DC Comics: Not One Penny From This Fan Until You Hire More Women Writers

(originally at change.org)

I’m a 20-year-old queer Canadian woman who has been reading comics since I was a kid. Comics mean a lot to me: the characters, the legacy, the expression through word and image —  graphic storytelling is a beautiful art. But the difficult thing about comics is its very “boys-only” attitude. Interacting with male fans is a challenge — often your opinions are disregarded, because surely a woman couldn’t know the first thing about comics.I’ve spoken to a lot of women who have been put off by male comic book shop workers who belittle or patronize them. Experiences like this really discourage women from reading and buying comics, costing companies like DC Comics thousands, if not millions of dollars in profit. Unfortunately, DC reinforces this thinking by ignoring the outcry from its fanbase — “more women in comics.” When women see other women creating comics, they feel empowered. It encourages women to read, to buy, and to maybe one day contribute to the comic book industry.

The number of women working for DC has been hovering around 10% in the last few years — similar to their adversary company, Marvel. But this September, DC will be rebooting its universe and giving its characters (and creative teams) an overhaul. Many of the characters that will be erased are female, which in and of itself is a tragedy, but in addition to that, what few female creators DC has employed will also be cut from the team. Only 2 out of 100-odd people DC employs as ongoing creators will be women: Gail Simone, who will be writing Batgirl, and Amy Reeder, who will be doing pencils on Batwoman.

At San Diego ComicCon this week, Dan DiDio, co-publisher at DC Comics, was asked by a fan, “Why did you go from 12% to 1% for women on creative teams?” He responded in an agitated, belligerent tone: “Who should we be hiring? Tell me right now.” You can listen to the clip here. His tone is astounding.

These kind of attitudes and these kind of numbers are no longer acceptable. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on DC comics books, but after this fiasco they won’t be seeing a penny from me until they take a look at themselves and listen to their fans. I know I’m not the only one who thinks this. Already, more than 2500 people have signed my petition at Change.org asking DC Comics to hire more women writers.

There are hundreds of talented, available women who would jump at the chance to work on comics — many of whom have experience writing, drawing, creating, and editing superhero comics from the Big Two (Marvel and DC), but haven’t been hired full-time because of the “Old Boys Club” attitude held by many senior members. The petition includes over 100 suggestions for female comic creators DC could approach, and the list continues to grow as signers leave additional recommendations in the comments.

Creating awareness of this blatant and offensive disregard for female creators will send the message home to DC: this isn’t acceptable, this isn’t okay, and we won’t stand for it anymore. Please sign this petition to make sure they hear the message loud and clear.