by Trish Bendix

Lesbian comic book characters, as drawn by dudes

This week's New York Times Book Review featured a piece on Jaime Hernandez's work on his comic books featuring lesbian character Hopey Glass. The reviewer starts out by discussing The Education of Hopey Glass:

Hopey’s in her 40s now, and over the next few pages Hernandez makes it clear that the impulsive insouciance that made her so charming in her early 20s has gotten her nothing but an ant-infested home and a long-suffering girlfriend.

Yikes, ants! I'm sure a lot of us can identify with the "long-suffering girlfriend" part, at least.

Hopey is one of Hernandez's long time characters featured in his widely loved comic, Love and Rockets. Another is bisexual Mexican-American Maggie, Hopey's sometimes best friend, and sometimes lover (Who says men don't grasp lesbian relationships?).

Inspired by Hernandez, Adrian Tomine is a comic artist who has created a great Asian-American lesbian character. Originally featured in his series Optic Nerve, Alice Kim is the best friend to his protagonist, Ben, in the 2007 book, Shortcomings. She's the perfect sarcastic foil to Ben, who is a hopeless romantic. Alice is just hopeless, but hilarious. Sample Alice line: "My goal is to at least make out with a hundred girls by the time I get my PhD.”

Perhaps the most famous lesbian characters of late are DC Comics' Batwoman and her on-and-off again love, The Question. Unfortunately, Batwoman seems to be kind of closeted, and it's hard to tell if their relationship will ever go anywhere.

While these men are putting their best hand-drawings forward, they still don't quite have the three-dimensional approach to a queer woman's mind like Alison Bechdel and Paige Braddock do. Will they ever be able to, or is it inevitable they will always come up short? Doesn't it count for something that they are at least trying to be inclusive?

Trish Bendix's blog

Submitted by

Trish Bendix

on October 22, 2008 - 2:00pm.

TAGS ::

inclusive, no.

Submitted by

Queer Silver (131 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 2:30pm.

I'd rather not include such kind of "talent". I believe men can do better things than this.

-MJ

Spread the RAINBOW!

http://mgayness.livejournal.com

Frank Miller also drew a

Submitted by

Ahhh_Cool (45 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 2:31pm.

Frank Miller also drew a lesbian character, though only a minor one. Lucille, Marv's parole officer in the Sin City books was gay.

I've had trouble getting into Alison Bechdel's work, though Fun Home wasn't too bad. Ariel Schrag, on the other hand, is great and I can't wait for her new book to come out next year.

yea, that's right

Submitted by

Batman (418 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 3:45pm.

they even added her to the Sin City film as well, also with Marv saying all she really needs is one good man... hopefully it's just showing that Marv's a dumbass and that's not how Miller really feels.

Ariel Schrag is amazing-

Submitted by

Gee (82 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 8:15pm.

Ariel Schrag is amazing- Potential was one of the best books I read all year.

Personal Experience and Art

Submitted by

brianna32 (13 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 3:20pm.

Quote:

Will they ever be able to, or is it inevitable they will always come up
short? Doesn't it count for something that they are at least trying to
be inclusive?

If you ask me, that's pretty much the art theory question for all time (Trumped only by 'what is Art, anyway?'). It's not limited to gay people, certainly. Can a white woman write a black male character? Can a Black man write a female Native American character? Can anybody write from the perspective of a politican or rocket scientist or homeless person or solider who has never been one? In the end, of course, the only person whose life we directly experience is our own... on the other hand, who can say that we experience our own life 'correctly' - if we write about it, someone will surely claim it is unrealistic!

But nobody is saying that authors should only write about people exactlly like them! And, anyway, who can tell which groups can best understand each other. For all I know, some straight, WASP men might have more in common with some lesbians than those lesbians have with other lesbians. Certainly, most american WASP lesbians likely have more in common an american WASP man than they would with, say, a lesbian Ethiopian farmer.

In my mind, the real question is not who wrote something, it is 'does it work'. If the story/character is good, it is good, and if it's not, it's not. And I, for one, am not going to try to tell somebody what they should or shouldn't try to write or draw.

Terry Moore wrote a pretty darn good lesbian...

Submitted by

techquill (1 post)

on October 22, 2008 - 4:25pm.

Check out Strangers in Paridise for a well drawn, well written comic with a lesbian as a main character. Of course there are twists and turns, loves, lusts, fights, sex, call girl assassins, etc. but the characters are fully fleshed out and the story line becomes quite addictive.

Katchoo

Submitted by

LB (74 posts)

on October 23, 2008 - 7:23am.

While I adore Katchoo, and think she's definitely one of the most well-drawn lesbian characters, I feel her entire saga with David (who was SUCH a drip) was evidence of Moore's lack of understanding toward lesbianism.

i respectfully disagree

Submitted by

baubo (136 posts)

on October 23, 2008 - 12:16pm.

i think Katchoo's relationship with David was understandable, and well thought through. Katchoo was in love with Francine, who wouldn't return her love except in a platonic way. David was in love with Katchoo. Katchoo loved, but i don't think was ever "in love" with David and turned to him more for companionship and validation. one of the things i love so much about SiP and Terry Moore is he showed sexuality as an evolution, not as set in stone. Casey was unabashedly and joyfully bixesual and i adored her ending up with Tambi -- who was sort of asexual for most of the run. and yes, David was passive, but i wouldn't call him a drip. he actually reminds me of Zander from BtVS -- a man who appreciates the strong women who surround him. plus he understood and accepted the fact that Katchoo was forever in love with Francine.

my 2 cents . . .

runaways

Submitted by

demux (8 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 8:49pm.

Karolina in the comic runaways was written by brian k vaugn very well, pretty much my fave comics ever. Well written, well drawn, great characters and great stories... worth a read by anyone.

i concur...

Submitted by

green bean (5 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 10:52pm.

Runaways by BKV is fantastic. Brian's take on Karolina is pretty decent. I preferred Joss Whedon's run, but that's just because he's my favorite (everything) of all time.

Interesting note though, Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise) is writing Runaways second run. She's two issues in...so far so good. I'm excited to see what she does with Karolina's storyline. There's a lot to go on there, considering her girlfriend Xavin is a skrull, and can take the form of either sex. Even more interesting is how it was made clear in the beginning that gender and sex are irrelevant to a skrull shapeshifter.

Ok...enough geeking out. Or i'll end up writing a long-winded essay about it. Hm...sounds kinda fun...

Psst...

Submitted by

Hallah (12 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 11:27pm.

Terry Moore's a he. But I agree with the "so far so good" assessment. So far. Heh. If only Marvel editorial keeps their poisonous hands off!

oops...

Submitted by

green bean (5 posts)

on November 20, 2008 - 9:24pm.

thanks for the heads up. i feel a lil bit silly...i'm a comic newbie =)

Skrull sexuality

Submitted by

scorpio54 (158 posts)

on October 23, 2008 - 7:20am.

While gender may be mostly irrelevant to Skrulls they certainly have their individual preferences. Back in the 1980s, there was a period when they lost their ability to shapeshift and so each was left stuck in whatever form they were in at the time. In SILVER SURFER we saw one male skrull not at all happy at being stuck in female form. And once they've chosen a gender (I'm assume it must be a matter of choice when you can shape-shift) they mostly stick to it.

A more intriguing aspect of cross-species love is that Skrulls are reptiles. As we saw in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR back in the 1990s, they lay eggs.

And we can't ever forget

Submitted by

Megan Rose Gedris (105 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 10:50pm.

And we can't ever forget Joss Whedon! From his Buffy comics to his great run on Runaways, his lesbian characters are interesting and far from stereotypical.

I'm sorry but...

Submitted by

Original Cyn (13 posts)

on October 22, 2008 - 11:34pm.

I absolutely adore, ADORE Love and Rockets... Hopey is totally one of my idols LOL. Although it disappointed me that she and Maggie would fool around and then Maggie would go right back to being straight.... At least Hernandez did a good job of showing the sincere love between the two of them.

I love Runaways! Although I felt the Xavin thing was kinda a copout lol... I was holding out that K and Nico would get together :) I'd pay money to see that!

Biiggg dork....

DC's Gail Simone (Birds of

Submitted by

neens (11 posts)

on October 23, 2008 - 5:43am.

DC's Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Wonder Woman) wrote lesbians. Knockout and Scandal from Secret Six were pretty awesome and totally in love (reminiscent of Xena/Gabrielle, actually). Unfortunately, Knockout dies. Boo. There is, however, a new character to be introduced in the new Secret Six series (drawn by the brilliant Nicola Scott who can actually draw girls) who Gail Simone herself described as sexy, hot and utterly badass. Maybe the next Scandal love-interest?

Also from Gail Simone is Wonder Woman, and she's mentioned that the relationship between the Amazon Io from Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman and Diana would be clarified, saying: "Io in particular is going to appear again, and there's not going to be any shilly-shallying about her feelings, either."

Excellent.

Hernandez and Tomine

Submitted by

Scribbler (42 posts)

on October 23, 2008 - 7:40am.

You've just talked about two of my favourite comic book creators, ever.

Hopey and Maggie in Love and Rockets have an entirely believable and enduring dynamic that has gone on for simply ages (it started way back in the 80s). Seriously, if you like comics, and lesbians, read Locas, it's absolutely massive and incredible and chronicles their relationship right from the start.

Of course, if you want to read a lesbian comic book written by an actual lesbian, you can always try mine (shameless self-promotion): www.seaofsomething.co.uk

Welcome to AfterEllen.com!

by Trish Bendix

Lesbian comic book characters, as drawn by dudes