It’s entirely possible to be too cynical.
That will likely come as a startling admission to those who know me. Nonetheless, I’ve been fairly overwhelmed by the skepticisim and outright hostility that’s arisen out of DC’s announcement of their new line aimed at young girls.
With any publicity and promotion, there’s going to be BS. And sure, the idea that a publisher is doing anything innovative or creative by marketing comic books to teenage girls is fairly silly, as evidenced by the growing number of publishers successfully. But it has to be expected: It might be more honest to say “We saw lots of other people making money off this audience and we wanted to get in on it”, but that’s just not going to happen.
And yes, DC has enlisted a hot, teen-friendly marketing agency to help launch the books. While I’m naturally skeptical of anything to do with marketing and publicity, it nonetheless shows a commitment to the product that hasn’t always been seen when superhero publishers want to try something new. It certainly beats publishing the books and then hoping that 13 year-old girls wander into a comic shop while engaged in a scavenger hunt or something.
Most of the hostility has surrounded the genders of the creators of the books: Only two female creators are involved in the line to this point, and one of them, Louise Carey, is co-writing with her more established father. Again, some cynicism is understandable, as it does seem a bit odd that there are so few women working on books targeted at a female audience.
But in looking at what the line isn’t, many seem to have missed out on what it does have to offer: A group of very talented writers and artists, many of whom have already produced books that could be successfully marketed to the Minx demographic.
Let’s start with Andi Watson. I’m having a hard time coming up with any creators, male or female, as perfect for this as Watson. This year alone he’s written Paris, a sweet love story, and written and drawn Little Star, a very cute story about a new father. Throw in Love Fights, even though it has superheroes, and you’ve got a writer who’s almost perfect for young adults. Also, his name kind of looks like he might be a woman; is that a plus?
Mike Carey might be best known for his more mature Vertigo work and his increasing work with superheroes, but he’s also the author of My Faith In Frankie, which is just the sort of story I’d recommend to nearly anyone. That he’s teaming up with Frankie co-creator Sonny Liew for one of his Minx books is just icing on the cake.
Throw in some art by Jim “Street Angel Totally Rocks” Rugg and Aaron “Serenity Rose is also pretty awesome” Alexovich and you’ve got a pretty talented lineup.
Should there be more women among that talented lineup? Perhaps. But there aren’t all that many women (or men, it must be said) who are that good at writing this sort of material. Many of them, like Chynna Clugston and Hope Larson, have deals with other, larger publishers. There are plenty of women working at Tokyopop, but how many would be willing to abandon a publisher that’s already successfully selling to young women in bookstores for what is, at this point, still an expensive experiment on the part of a company that publishes predominantly superhero books?
It’s possible that the lack of female creators working on these initial Minx books isn’t due to any institutional sexism, but simply the fact that nothing could be worked out at the time. I’m not so naive to believe that women can’t be sexists, but there’s nothing I’m aware of that would convict editors Karen Berger or Shelley Bond of this. They certainly haven’t shown any reluctance to hire women at Vertigo: Denise Mina is writing what is probably the Vertigo flagship, while Pia Guerra and Becky Cloonan are both drawing successful creator-owned books. Jill Thompson and Colleen Doran have both done plenty of high profile work for the imprint.
It would be nice if there were more women working on the books, but barring evidence to the contrary, I’m content to believe that this is just the way things worked out for the time being. Minx is launching with bunch of very talented writers and artists who seem perfectly capable of producing work that would appeal to a young female audience. (Disclaimer: I am neither young nor female, and may be wrong completely. But I think Chynna Clugston would be perfect for it, too, and Scholastic clearly agrees with me. So there.) Perhaps this is the excuse of a sexist pig, but the fact Minx is hiring some of the best creators and spending a lot of money on promotion is good news, and the lack of female creators is merely an unfortunate coincidence.
Amidst a lot of stupid crap, DC is doing something good, and they seem to be committed to doing it well. That deserves praise, not mockery.
(Okay, a little bit of mockery. But get it over with and move on.)