Fantastic Fangirls: Comics and Culture

by Sigrid

Well, I had an absolutely great weekend. For starters, this was the first time all the Fantastic Fangirls were in the same spot at the same time. And meeting them in person was great.

Back row (l-to-r) Friend-of-the-Fangirls Spuffyduds, Jennifer, Sigrid. Front row (l-to-r) Caroline, Anika.

But I had additional goals for the convention besides geeking out with fangirls. I wanted to connect with artists and get contact information for future collaboration. I’d brought the submission proposal for my graphic novel to the con, hoping to pitch it to publishers. And I wanted to meet, fangirl, and thank the writers and artists at the con who have inspired me to write comics. I was pretty darn happy with how I met all three goals.

Meeting and thanking the creators I admire occupied most of Saturday. I stood in lines and collected signatures and sketches in my notebook. And here’s the thing — every single creator I talked to was polite, gracious, enthusiastic, and attentive. All of them. But I wanted to mention here the ones that stood out for me particularly — my thanks to Carla Speed McNeil, Jeff Parker, Steve Lieber, Matt Fraction, Barry Kitson, and Terry Moore.

I pitched my comic to three publishers. Not that I expect anything to come of it, but there’s no success without trying. I had spent a frantic two days prior to the con getting the submission package together — reading all the advice I could find about how to do it, reviewing the tips and hints that editors and publishers have put on their blogs and twitters. I felt reasonably prepared going into the con. This was validated by the publisher who glanced at my materials and blurted out, “you’re prepared!” So whatever else comes out of those efforts, I feel confident I came across as a professional.

On Sunday I walked the con with Hawkgirl — our very own Anika.

Anika as Hawkgirl!

This worked out well for us, as I wanted to stop at every other table to meet and chat with artists, and Hawkgirl was stopped every ten feet for photographs. This was a lot of fun — I particularly liked the various young girls who all proclaimed their love of Hawkgirl. Speaking as a parent of a young girl, I’m always pleased when she adores a powerful female role model who wears clothes, is physically capable, and exhibits leadership. I also find it depressing that “wears clothes” is a characteristic in short supply for female characters in comics.

We moseyed around the convention center at a slow rate. I met a vast number of artists and creators, swapping business cards and comics. I handed out my finished comics to artists I hope to work with in the future, and bought comics from a number of artists I plan to contact. I was especially impressed with Firetower Studios for their enthusiasm, sales, and the quality of their comics. Bonus points to them for writing comics about women and people of color.

A couple of notes about the art available at the convention. On the positive side, I appreciated the range of prices. Franco was doing original drawings of the superhero of your choice in Tiny Titans style for a dollar each — affordable for everyone, including the kids who flocked to his table. I also appreciated the sheer variety of art styles. This includes a lot of pin-ups of female comic book characters — goodness knows, I myself own pin-ups.

But on a negative note, I developed a new criterion for assessing pin-up art while wandering the tables at BCC. If the body of the pin-up is stacked and gorgeous, but the face is plastic and half-done and the face on every girl you draw is identically vacant, I am not going to buy your art. Moreover, I am going to secretly judge you and your views of women. Moreover, I am going to tell my friends my opinions of you and your relationships with women, or lack thereof. I’m not saying this makes me a particularly good person — but there you have it.

Women are sexy, I completely agree. But we are also people. I want sexy pin-ups of women to highlight the agency, the personality, the spark of flirtation and interest and ownership of self that I find attractive in real, live, non-fictional women. In that regard, I’d like to single out John Watkins-Chow and Byron Winton for fun, sexy, powerful pin-up art featuring women with lots of personality. Kudos, guys. You made a positive impression on me.

There are, of course, a number of photo archives of the convention available online. Anika’s is here. The much larger archive of Bruce Guthrie is here. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed being there!

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis