So as I mentioned in the previous post, Diamond declares March 21-27 “Women in Comics” Week in its latest Previews catalog (page 11). It’s designed to recognize “the women who work in the industry and create the comics and the women who star in the comics we read each month.” It’s a great idea, though I have to wonder how much time publishers had to buy in, as participation seems kind of sporadic. Few of the publishers you might expect to tag their books with the “Women in Comics” logo do; the only manga publisher to use it is Del Rey. Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves (Viz) is profiled as a “Staff Pick” on page 198, which is nice, but it doesn’t have a “Women in Comics” designation.
There are many potential reasons for that. Turnaround time might have been too short. Publishers who do very specific page layouts for their listings (CMX, DMP, Tokyopop, Viz) might not have wanted to include the logo in their designs for logistic or aesthetic purposes, no matter how many awesome women creators they publisher or how many interesting women characters appear in their comics. Or they might have just been reasonably confident that they were already in touch with women in their audiences and that the Previews catalog might not be the venue to lure more.
The big four don’t actually do anything with it, though Previews interviews Gail Simone (writer of Secret Six and Wonder Woman for DC) contributes an interview. Marvel doesn’t identify this section of its mini-catalog as a “Women in Comics” offering, but there’s a six-page “Women of Marvel” section featuring Girl Comics, what appears to be a reprint book called Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades, and a few other books. Marvel also promises that 2010 will be “the biggest year yet for the Women of Marvel.” Dark Horse and Image both have books in Diamond’s “Recommended Reading” list which can be seen at the above link.
Here are all of the individual items that bore the logo. I’ve got to say, there’s some what I think is counterintuitive material below, but I’m not a woman, and maybe women really love Tarot. I just don’t know. If I tried to link to every individual item, I’d lose my mind, and while I love you all, I don’t love you that much. If possible, I will link to the publisher on first reference, because I don’t think I’ve linked to even a third of these before.
