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Most anime and manga fans - and most comics buyers - in the U.S. are
men, and most of the artists are also men. A select few are women - Colleen
Doran and Lea Hernandez come easily to mind as women who have taken control
of their own artistic destinies. A collection of those women spoke about
their careers at an A-Kon 9 panel on Friday. |
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Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons is half of the husband-and-wife team that
created the light-hearted Reality Check comic (she joked that "I had a
problem with a stalker, so I married him"). She sees no problem with sexism
in the comics industry, but worries that the stories and art that would
attract female fans are left behind. "We need to make more beautiful stories
and more meaningful characters," Wolfgarth-Simons said. "Women do have
a tendency to like things that are esthetically pleasing. Unfortunately,
there isn't much art like that produced in this country." Wolfgarth-Simons
said too much American comic art is realistic to the point of being ugly. |
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Elin Winkler of Radio Comix said she has the power in her company to
keep the male artists in line. "If they say `I can't take orders from a
girl,' I say `I'm not publishing you anymore.' Then they respect you. If
you're the one who writes the checks, they pay attention." |
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Bang, head of her own Studio Do-Do in Japan, said the male-oriented
manga industry has some unusual attitudes toward women artists. The publishers
want women to make their professional manga debuts early in life, before
they're 18 years old if possible. Publishers also think women in love draw
and write better than those without a romantic relationship, so they ask
female artists if they have boyfriends - and an answer of "yes" increases
the young woman's chance of a manga job. |
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Odagi told a story that had people gasping in disbelief, as told by
translator Kuni Kimura. She said she went to a publisher looking for a
manga job and was told by the male supervisor that "If you can draw my
penis, you can have a job." That man dropped his pants, and Odagi said
she was measuring the man's parts before it dawned on her what he really
wanted. Later, when Odagi got a job as an illustrator of childrens' books,
she found that some publishers in Japan prefer married male artists but
unmarried female artists. The reasons, according to Odagi, were that the
publishers think married men will overwork to support a family, but married
women won't work hard because they're concerned about their families. |
