Reading and writing girls

Comics & Comix by Summer Pierre Brooklyn

Comic book reading is most popularly portrayed as the domain of boys and men, and their content is often assumed to be masculine. While that may be true, it’s just as true that plenty of girls like superhero/sci-fi/action comics and there have always been “girl comics” written, and read, by both men and women. In other words, the question of gender and comics is just as complex as gender in everyday life.

I’ll eventually write about some brilliant (and diverse) comics by women artists/writers, but I think it’s worth mentioning that with Love and Rockets, Los Bros Hernandez have created some of my all-time favourite female comix characters, and arguably some the most complex women to appear in contemporary literature. Dan Clowes’ Ghost World characters, Enid and Rebecca, also resonate strongly with me, and Pete Bagge features some pretty unlikeable but nonetheless believable women in his Hate comics.

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