November 2008

The Comix Issue
by Lettie Prell

Would you believe I developed a contact for Australian feminist comic artists at the 66th WorldCon in Denver? Talk about your micro-niche market. I couldn't have found a better treasure. I had been seeking to expand international content in The Broadsheet. I ended up expanding the content itself.

Comic art is at once inside and outside the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. It's inside because comic art has dealt with all these genres, and more. Yet comic art is its own thing — as a friend of mine who is drawing for the new Batman series was happy to inform me. Witness the specialized marketing, in big-box stores and in independent stores devoted solely to comics. Graphic novels, too, are their own animal.

I've read that more people go to science fiction movies than read science fiction. Comics and their more literary form, the graphic novel, may therefore be a promising avenue for genre writers to exploit, as some authors have already discovered.

Feminist writers and feminist comic artists may therefore be a fine match indeed. They're already lurking about the conventions. I hope you enjoy the art and words of those featured in this issue.