Saturday, January 17, 2009

graphic novels by women...

If I plan on reading a bunch of graphic novels this year I want to read as many by women as by men. I mentioned this before, but the bunch I have out from the library are all written by men. Besides skewing the ratios I'm trying to achieve this year, I just want different perspectives, different stories.

After some googling, I came across these links.

From Blogher
.

This is probably the best list I found and will be the most useful. From Comics Worth Reading.

From Time Magazine.

I'm sure there are other sources to find this sort of thing, and I'm more than willing to take recommendations in the comments here (for really good graphic novels in general, and for graphic novels written by women in specific)

Here's what I already have read, am reading, or will read in the near future:
Sandman
After 9/11
Uptown Girl
Transmetropolitan
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight
Angel: After the Fall
Star Wars Legacy
Mouse Guard: 1152
Three Shadows
A People's History of American Empire
Locke and Key
Magician: Apprentice
Dark Wraith of Shannara
Out of Picture: Volume 1
Lost Girls

Not a woman writer in the bunch, and as far as I know, only one woman artist for Lost Girls. I mean to read American Widow at some point from Alissa Torres.

4 comments:

Larry Nolen said...

Be sure to read the Flight and Out of Picture anthologies, as both have several female contributors to those.

Joe said...

The first Out of Picture only had one woman contributor. Wasn't crazy about it. Too unfocused. That's inherent in the series, I think.

I'll try Flight, though.

Greyweather said...

My recommendation is Basara by Yumi Tamura, winner of the 1993 Shogakukan Manga Award For Best Female-Oriented Manga.

Basara is the kind of story Shakespeare might have written if he were a Japanese woman.

Marc said...

Joe, the classic graphic novel cowritten and drawn by a woman is Elfquest. Wendy Pini wrote the script and drew it, while her husband Richard edited her script, worked out the plot with her, and oversaw the business side of publishing the comics and collections.

Most libraries still have Elfquest volumes on the shelves, you should start with Book 1, sometimes titled Fire and Flight (there's several versions out there), and continue to read the low numbered books first. The later books have some good material, but sometimes created by other writers and artists.

You and anyone else curious can have a look at Elfquest.com to get an impression of this classic fantasy story, which comes highly recommended by me!