More like *Hack* Snyder

From the Swipe Files over at Bleeding Cool:

Sucker Punch V. Silent Dragon:

My Top 5 Favorite Feminists in Comics

by Josh Jenkins

Kate Corrigan

Powers: Wrote sixteen books on folklore and occult history (not a super power? Let’s see you do it.)
Why I love her: One of my favorite moments in comics involves Kate and her first encounter with a ghost in “The Wolves of St. August.” She doesn’t freak out or run away, she starts balling. So educated on the supernatural she can view ghosts for what they really are: a representation of human tragedy. She is by no means a shrinking violet bookworm; she also outwits an ageless marquis hell-bent on trading her for a homunculus.
Greatest Hits: “The Wolves of August,” “The Universal Machine”

Power Girl

Powers: Nigh Invulnerable, Flight, Super-strength, Very distracting.
Why I love her: The jokes practically write themselves and yet, they don’t. It annoys me to no end when a character is bogged down with all of the “Earth: who gives a rat’s ass” minutia. It isn’t her difficulties that make her interesting, it’s her ability to deflect the way she’s treated by looking the way she looks.
Greatest Hits: “Power Girl: A New Beginning”

Jaka

Powers: Melting the heart of one of the coldest meanest misogynists in comics (Not me, Cerebus).
Why I love her: “How do you write women so well? I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability,” Dave Sim is most noted for being a self-proclaimed misogynist, which befuddles me considering the way he writes this character. I have never bought into the idea that dancing naked for money is feminism. I find the idea completely absurd and offensive, however in Jaka’s case I make an exception. She loves to dance; it is her art form, and she takes great pride in it in the way of monetary value. It’s easy to armchair quarterback and say you’d never exploit your art for money, but if Marvel asked, I’d write the shit out of a Power Pack story quicker than you can say “Snarks and Carmody”
Greatest Hits: “Cerebus Vol. 5: Jaka’s Story”

Jen Walters

Why I love her: Here’s an equation I hope you can follow; I hate She-hulk, She-hulk hates Jen Walters, so I love Jen Walters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a super-hero more embarrassed by their alter ego. Imagine if you had a version of you that was infinitely stronger, more exotically beautiful, and way more famous than the “real” you will ever be. Would you ever go back to being the real you? How would you ever know if people really liked the real you? Imagine how hard that is. It’s a perplexing dichotomy that’s worth exploring. All I know is, I love ya Jen, hope you get on a cover one day.
Greatest Hits: “She-Hulk Vol 1. Single Green Female”

Mina Murray

Powers: Monster Wrangling
Why I love her: Ya know what’s uninteresting in Hollywood? A woman with no superhuman abilities that can keep rapists, murders, terrorists, and opium addicts in line. Ya know what Hollywood loves? Sexy Vampires! Fuck You everyone involved with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie! Sorry, I have to pull my bloody fist out of 6-inches of drywall to finish this article. Alan Moore has always written strong women well, and I think Mina is my favorite (no offense Evey). I love her for all the reasons mentioned above, AND she helped take down Dracula for god sake!
Greatest Hits: “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 and 2”

Breaking into Comics as a Female by Jayme Roxann Wright

I begin writing this article on the heels of a momentous moment in Entertainment history where a woman (for the first time) has won an Academy Award for Directing. A likely ponderance ensues about all the areas where women are proving themselves “boss” in the good old boys clubs. Many women have blazed trails for a women like me to happily follow behind in so many areas of life. Yet, the hardest part of any groundbreaking moment for a woman is that not only do we have to be good in our own right, but we have to be BETTER than a man. Sometimes, even that isn’t enough.

When I first decided that I wanted to take my writing career seriously, it was as much a shock to me that people started sitting up and paying attention. From blogs to micro-fiction posted on Facebook, people seemed to notice that I had some talent. Yet, as a female, talent isn’t enough. You have to be more talented than a man, and in many ways are expected to approach a subject like a man would. If you can write like a man, conceive horrific or action packed imagery like a man, then you might have a decent shot. But what about the unique perspective a woman has on life? What about the diversity that we bring to the table for just being a woman? I don’t quite think we are there yet, and why? We are still forced to play by the men’s rules because they wrote them.

I have loved comic books since I was young, but then neglected the love for some years until I could afford to be a collector in my 20’s. It was discovering the DAWN comics by J.M. Linsner that pulled me back in. Comics to me was the great combination of imagery and dialogue, where a story could be told and the reader was spared trying to figure out what things looked like because it’s all on the page. The hardest thing to digest was the unrealistic way that women were written about, either portrayed as cold and heartless or overly emotional; a very bland portrayal in my opinion. When I envision comics, I want it to be a myriad of colorful characters not just colorful costumes. Dawn was complex and all woman, but wasn’t overly emotional. She was everything that a woman is from kind and compassionate to merciless and manipulative. Joe’s grasp of the feminine form in its reality -not its ideal-appealed to me. As I began crafting my stories, I leaned towards complicated feminine archetypes, not the one dimensional women that most men write.

So far, almost two years into the process, I feel that I have been shunned quite a few times, mostly for being a new unpublished writer, and then as a female. However, I am blessed that while there are many naysayers in the publishing ranks, the artists have been exceptionally willing to work with me, and genuinely intrigued by my ideas. I feel because I am considered an attractive female that it is harder to get to know publishers and editors professionally because they might prefer to deal with me on another level -Back to the boy’s club. The industry is such a close knit one, and because I am a female dealing with men, I find that people love to speculate on the nature of my relationships with others in the industry. I often want to pretend I am married just so I take any non-professional agendas off the table. However, there are women out there in the industry who are knee deep in geek/nerd-dom that are kicking butt and taking names while still being completely female. It can be done.

My current project that is in development is EVIL WAISE created by Jason Craig (Seven, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash), and art by Jason Craig, written by me. I am also working on three other projects currently shopping publishers, and a horror screenplay.

Bio: Jayme Roxann Wright is a freelance writer working on breaking into the world of comics. She is a single mother of a comic savvy 6 year old. Currently pursuing her masters/Ph.D. in Forensic Psychology, she lives in downtown Los Angeles. She is the assistant editor/reviewer for SheNeverSlept and writes for the LA Examiner website as well as has three blogs that she maintains: Contemplative Afflcition, The Subtle Charm, and Swordplay and the Single Mom. She is also a professional Belly-dancer at several restaurants in the Greater Los Angeles area.

How I F@$#ed up

by Joshua Jenkins

I have been told on more than one occasion that I write in my head. Which means that when people read my work they know that it makes sense, just not to them. I think a lot of people who love comics are by nature introverted, and might also write this way. This is why it is imperative that you…

Get an editor!

No, I don’t mean that ass-hat at the con that laughed at your script in a zip-lock bag. You may have a very long way to go before you earn his hallowed and vicious beatings. For my first book I tried to force feed my script down the throats of every one I knew; aunts, uncles, friends, dead relatives. Half came back with some really fluffy comments like, “It was nice” or “I liked that one part” or “You still have a day job, right?” The other half came back with notes but the feedback was all completely different, and I’m sure half of both halves didn't even read it (I don’t blame them).

You know that movie that seemed to have all kinds of potential; good actors, good director, good writer, but was just bland and uninteresting? It was probably gang raped repeatedly by a focus group. Writing by consensus is never wise, you can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try to. You don’t want the WAL-MART of scripts.

You really only need one person other than yourself; two at the absolute most. I use my good friend Mat Markert, who has what I consider to be the best qualities of an editor.

1. BRUTALITY – So important! You need someone who will pour charcoal down your throat when you’re overdosing. You may not like it at the time but you’ll be alive in the morning.

2. PROPOSALS – You need someone who will suggest good ideas in place of bad ideas. It isn’t enough to say something sucks; a good editor will also give you a way to make it better.

3. GRAMMAR – I am really, really bad about this. Make sure your editor is better than you. I’ve gone over scripts at least 20 times and still miss things, it’s gonna happen.

I didn’t have an editor for my first book and the differences between book one and two are substantial across the board.

Speaking of editors, I really hope Tim and Kurt are editing these, seriously guys my grammar blows.

How I F@$#ed up

By Joshua Jenkins

Last time I talked about what to do when you get an artist, this was a misstep. I should have started with how to get an artist. And speaking of missteps…

Don’t get your sequential artist off Deviantart!

(Ignore above statement if you’re writing a creepy anthro man-beast comic)

I have no problem with deviantart whatsoever. In fact, I kind of love it. I have gotten a shit-ton of commissioned promo art from there and it is all incredible work. However, we’re talking about sequential artist here, and there are way better places to get them. So here’s the best way I’ve found to go about this.

1. Get a new email account. It doesn’t have to be snappy; you’re only going to use it once.

2. Go on digital webbing forums http://www.digitalwebbing.com/forums/

3. Under Creator Community go to Help Wanted/Paid jobs.

4. Check out the page views on the right. You want to find out what gives certain posts more views than others and try to make your post resemble theirs.

5. For a giggle go to the Help Wanted/Collaboration section and check out the diminished page views. Collaboration = “I’m not paying you shit!”

6. Post what your book is about, not too much detail, just a simple solid pitch. Put your new email and the fact that there is payment involved. (Don’t put how much, save that uncomfortable conversation for later.)

7. Sit back and enjoy looking through people’s portfolios. I recommend doing this right before you have a couple days off. When I did this I was averaging about one per hour for about three days. When it starts to slow down repost which will move it back up to the top.

8. Learn Spanish/Portuguese or get a patient girlfriend that speaks Spanish. I’m not kidding; you are going to get a lot of artists that don’t speak English. I have commissioned many artists that don’t speak English very well for promo art and while I love the final product it is never what I asked for.

9. Go through all submissions carefully; look only at the sequential art that’s what you’re buying. Don’t just jump on the first one you like, shoot them an email saying you’re interested but still looking, you may find another one 2 days later. I’ve had to tell an artist, “never mind I found someone else” before. It sucked, very unprofessional.

10. Send the script and see if he/she still wants to do it. Give them a polite out; you don’t want someone you’re collaborating with hating, or not understanding your script.

11. If the artist is still psyched ask for a sample, have them draw up some characters and see how long it takes them to get it back to you. Ask them how long it takes them to do a page. Finally discuss price. If they ask for something out of your price range see if they can meet you half way, if they’ve gone this far, clearly they are interested.

12. Lastly, build a rapport; when you two start collaborating you’re going to butt heads, it’s natural. Also there is a chance you guys may go to cons together and that is a long time to hang out with someone you hate.

With any luck you should have your artist by the weeks end.