HURT/MAKE COMICS: Why Not to Read Too Much Comics Stuff

Man, I always hate myself and my career after reading more than one comics-related site or blog in any given week. It's like People + Entertainment Weekly divvied by one of those gross Someone has a Fabulous Life and You Don't shows on VH1, only spread all over the Internet, like that white..."blood" in Sin City.

Bleagh.

The best I felt about comics in all of 2006 was right after my house burnt down. Not just for the obvious reason that so many people were so very kind, but also because I had no time (I was trying to answer 3,000 + emails and still didn't catch them all) to read any news sites or comics blogs.
While I did read single entries I found via technorati.com so I could thank people who posted Gail's letter, I didn't read anything regularly.
When I DIDN'T read them, when I stuck to, say, one, the time I saved on wondering (by wondering, I mean "fucking annoyed") why memories are so short, selective, and shite I was making something.
And I liked it that way.
I'm going back to liking it that way.

What's made is forever, "news" is only on the top fold for a day, and "churn" truly is the best word to describe the turnover.

QUIT COMICS: Awww, It's a Year Old Today!

This is a long one. Getta cuppa, and read to the end. It's so worth it to read to the end.

First, a pic put together by thebfg that neatly sums up the past year:

Photo by S. Hernandez 

I missed the first birthday of Quit Comics! I was out that day with both kids, keeping one of my QUIT COMICS goals, which was to spend more time with them.
Here's some links to what I'd call "The Year Comics Couldn't Continue to Deny Women Read and Make Comics, and They're Not Too Pleased with the Empty Beer Cans, Cam Whores and Porn Star Posters All Over the Comics House, and they're Really Displeased with the Piss in the Pool and the Spooge in the Jacuzzi."
January 3rd was the first birthday of Ragnell and Kalinara's "When Fangirls Attack," and for a short while, it looked like a link aggregator for Dangerous Beauty. In a month or so, it reached critical mass. Following that was Girl Wonder, which is still a few months away from its first birthday, but I'm mentioning it because it's worth mentioning.

Why Did I Quit Comics?
The classic, complete with ass shot and unfortunate Miller scripting. Dang, if I had just waited until Novemeber to quit, I might have made some 2006 OMGWTFBBQ Comics lists, but it seemed like last year by Thanksgiving. (Shit, it seemed like last year by September 6th, if you get my drift.)

How I Quit Comics
A clarification, because the original did sound as if Miller'd run me from the room. Now the part about servicing trademarks, I was all ready to huck by April, because I saw Tintin's Wonder Woman manga. Well, sort of.
What I proposed to Paul Levitz (who answered me every time I wrote) at DC was a girl's comics line, not realizing one was being slowly jolted to life, and, apparently, vacuuming up male indy comics talent even as I was writing to Shelley Bond (who never answered me).
My defense for even bothering is that I thought Tintin's comic was just that good, and the ideal vehicle to reach a goal Dan DiDio expressed when I pitched him a Batgirl manga, which was to bring DC Comics readers, always, back to DC franchises, while meeting my own goal of making/publishing something girls would want to read.

"The 1st Annual 'Women In Comics' Speech"
By Valerie D'Orazio writing as Beatrix Kyle, sent to Ragnell at "When Fangirls Attack" and posted on January 5th.
It's interesting to contrast this to "Rethinking Feminism in Comix", "Dragon Slaying 101" (Valerie's blogging over the summer of 2006) and "Good-Bye to Comics," Valerie's current blogging.
Valerie redacted everything before "Good-Bye," so those links are actually Google Cache links. I really wish I could send you to the original posts, but they no longer exist.

As for the making, I'll be the last to argue about how little comics work I managed in 2006. I think my time was mostly well-spent, anyway. Comics feminism needed a standard-bearer and court jester that was someone who'd actually worked in comics for a couple decades and was willing to call 'em like she saw 'em.
Because, y'know, comics are a great medium, and people should be called out for peeing in the pool. (Or the jacuzzi, as it were.)

I hope, with the new house due to be finished in three weeks-ish, and help for the PTSD and other health issues that have leapt in the way of making comics (and have been plaguing me since a disaster with prescription meds in 2004), that 2007 will be a productive year. I hope it'll be about comics, because I still have stories to write and draw, but I suppose it'll be what it is.

And speaking of thanking, I'll thank the people who deserve it: each and every one of you who support me in particular and comics (and other creative endeavors) in general, in whatever way you do it best.
You are the hero-makers.