By Marcie Young
NEW YORK CITY - A tight black corset hugs Andrea Grant’s upper body, her breasts protruding beneath the rubbery material. Usually she pairs this top with equally tight, black rubber pants, leather gloves that reach her elbows and knee-high boots studded with metal buckles. But today Grant has traded in the pliable leggings for a knee-length, black skirt.
“I just couldn’t stand in those pants all day,” she says with a smile, motioning to the crowd flooding the convention hall floor at the Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side. “It’s way too hot.”
Grant puts her gloved hands on her svelte hips and surveys the masses. Thousands of devoted comic fans have flocked to the New York Comic Con — an annual tradeshow featuring superhero legends, artists and vendors — and Grant is hoping to attract attention for her own comic book creation, Minx. Other than the launch party she threw at Soho 323, a chic downtown club, a few days earlier, this is Minx’s big debut.
The characters are fashioned after Grant and her friends, mythology is fused with her Native American heritage and the storyline is laced with pop-culture and romance, as well as dramatic fight scenes.
“I don’t know how the guys are going to react, but I think it’s going to be something girls are going to like,” she says of the book, which is drawn by two burgeoning female artists. By infusing the story with emotional relationships, to which women tend to gravitate, and a sexy protagonist that many men find alluring, Grant is trying to appeal to the greatest number of fans possible.
Grant realizes marketing herself and her comic in an industry dominated by males isn’t going to be easy. In mainstream comics, women make up a disproportionate percentage of fans. Women are also considerably outnumbered as superheroes, and female names are less likely to appear on the glossy covers of comic books as writers, artists and editors.
Comic historian John Jackson Miller of F&W Publications estimates that, according to the most recent research, 6 percent of mainstream readers of the inky medium are women. Exact numbers are hard to come by, Miller explains, because most major titles are not sold directly through the publishers but at independent comic book stores. Large publishers, like DC and Marvel Comics, are also protective of their numbers, he says, and worry that divulging too much information could help the competition.
Organizations, such as the nonprofit Friends of Lulu and the monthly webzine Sequential Tart, have surfaced to increase the visibility of women in comics and to encourage female readership. Still, the largest comic book publishers tend to focus on their males readers since those fans are the most reliable consumers. “Publishers decided to circle the wagon around the strongest demographic,” Miller says. “And that [is] teenage males.”
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The convention hall is flooded with men and women, children and adults. Quite a few wear Spiderman tee-shirts or X-men baseball caps; others don superhero costumes. One man dressed in a rubber Batman suit poses for photos, and a teenage girl mimics the Supergirl look in a Lycra bodysuit with a giant “S” emblazoned on the chest. Numerous women wander from booth to booth, but the majority of faces in the crowd are male.
Trina Robbins, author of The Great Women Superheroes and 40-year comic veteran, says this is common. “It’s a very male-dominated industry, and I think the men like it that way…If they didn’t want to keep to that way, it would have changed,” she says. Modern superhero comics, she says, aren’t written or drawn to appeal to women.
The teeny thong bikinis matched with spiked high-heels and aggressive fights scenes just don’t pull female readers, and in many cases, keep women away. “When you grow-up seeing that the only comics around are superheroes that boys like to read, then you don’t look any further,” Robbins says. “It doesn’t even occur to you that there might be a comic you might want to read.”
One exception Robbins notes is Manga — Japanese anime comic books, which are sold at Barnes and Noble and other large bookstores around the country. “You can’t talk about comics today without talking about Manga,” she says. “Young girls who are reading comics are reading [Manga]…Why even bother with the American comic industry when you can read these great comics with girl heroes who have nice figures…, who wear cute clothes… and who have real adventures?”
An estimated 60 percent of Manga readers are women, and, according to Japan Economic Monthly, Manga books and magazines pulled-in more than 504 billion yen (approximately $4.3 billion) in 2004.
Comic books stores, particularly smaller shops outside major cities like New York, are uninviting to women and may contribute to low female readership, Robbins says. Posters of scantily-clad women brandishing guns and enormous breasts often wallpaper shop entrances, which Robbins has previously said gives off a “porn store” vibe.
“Why would they go into this sleazy, little, horrid, dirty place is that is all boys and young men staring at comics?” she says. “It’s almost like a sign saying, ‘Chicks stay away. Boys club here. Don’t come in.’”
That’s not to say women aren’t shopping at comic book stores. Some fans, like 29-year-old Laura Ackerman Sack, insist that employees at the shop she frequents really pay attention to what their customers — even the female ones — are reading.
“I’ll walk into [the] store, buy my regular titles and schmooze with the guys,” Sack says of her weekly visits to the Times Square location of Midtown Comics. “If they have suggestions, I might pick [those] up, too.” Even though Sack is cognizant that men make up the majority, she says the community of comic book fans is pretty tight. “Maybe it helps that the readership is skewed greatly male,” she says, “but I walk into the store and the guys look up and say ‘Hi, Laura.’”
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Grant’s comic doesn’t fall into the popular Manga genre, and at cons like this one, she says most fans and comic professionals initially think she’s just sexy female bait to attract the mostly male audience. A former model, 28-year-old Grant has worked on Minx for two years and says it’s frustrating when men focus on her 6-foot-1 frame, blond locks and taut body. “You just want to be taken seriously,” she sighs, “but then there’s the ones who want to date you or don’t respect you.”
Grant stands behind a table decorated with Minx paraphernalia, including the thin eight-page preview edition of the comic and postcards advertising the story. Behind her, attached to the concrete wall, hangs a plastic banner printed with the cover of the comic. The inky image of Minx, a cartoon version of Grant, tilts her head seductively upward and brandishes sharp knives while a menacing grey wolf crouches by her hip.
A man in his early 20s hovers a few feet from the table, clutching a plastic bag filled with goods he’s picked up from various artists and vendors at the convention. A black baseball cap covers his dark hair and the white embroidery of a skull stands out against the dark zip-up sweatshirt hanging from his upper body. He eyes the poster hanging above Grant, realizing the real-life version of the character is standing in front of him. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and approaches the table.
“That’s really cool,” he says, motioning toward one of the comics. “It definitely caught my eye. What kind of story is it?”
Grant hands him one of the thin booklets and flips it over, where a synopsis of the story appears next to a photograph of her dressed in the black Minx uniform. He scans the print, which explains how Minx inherited her superpowers after falling into a 7-year coma and awakens with the mission to fight a corrupt corporation that is running the world.
“All the characters exist in real life,” Grant says. “My friends are in there.”
He notices the small print on the front cover — $2.00 — and digs through his backpack for his wallet. “I think this sounds really interesting,” he says as Grant makes change for the five dollar bill he handed her. “Could you sign it for me?”
Grant scribbles her name inside the glossy booklet while her new fan signs up to receive email updates about Minx, both the comic book title and the character.
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There’s no denying that women are minorities in comics, but don’t get Devin Grayson started on how it feels to be a female writer in the male-dominated industry. “Those ‘what does it feel like’ questions are hard to answer,” says Grayson, who has been writing for DC Comics since 1997.
“You work really hard to become part of the team, and I’ve achieved to the point where I’m a mainstream superhero comic creator. The minute someone asks me about being female, it takes me out of that very populated group and puts me in a very under-populated subclass. You feel alone all of a sudden, and you’re defending your right to be there.”
No one in the comic community seems to care about Grayson’s gender, she says, and editors and other creators focus on the quality of the characters she writes and the storylines she develops.
“I don’t walk around the halls of DC saying, ‘Hey, check me out,’” she says.
When she first started writing comics, Grayson accepted that, as a female addition to the DC world, she would have to answer the gender-related questions. But after two years, she started getting annoyed that the press and fans rarely asked about Batman and Catwoman, choosing instead to focus on her sex. “It really makes you look at where society is with these issues, and it really shatters the illusion that we’re past all those things when we’re clearly not.”
Grayson realizes there must be a reason why fans and the media continue to focus on women as something out-of-place in the comic world but emphasizes that what she brings to her characters has very little to do with her gender.
“I wouldn’t be as interested in writing some of these characters if there wasn’t a part of me that’s somewhat of a tomboy…I love getting in their heads and thinking what they think,” she says. “I get to go home and walk around as…Nightwing or Batman, and it’s wrenching to be, like, ‘And now let’s talk about how totally different you are than all of that.’ Am I really all that different from Batman as [a male creator]? I mean, we’re both pretty far from being Bruce Wayne.”
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Even comics’ most famous superheroine, Wonder Woman, finds herself struggling to keep up with DC’s Superman and Batman and Marvel’s X-Men and Spiderman. Even though her physical power is only matched by that of Superman, Wonder Woman’s most recent storyline wasn’t nearly as strong, ranking at No. 38 on the January 2006 comic book bestseller list. Her title has even dropped to No. 77 as recently as June 2005. Phil Jimenez, who wrote and drew the iconic character from 2000 until 2003, says Wonder Woman’s low sales could be attributed to her gender and her less vigilante attitude.
“I think she’s low-selling because she’s a female character,” he says. “I think she’s a low-seller because, at her core, she’s a peace promoter….which is completely counter to action adventure comics.”
Wonder Woman, the DC-touted “Ambassador of Peace,” just doesn’t promise the same number of uncompromising fights scenes as her male counterparts, Jimenez says. Whereas Batman has no qualms about aggressively tracking the Joker, Wonder Woman doesn’t immediately think to respond with hostility. “At the end of the day, because comics are revenge fantasies for many, I think [characters like] Wolverine and the Punisher are very popular,” Jimenez says. “They allow for the release of aggression, and Wonder Woman is traditionally not that… She’s more like, ‘Before I slap you down, why don’t we have tea.’”
Her rankings shot up 41 spots on the bestseller list after the release of Wonder Woman No. 219, which featured the iconic figure of peace uncharacteristically killing a villain and battling Superman. Some fans also argue that Wonder Woman sales have increased because of the popularity of DC’s current Infinite Crisis storyline, where she, Superman and Batman conflict more than they agree.
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Grant herself is almost Amazonian. She stands an inch taller than Wonder Woman and boasts a fit, athletic body. She, too, has struggled with finding balance between dramatic fight scenes and compelling storylines filled with well-developed characters.
“It wouldn’t be my tendency to have a lot of action,” she says. Yet Grant recognizes the appeal of a strong, female protagonist wielding knives and has incorporated warrior training into Minx’s origin story. Grant even brings the weapons to conventions and will pose for photos while gripping the base of the thick blades.
Two middle-aged women eye Grant as she takes a picture with Minx artists, Celistella Rosario and Liza Biggers. The women approach her table, each picking up a copy of the comic book and examine the images of Grant on the front and back covers.
“So, this is something brand new?” one asks, after flipping through the panels of Minx chatting with friends in a bar and confronting her enemy on a New York rooftop. Grants extends a hand, introduces herself as the creator and explains the story to the women. They nod in approval, each purchasing a copy of the thin booklet. They thank Grant, wish her good luck and wander to the next table.
A man with a protruding gut and thinning brown hair struts toward Grant’s booth and thrusts a camera toward her. “Can I take a picture of you?” he asks without acknowledging the comic books sprawled across the table.
“Sure,” she says, picking up one of the Minx booklets. Grant holds it up to her chest, partially covering the cleavage. The man snaps a photo, mutters a quick “thanks” and scurries across the conventional hall floor to a woman with giant breasts stuffed into a red and black corset.
Grant places the Minx comic book back on the table and says, “What I’m trying to do is make a statement about the challenges women face.”
The challenges are perpetual for many women creating comics, reading comics or starring in comics. Newcomer Grant continually finds herself trying to balance storylines that are appealing to both men and women, as well as how to sell her image without selling out.
Grayson, after more than eight years in the industry, still struggles with being recognized as a mainstream superhero creator and not just another chick writing comics.
Even Wonder Woman, the most recognizable female in comics, labors just to keep up with her male counterparts in the rankings and in the colorful panels.
“It must be important…because it’s not being dropped,” Grayson says. “There’s something society needs to know about [women in comics] that they can’t seem to let go of.”
© Copyright Marcie A. Young 2006
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