Female comics creators
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Although, traditionally, female
In certain countries, like Japan and South Korea, women creators have shaken up the traditional market and attained widespread mainstream success.
Americas
United States
Newspaper comics
In the early 20th century, when the U.S.
Another style popular around the time was cute comics with doll-like round-cheeked children. In 1909,
Another cartoonist, Grace Wiederseim (also known as
In the 1910s, newspaper cartoonist Fay King was drawing early autobiographical comics in The Denver Post and Cartoons Magazine.
Edwina Dumm created a long-lasting series in 1918, Cap Stubbs and Tippie, about a boy and a dog, although the frisky dog soon took over the strip as its most popular character. The series ran until the 1960s.
In the 1920s, the USA underwent an economic boom and widespread social change, leading to the appearance of the "
In the 1930s, the
The accounts on the series' final fate differs. Most sources state that in 1938, she left it to her female assistant Dale Conner,[3] who renamed it Mary Worth, although King Features Syndicate's own account claims that Apple Mary folded and Mary Worth was its replacement. In 1940, a new writer Allen Saunders was brought in, and Conner and Saunders began signing the strip with the joint pseudonym "Dale Allen", which remained after Conner left the series. Mary Worth has proven a successful concept, and is still syndicated around the globe.
In 1935, Marjorie Henderson Buell (signature "Marge") created the
In 1940, veteran artist Dale Messick created the comic strip Brenda Starr, Reporter, about a glamorous reporter with a soap opera-like love life. After Messick left the series, it was continued solely by other female artists.
In 1941,
In the 1940s, teen comics became a popular genre. This was a rather down-to-earth genre, mostly comedy-inclined and marketed towards young teenage girls, where young, often gangly, teenagers went through different problems with the opposite sex and dating. Notable artists to mention include Hilda Terry (Teena, 1941), Marty Links (Emmy Lou, 1944) and Linda Walter[6] (Susie Q. Smith, together with her husband Jerry Walter on scripts). These three artists all had earlier works in the fashion field. In 1951, after some internal arguments within the organization, Terry became the first female cartoonist to be accepted to the National Cartoonists Society.
Other successful strips include
Overtly feminist and containing much pointed social commentary in addition to character-based humor,
Due to the syndicates' often strict demands on recurring characters and an unwillingness to risk offending readers, some cartoonists have gone into self-syndication to maintain control of their work. Some long-running self-syndicated comics are the feminist Maxine or Laughing Gas by cartoonist and author Marian Henley[7] (not to be confused with John M. Wagner's Hallmark character) and the surrealist Way Lay or Story Minute by underground veteran Carol Lay.
Mainstream comic books
Comic books, as well, have been produced by a number of female artists.
One publisher in particular,
In the 1950s Marie Severin, sister of artist John Severin, was a frequent EC and Atlas/Marvel colorist, later drawing her own stories as well. Her cartoon style made her a frequent contributor to Marvel's Not Brand Echh satirical title of the late 1960s. Another prolific artist was Ramona Fradon, who drew Aquaman and was co-creator of Metamorpho.
Later artists and writers include
Underground, alternative and independent
The underground comix movement attracted women artists, as it allowed more mature themes and personal work than the commercial newspaper and comic book industry of the time. A pioneer in this market was Trina Robbins, a driving force in the creation of the early all-female comix books It Ain't Me, Babe and All Girl Thrills, and later founder of the anthology series Wimmen's Comix. Robbins has written several books about female cartoonists and their comics.
Another all-female comix book series was
Artists who grew out of this movement include
After the underground scene turned into the alternative scene, women artists continued to focus on autobiographical work, such as Debbie Drechsler (Daddy's Girl, 1996, about incest and sexual abuse during childhood) and Phoebe Gloeckner (Diary of a Teenage Girl, 2002).
The scene's unapologetic attitude also inspired artists outside the US, such as Canadian Julie Doucet, whose surrealist semi-autobiographical series Dirty Plotte became a worldwide cult favorite in the 1990s.
The underground/
In the
, which soon became a major sleeper hit.Colleen Doran created her cult space opera series A Distant Soil which was published in the early-1980s in small press fanzines, then self-published by Doran in the early-1990s, before moving to Image Comics in 1996.
Other popular artists include
Webcomics
Many female comic creators have found their fame in
Female webcomic artists include writers and illustrators such as
Asia
Countries with a large percentage of female comics creators include Japan and South Korea.
Japan
The first significant female manga artist was
Comics intended for girls (shoujo manga) have had a long history in Japan. They grew out of lifestyle magazines directed at girls and teenagers in the early 20th century. These magazines featured romantic short stories and fashionable illustrations, supervised by male editorial staff.
In 1953 the "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka published his classic Princess Knight, with a longer, more complex storyline and a gender ambiguous protagonist. This manga was a great influence on many Japanese women creators.
The long-running monthly magazines
In the 1960s,
Some of these artists such as Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio wrote stories featuring young gay male lovers involved in tragic relationships. These stories proved immensely popular and gave birth to the yaoi genre, still very popular. (Keiko Takemiya later made the popular sci-fi Toward the Terra.)
Since then, girl comics have been a flourishing scene, which, in general, has both been created and read by women, has had a notable part of the market, and, as manga is becoming increasingly popular abroad, more and more is making an impact on Western countries.
Later popular artists include Rumiko Takahashi (drawing primarily shonen stories for boys), Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist), Kazue Kato (Blue Exorcist) as well as the female collective Clamp.
Japan doesn't only produce comics for children and adolescents, but also has a seinen (adult men) and a josei (adult women) scene, allowing more mature themes and storylines.
Many of the artists working for this market have gained wide recognition among the alternative comics scenes in USA and Europe, including artists such as Kiriko Nananan, Moyoco Anno, Junko Mizuno and Kan Takahama.
South Korea
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Korean comics are known as manhwa (similar etymologically to Japanese manga). Comics became popular especially in the 1950s and 1960s. The sunjeong (sunjŏng) genre became especially popular among young girls and women. The Korean Women Cartoonist Association (KWCA) served the women in the field. It was founded on December 2, 1997,[12] and the website was active between 2001 and 2012.[13] In 2019, the site was used for the Wooden Architecture Association.[14]
South Korean-born Keum Suk Gendry-Kim published comic books with a great deal of political content. Her graphic novels include The Song of My Father, Jiseul, Kogaeyi, and award-winning Grass (2019), a story about a Korean girl forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the World War II. In 2020, it won the Harvey Award for Best International Book.[citation needed]
Europe
Although a minority, there have been female artists working in the medium even since its earliest days. One of the earliest female artists was Marie Duval, who, together with her husband Charles Henry Ross.[15] was co-creator and artist of one of the earliest recurring characters in modern cartoons and comics, Ally Sloper.
In the UK, Posy Simmonds started her career in 1979 with the weekly comic strip The Silent Three of St. Botolph's for The Guardian about the daily life of three former schoolfriends, which lasted for a decade. She had also written children's books, often in comic form, such as Fred (where later a successful animated special) and Lulu and The Flying Babies. For the 1990s and 2000s, she has done more serious works, inspired by literary classics, such as Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe.
France/Belgium
An early veteran on the
One of the earliest successful female artists was
In 1976, the French magazine
Another author that appeared during this time was Annie Goetzinger,
In the beginning of the 21st century, Marjane Satrapi released the critically acclaimed Persepolis about her childhood and coming-of-age in a politically turbulent Iran, and in Europe.
See also
- Friends of Lulu
- List of female comics creators
- List of feminist comic books
- Portrayal of women in comics
References
- Lambiek Comiclopedia
- ^ Virginia Huget. Lambiek.
- ^ Dale Conner. Lambiek.
- ISBN 0878162062(pp. 62, 67-71, 83).
- ^ Robbins, 1993 (p. 113, 116-117, 176)
- ^ Linda Walter. Lambiek.
- ^ Marian Henley. Lambiek.
- ^ Lily Renée. Lambiek.
- ^ Fran Hopper. Lambiek Comiclopedia
- ^ Beck, Laura (February 8, 2013). "Meet the First Lady to Draw Batman Since His Inception in 1939". Jezebel.
- ^ Lyn Chevely. Lambiek.
- ^ "이 페이지를 보려면, 프레임을 볼 수 있는 브라우저가 필요합니다". 2002-05-29. Archived from the original on 2002-05-29. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
- ^ "제목없음". 2001-07-20. Archived from the original on 2001-07-20. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
- ^ "사단법인 한국목조건축협회". 2019-09-01. Archived from the original on 2019-09-01. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
- ^ Charles Henry Ross. Lambiek.
- ^ Liliane Funcken. Lambiek.
- ^ Fred Funcken. Lambiek.
- ^ Chantal Montellier. Lambiek.
- ^ Nicole Claveloux. Lambiek.
- ^ Florence Cestac. Lambiek.
- ^ Annie Goetzinger. Lambiek.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-87754-056-X; (trade paperback) ISBN o-97754-205-8
- Robbins, Trina. From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines (Chronicle, 1999) ISBN 0-8118-2199-4
- Robbins, Trina. The Great Women Cartoonists (Watson-Guptill, 2001) ISBN 0-8230-2170-X
- ISBN 0-913035-01-7