Waiting to Be Blown Away by Crosswind

(via CBR)

After reading comics for well on five years now, there are certain creators whose work I’ve come to trust implicitly. Whether or not the basic pitch feels like something I’d be into, I’m willing to give it a try on principle.

Gail Simone is one of those writers, so when I heard she’d be writing a new high-stakes thriller series about an assassin and a housewife who get body-switched, I knew I was going to buy the first issue no matter what. But now that I’m halfway into the series, I’m finding myself wondering how she is going to wrap it up in a satisfying way.

Spoilers after the jump!

A Fond Farewell to Gail Simone’s Red Sonja

It seems like forever ago that I reviewed the beginning of Gail Simone’s Red Sonja run. (It was actually only about a year and a half, but that’s like an eternity in blog years.) I was slow on the draw with the series—I didn’t pick it up until the second printing of the first issue came out—but I fell pretty hard for it once I started reading it. Simone was originally only signed on to do six issues, but the series proved so popular that she ended up staying on through issue #18, as well as orchestrating and writing a huge event called Swords of Sorrow that featured Sonja and the rest of Dynamite’s leading ladies like Vampirella and Dejah Thoris. While I know that Simone has her own life to lead and will certainly still be providing us with excellent stories elsewhere, it was bittersweet picking up issue 18 last week, and her Sonja voice will certainly be missed.

Vague spoilers for the series ahead.

Web Crush Wednesdays: Comics Survival Kit

Comics is a weird place. Everything from the way publishers gauge sales and popularity, to just trying to start reading at the right issue and volume can be tricksy. Even breaking into the comic book industry—the subject of today’s Web Crush—often seems mysterious.

Or at least, it was, until Comics Survival Kit showed up.

Gail Simone’s Red Sonja

A few months ago now, the first issue of Gail Simone’s Red Sonja run hit shelves. I originally didn’t pick it up; I didn’t know anything about the universe (a fantasy world shared with Conan the Barbarian, among others) and I had my concerns about a character who wore the most stereotypical of fantasy-babe scale-mail bikinis. However, after seeing rave reviews and impassioned defenses of the first issue across the internet, I made it to my shop in time to pick up the second printing of the first book, and from there I was sold.

Arrow Gives Us a Queer Character, Makes Me Love It Even More

A while back I wrote a post talking about the many ways the CW’s Arrow has improved since Season 2 began. It’s gotten better about representation, dialogue, and plot in general, but it still fell short in a couple of ways, one of which was LGBTQ+ representation.

This week, that changed in a big way, and I couldn’t be more excited. Spoilers through 2×13 after the jump.

So You Want to Read Comic Books 2.0: The Movement

The fourth issue of Gail Simone’s wildly popular new comic The Movement hit stores last week, and I figured it was well past time we gave it a shoutout here. The Movement is one of the best comics I’ve picked up since I started my American comics journey about a year ago, and furthermore, it’s one of the most impressively diverse. 

The Movement is set in the DC Universe in Coral City, a city rife with crime and corruption. Fed up with the problems that extend even into the police force, a group of young people who have all been, in some way, abandoned by society band together to take justice into their own hands. Using part hacking, part strategy, and part brute force, they begin to take a stand against the moral and social rot that pervades the city.

Gail Simone is Back on Batgirl

Gail Simone is back, baby!

Gail Simone was recently and rudely dismissed from the Batgirl comic via email, leaving her without a title to work on and reducing DC Comics’ female artists and writers to only about four. Furthermore, Gail Simone is one of the most promoted female writer at DC comics and is known for her support of women, minorities, and LGBTQ people.

The reasons for Gail Simone’s dismissal from Batgirl was never fully explained and I doubt the reasons why they are asking her to now return will be explained either, but perhaps it was the the mass amount of not only fan protest but protest from fellow comic book creators. Whatever the case, Gail Simone recently posted on her Tumblr how excited and pleased she is to be returning to Batgirl.

I KNOW WHO THE NEXT WRITER ON BATGIRL IS…

…and her name is ME!

I am typing this on a snowy road, cell service is about to disappear, I know everyone has a million questions, but…
BATGIRL, baby!

Thank you to DC for this privilege, and a million thank yous to everyone who wanted to see this happen.

I am ECSTATIC.

I’m extremely excited for Gail Simone to return to Batgirl, especially to read her stories about how Barbara was able to rehabilitate after the Joker shot her. I’m further excited to potentially see a transgender person potentially in the Batgirl comics! Gail Simone has revealed that more exciting things will be happening that she can’t reveal yet.

I promise. DC did a nice thing here. A happy thing, and there’s more news coming I can’t tell yet, but soon. ALL good news.

Some opportunities have opened up all over the place and soon I will be writing some of my very very favorite characters that I have never written before, AND I will be writing a bunch of new things I created, as well. Some things I have been waiting for for years will be coming.
There will be news from possibly unexpected corners very soon.

And man, I cannot WAIT.

So be pleased, comic book fans. We won one!

Gail Simone Booted from Batgirl

Recently, Gail Simone announced via twitter that she had been removed by editor Brian Cunningham, via email, from the Batgirl title. Here’s what she has had to say:

(via comicbookmovie)

Simone eventually released a statement on her tumblr saying how grateful she was to work on Batgirl and thanked DC for the opportunity. You can read her statement here.

The dismissal of Gail Simone from Batgirl is confusing, infuriating, and altogether disheartening, especially when it affects a beloved character and reveals how DC seems to show so little regard for their female employees.

DC has not stated why Simone was removed from the Batgirl title, nor has it been mentioned who would be replacing Simone, or if she would be writing on any other titles.

It’s very strange indeed that Simone is being removed, especially from this book. Simone, herself pointed out how her run on the current Batgirl was praised twice in the New York Times and had many sell-out issues. Furthermore, Gail Simone and Batgirl go together like peanut butter and jelly. There is no one better than an author who has been writing Barbara Gordon’s character since long before the reboot. Her writing on Birds of Prey and her interpretation of Barbara as Oracle moved many people, and has made Simone, in my opinion, one of the greatest and most well-known comic book writers in the industry.

Why Comic Book Writers Are Destroying Comic Books

I love comic books. Love them. I still remember my first comic book. I was in Kindergarten. A firefighter was discussing fire safety and as part of the free stuff he was giving out, I received a comic book titled Daredevil vs. Vapora #1.

Looking back on it, I realize how absolutely cheap this marketing ploy was. But man, did I love that comic. I read it until it fell apart. Eventually, I looked into other comics. I found out that the Batman cartoon that I knew and loved also was a comic book, and from then on, I was hooked.

And it is because I’m hooked to comic books that I come to you with this tidbit; comic book writers are going to kill this genre.