As we headed downtown to the convention, I kept checking and rechecking my makeup with my Wonder Woman compact. Alice’s lips are white and red, and keeping my lips from turning into one pink smear was a struggle. Not to mention worrying about getting lipstick on my teeth. Normally, I don’t wear makeup at all, and costume makeup is far fussier than day-to-day makeup. I needed to preserve myself like the panel in a comic book; art come to life.
I wore my costume proudly to the Emerald City convention, where I was more than nervous about the entire outing. Nervous, and lacking peripheral vision due to my cape – they don’t tell you that in the superhero cosplay handbooks. It also goes unsaid that you’ll need someone else to carry all your stuff: those all-important con survival items like water bottles, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and your purse.
Walking through those convention doors truly started my first cosplay experience. There was no going back now, and there was no being shy, as people always ask those in costume to pose for a photo. Though, as a bonus, we were fashionably late due to my taking so long getting ready, and didn’t have to wait in long registration lines.
My nerves struck an all-time high as I made my way over to Rucka’s and Williams’s tables. Would I say something stupid? Would I make an idiot of myself or forget what I wanted to say? At least I knew from past comic conventions that Rucka was a nice guy, and polite to fans of his work.
So I walked up to the back of Rucka’s line, waiting for my turn. But in cosplay, you can’t hide – and he spotted me, instantly recognizing the costume from his book translated into real life. Rucka’s first reaction was, “Oh my god, has Jim seen you?”, and then he dragged me over to Williams’s table. My Alice was a hit. Both of them really loved my costume, and I was a grinning fangirl.
Then there were photos of the three of us. Many photos. I think when you’re in situations like this, everything is a blur. You have to maintain composure and smile, smile a lot, for all the cameras in the world are aimed at you. You have to be grateful and thankful – because you are – and to show your gratitude in a polite way. You have to think on your feet when Williams wants to know if you’re also speaking in riddles, like Alice. (No, speaking in riddles is one step too far for me.) Both Williams and Rucka were extremely nice and very cool to this strange woman dressed like one of their characters.
Of course, I’d brought my comics to be signed. Specifically, the ones with the pages of Alice wearing the exact costume I’d drawn my own inspiration from. Rucka told me that they’d had more stories planned for Alice, but was unsure they’d ever be told, since their Detective Comics run had ended. (A couple weeks later, Rucka announced he was no longer working for or with DC Comics, and was leaving Batwoman’s fate – and Alice’s – in the capable hands of Williams. I still don’t know if Alice’s planned story will ever see daylight.)
The entire experience was amazing. Amazing. I feel like words cannot ever do my emotions justice. I was on top of the world for the rest of the day.
It didn’t matter when my head started to hurt from my cape being too heavy, or that I almost fell over when someone stepped on my cape while he rushed toward the front of a panel room. Not many other people recognized me. I certainly didn’t have my photo snapped in the same way a Green Lantern or Wolverine would. But most importantly, the creators loved my tribute to their character.
That most important moment still buzzed in my head later, when I met up with my parents. I excitedly showed them the photos from my camera, and told them what happened. We then took the bus home, where my extroverted parents informed everyone about my costume and my experience. It was as though I’d won an award and was 12 again, instead of an adult cosplaying a character from a comic book.
Moments like this will stay with me for my entire life, and I will cherish them. I will always look back at those photos, or put on the costume again, and be happy.
... but that wasn’t what changed my life.
Cosplay and Community
Alice was noticed by some local comic book podcasters, who became my friends. They told me about a Ladies Comic Book Night at a comic shop. Yes, a whole night where they kicked the men out, had cookies, and let the women shop. We just hung around making friends with each other – in the way that perhaps we’d always envied fanboys and their ability to make the shop theirs – if just for a couple hours. We could debate over who would win: Jean Grey or Barbara Gordon?
It was at this gathering that I met Jennifer K. Stuller, a pop culture and comic book critic who was selling her book and joining in on the fun. As we gabbed and recommended different books to each other, we started to talk about conventions. Jen told the group of us all about a new, up-and-coming convention she and some women were starting to put together: GeekGirlCon.
Knowing that friendly faces I’d met before would be at the GeekGirlCon planning meeting gave me the spark I needed to attend myself. To check out what these women were trying to do and to see how I could support their effort. I was already thinking about who I’d like to see at GeekGirlCon – and, of course, working out my cosplay.
The organization putting together GeekGirlCon was brand-new, and no one knew what was going to come out of this first meeting. None of women present really knew each other beforehand, but all realized that the geek community needed a convention celebrating women. There was passion, momentum, and lots of geekery. Some of them drove and flew hundreds of miles just to be at this meeting. I came to recognize that same jolt of passion in me, and volunteered to help.
In the ever-growing world of geekdom, there is a rising voice for women. I’d previously gone to comic shows where I was one of two women in a room full of men, but I’ve watched as the landscape has changed, and there are now more women sitting on the floor beside me, digging through quarter bins for themselves. I do think that cosplay is an area of geekdom which women tend to embrace at a higher participatory level, and can be another way for female fans to connect with each other. We are turning to creation and community as a way to state our presence and celebrate with each other.
Cosplay changed my life. It was more than just dressing up; everything else in my world changed after I donned a costume. In the span of one year, cosplay catalyzed my life from fan to community builder. If I hadn’t spent hours carefully sewing on a hair comb to my floor-length cape, I would not be on the path I am today.
The rest, as they say, is “herstory.” Here I am, not just volunteering, but leading GeekGirlCon. We are having a convention, and by the time this book hits the shelves, I’ll be able to tell you what characters I cosplayed and of all those special moments I had by myself and with others.
See what excellent female characters in comic books do? They make doubters cosplay. Those cosplayers go forth to make friends, connect with creators, and create community and memories. That woman in 2009 reading Detective Comics as she watched a friend’s rabbits for the weekend would’ve laughed had you told her that she would dress up like a kooky villain, and that it would change her life. She would’ve been one of the first in line to buy a pass to a convention celebrating geeky women, but she would have expected to be the only one. The only one standing there in her Alice costume.
An Interview with Amanda Conner
Amanda Conner started out in comics working for Marvel and Archie. She has also worked as a commercial illustrator for Arm & Hammer, Playskool and Nickelodeon. Amanda worked for Marvel on their Barbie line of comics, as well as the Gargoyles books. She then moved on to pencil Vampirella, working with Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, and Warren Ellis. Amanda has illustrated a number of titles for DC and Marvel, as well as Painkiller Jane (for Event Comics, an independent imprint created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada) and The Pro (a creator-owned Eisner-nominated book for Image Comics, written by Garth Ennis). She collaborates with artist/inker/writer and husband Jimmy Palmiotti and writer Justin Grey via Paper Films, a multimedia entertainment studio engaged in screenwriting, art production, and multimedia developme
nt.
Q. What can you tell us about your childhood experiences with comics and superheroes?
A. My mother bought me comics when I was sick and staying home from school – it was a good way to keep me from watching TV all day long. The first bunch of comics weren’t necessarily superhero comics, they were mostly Betty and Veronica and Archie, that kind of stuff. My first gift from the Tooth Fairy was a Mad magazine and a nickel.
Once I discovered Wonder Woman, that’s when it all gelled for me. I wanted to be her. So much so, in fact, that when I was eight or nine years old, when the Wonder Woman TV show with Lynda Carter was on, I used to take my mother’s silver posterboard – both of my parents were artists, so they had a bunch of art supplies lying around the house – and make it into bullet-deflecting bracelets. My brother had a little pellet gun that would shoot little plastic pellets, and I used to have him shoot at me! More often than not, I would be pelted in the face with little plastic pellets. I’m so glad I can still see. Every once in a while, though, I would deflect the little plastic pellets with the little cardboard bracelets. It actually worked. So that just spurred me on further.
Q. Why Wonder Woman?
A. She was the first female superhero that I was aware of – I didn’t even know about Supergirl yet! Wonder Woman was the first one that dropped into my lap, and I was so amazed and happy about that.
Q. Did reading comics influence your choice to become an illustrator?
A. I realized at a certain point – probably later than I should have – that being a superhero isn’t actually a paying job. I had a few career choices picked out: I wanted to grow up and be a superhero, or a lion tamer, or a race car driver, because you could go really fast and it was a paying job. I don’t know why I didn’t get into being a race car driver, it would have been fun. But drawing comics is really fun, too.
I’ve always known how to draw because both of my parents were artists. Not only that, but my father is a frustrated comic book artist. He wanted to draw comics when he grew up, but got the standard talking-out-of-it from his parents. I think his mom was more into it, but his dad wasn’t. My grandfather was in engineering, and wanted my dad to have a manly job that paid lots of money. So instead of being a comic book illustrator, he went into advertising. Now he gets to live vicariously through me. He sees all the comics that I do, which is fun.
I think my mother wanted me to be a painter or artist along the lines of Mary Cassatt or Georgia O’Keeffe, but she’s pretty happy that I’m doing comics.
Q. How did you get your professional start in comics?
A. I ended up going to the Joe Kubert School of Art. When I got out of that, I was trying to figure out ways to get closer to comics. I worked at World Color, which was a color separation plant back in the good old days – or the not-quite-good old days when they used to separate color in comics by hand. It was nightmarish. But, my godfather owned and ran World Color. He was like, “Yeah, you can work here!” I think I was there for about one or two months before deciding nope! This is not the way to get into comics, this is not the way to work on comics. It was a dark room with some flickering fluorescent lights and miserable people who were losing their eyesight. I thought, “I need a different job.”
So I started working in a new comic book store that had just opened up near my house. It was called Dream Factory, up in Norwalk, Connecticut. While I was working there, I saw an ad in the paper. A professional comic book artist was looking for an assistant, and that turned out to be Bill Sienkiewicz.
I would do backgrounds for him, and sort of clean up the cyclone he would create. He’s definitely a man who’s all about the process. He’s more into doing it than he is into the finished product. Which is amazing, because the finished product always looks gorgeous. But while he was creating a piece, it always looked like a family of raccoons had been brought in by a tornado.
The most fun thing I got to do for Bill was that I got to model for Elektra: Assassin. I didn’t start modeling for him until, I think, the fourth issue. And you’ll notice that at the beginning of the series, Elektra looks like this cold, hard Greek woman in a red bandana – but by the second-to-the-last panel on the second-to-the-last page, it looks like me in a red bandana. And I don’t look Greek, at all.
It was also really exciting that at the time, Bill had a studio next door to [The Heart of Juliette Jones creator] Stan Drake and [Mary Perkins, On Stage creator] Leonard Starr! So I got to hang out with those guys. Stan had taken over the drawing chores for Blondie, but he was also still doing The Heart of Juliette Jones and Kelly Green – it was so cool to just watch him draw.
But, getting back to my start in the industry... while I worked for Bill, I would go back and forth into the city with my father, and would hit Marvel and DC with whatever I had in my portfolio. I would call up that day – this was before 9/11, and it was easier to get into places – and say, “Hey, I’m from out of town, and I have a portfolio for review, and I’m leaving today!” Technically, it wasn’t a lie, because I’m from Connecticut, which is an hour out of town, and I was leaving at the end of the day. So I would corner the editors, make them let me come up, and show them my portfolio. They would always say that my work showed a lot of potential, but it needed polish, or it needed this or it needed that. I think I went through this routine five or six times.
Finally, Bill said to me, “Marvel is having glasnost, they’re letting anybody in,” so I went back to Marvel and got my first job with them. It was a Yellowjacket story, and they got Stan Drake to ink me, which I was really, really happy about.
Q. So that took... how long? A couple of years?
A. My first job was in the fall of 1988, for Marvel. I had another small job after that, in which She-Hulk and Wasp are raiding all the hunky guys of the Marvel Universe. I didn’t get a lot of comics work after that, so I went into advertising for a while. I got work with Archie Comics, but I was still doing advertising at the same time. These days, I still do advertising every once in a while, just to keep myself humble and grounded. And to remember why I wanted to work in comics.
Q. You’ve done commercial illustration for The New York Times, Revolver magazine, Arm & Hammer and Nightline, among others. How did you get into that?
A. A friend of mine was an editor at Spin – she had me do some pieces for the magazine that, to this day, I am really proud of. Eventually, this friend went to Revolver magazine. They had an advice column written by Vinnie Paul, who used to be in the band Pantera. It was Dear Abby for metalheads; illustrating that was awesome. Lara, my editor, let me get away with doing anything on that. And when you’re doing a heavy metal advice column, you get to draw really crazy stuff. I also did some stuff for Nightline – they had some really weird concepts they wanted to get across, and had me draw a really, really huge guy that came to Earth and was 24 miles high, or something like that.
I recently finished up a job for Nike, and there’s a small company in New York called Kidvertisers that I do work for. They are from way back, from my first ad agency job. On occasion they call me up and ask for something, and I say sure.
Q. Does commercial illustration work differently in your brain than comics?
A. It’s more of a pain in the ass. Every once in a while, a job goes smoothly, but it’s often full of micromanaging and thousands of little changes. You think you’re done and have made the final change... and then the legal department comes in and says everything has to be different, so you do it all over again.
Commercial work also doesn’t have a good flow, unlike comics. One of my favorite things to do is to tell a story with pictures – and that’s what comics are. I’m given a script, and I get to make finished art from that. I remember something that Joe Kubert told me, and it was worth every penny that I spent on his school – he said, “Make the reader understand the story as if it had no words.” That’s why I enjoy comics more than commercial work: I get to tell a story. Of course, commercial work pays crazy-money, which is nice to ha
ve every once in a while. Mortgage payments come due, and I have to buy toilet paper and cat food. So I do comics for love, commercial for cash.
Q. Let’s talk about your comics, then. Some of your work has included Marvel’s Barbie line of comics. In an industry that is often critiqued for its unrealistic, sexualized portrayals of women, how did you feel about working on titles that might be assumed to fit that critique, from Barbie to Power Girl to Vampirella?
A. Barbie was one of the titles I worked on when I was starting out in comics, but after a while, I got tired of it. I think Mattel handles it differently now, but at the time, Barbie’s entire emotional rage ran from “pleasantly satisfied” to “mildly happy.” This didn’t work for me, because my single most favorite thing on Earth to draw is facial expressions. At one point, I asked my editor to give me all of the stories that focused on [Barbie’s younger sister] Skipper, because she was allowed to be a little rambunctious and get into trouble, or have a hissy fit every once in a while. She’s much more fun, and much more well-rounded, to draw than Barbie. My editor said yes, and I drew those for a while. But after a couple of issues, Mattel said no, no... they wanted Skipper to be more like Barbie, and that was it for me. I told them that they needed to find another job for me, and my wonderful editor at the time, Hildy Mesnick, put me on Gargoyles.
I loved doing Gargoyles, even though technically it was a Disney comic and the guys who ran Buena Vista were in charge of it. They didn’t have a template for me to work from – instead, I was told to draw in my own style as long as the characters were recognizable as the Gargoyles. Gargoyles also had a strong female character – a New York City cop – and I loved drawing her.
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them Page 4
