional experiences directly related to comics, anime, and manga that I kept mum about, or the few I didn't.

When you've done all that, THEN you can tell me I'm not trying hard enough or I "should" start my own company. Until you've actually worked in comics, you're just talking out of your ass. Reading comics no more makes you an expert on what it's like to work in them than going to the movies makes me a director.

To paraphrase Richard Belzer, I'm not your goddamn comics pet.

If You Can Just...

EDIT: Comments are frozen due to drive-by assholes. Gail and I have talked and have pax. Think of this as like Letterman finally having a sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.

Something about Melchior's entry here, put me in a ranty mood this mornin':

4. Off the top of my head, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Birds of Prey, and Spider-Girl are just about the only titles with strong central women that I can urge my female students to read without reservation.

What I mean is, they generally don't contain excessive numbers of panels which are blatant fan service. I don't have to say to my female students "If you can get past the way the women are sometimes drawn, the plotting is really effective," or "You can tell by how the women are written that the book isn't just a conveyance for sexist imagery." (This last, a comment I've had to make several times about my beloved Birds of Prey during Ed Benes' run as penciller.)

First, I urge Melchior to read more widely, because there are wonderful appropriate books beyond the output of the Big Two, and they DON'T have to be qualified, not even a tiny bit, at least on the grounds of fan service. Second, I don't want Melchior to feel I'm attacking him. I think what he has to say is valuable, even as it is telling.

But, to the rant. Melchior's qualification is a common one: "If you can get past the (ass shots, fan service, obsession with tits, reduction of your gender to component parts), you, as a female reader, will like the book."
So, I ranted, what if women qualified things generally considered "girly" in a smiliar fashion to convince men to try them?

"If you can get past the fact that you're not plumbed to bleed for five or so days, you could enjoy menstruation."
"If you can get past the likelihood that other guys will call you faggot and possibly beat the shit out of you, you could totally rock that pink Hello Kitty backpack."
"If you can get past the cooing over how sweet and hunky the male star is, you could really enjoy just about any chick flick."
"If you can get past the lame-clad pensises being shoved in your face, you can really enjoy the artful performance of a troupe of male strippers."