We should all read more books for teenage girls

[stubbleupdate]

Recently, I've gone back and had a re-read of some of my Minx books. For those of you who don't know, Minx was DC's attempt at a line catering to teenage girls by publishing digest sized complete stories for sale in book shops. The line died because nobody bought them, though this is most likely because retailers didn't know whether they belonged in the young adult section or in the graphic novel section with Watchmen and Judge Dredd (i.e., not where the Twilight set might wander). There's been no talk of bringing Minx back, or even if DC want to have another go with trying a similar publishing experiment. I do half expect that the end of the next DC crossover will reveal that Drama Jane, is being brought into DC continuity so that she can be forgotten about by more readers.

This extract is from Re-Gifters by Mike Carey (now writing Unwritten and assorted X-books) and Sonny Liew (last seen in the blockbusting Sense and Sensibility. The team wrote the excellent My Faith in Frankie, which was a Minx book before there was Minx.

As for Regifters, it's the story of a (South) Korean girl living in LA called Dixie/ Dik Seong Jen/ Jen Dickson. Dixie practices hapkido and has a crush onAdam, a boy in her class. Her mum makes jewellery which she sells to a shop in Koreatown and in the first extract, Dixie is taking the latest batch to the store.








So, Dixie is brave, if slightly headstrong. Dillinger becomes an important part of the story later on.

Our second part is Jen and her friend Avril getting ready for a party










Coming soon - more Minx

Comments

[combatsoup]

I remember buying a few minx books, two by Aaron Alexovich. The only reason I bought them was that the guys who run my local LCS actually read them and knew to stick them inext to the Johnen Vasquez and Roman Dirge books where it could attract the right audience of both girls and boys.

Its a shame they went under, it was a really nice alternative.

....so, have you read Kimmie66? I loved that one when i first read it. :)

[stubbleupdate]

Kimmie66 confused me. I just went with it. I can't even remember half of what it was about.

[q99]

I love Aaron Alexovich's work (though I haven't read the non-Kimmie66 one yet since Aaron didn't write it. I have it, it's just on my pile ^^).

Serenity Rose is a great series, and I liked K66 a lot too.

[keeva]

I dunno, part of me wonders if it went under because it had comics for girls featuring girls of color but written by old white men.

Also, the bookstores seem to be pretty good at putting manga in a manga section. This probably belongs there, thematically.

[auggie18]

Huh. Mariko Tamaki, Cecil Castellucci, Derek Kirk Kim, Alisa Kwitney, Joelle Jones, Louise Carey, Rebecca Donner, Sonny Liew and Inaki Miranda are all going to be very surprised when they find out that they're actually old white men.

[turtlefu]

Why should that matter? No, seriously, a good writer is a good writer, and you shouldn't dismiss this book just because it's written by a white man about a young Asian girl. If the writing is good, then it's good, regardless of the age, gender, or race of the author.

[ravenous_raven]

Have you read any of them? I've read four so far and they were awesome.

[stubbleupdate]

The point of Minx was, I believe, less to attract Manga readers and more to attract those who read books without pictures.

Also, Manga's much easier to categorise and shelf because it has a very definite and distinct look.

[q99]

From my look at them, they generally struck me as looking good with good writers, but more for the indy comics crowd than a first-time comic crowd.

[katemonkey]

I have to say that this was my favourite out of the Minx bunch. Just such a great little book.

[stubbleupdate]

It's a toss up between this or New York Four. But then, Token just looks lovely.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth was alright, but the four pages in the middle where I genuinely thought that it was going to throw sexual abuse of a child into the story without warning did diminish my enjoyment of the book.

[icon_uk]

I found a copy of the Regifters in a local remaindered bookshop and bought it out of curiosity.

I thought it was beautifully put together, but wasn't that engaged by the story. It's a perfectly GOOD story I hasten to add, but I guess it just wasn't for me personally.

Ironically, I ended up regifting it! :)

[keeva]

Final Minx Creative Count

In honor of the late Chick Checks, let’s count female creators: The complete 2007 Minx lineup was announced yesterday. Two are by male writer/artists. Two are by separate male writers and artists. One is by a male writer with two male artists. One is cowritten by a male and his daughter and illustrated by a male. One is by a female writer and male artist. (I’ve talked about the new imprint previously here and here.)

So, we have seven books with a total of 14 creators, of which two are female (and one’s role, if accurately reported, opens the door to cries of nepotism, although it does shoot down all those people arguing vehemently that DC needed to use only recognizable, well-known names and that’s why they couldn’t include more women). 2 out of 14 is 14.28%. Counting the editors as creators (but is that really the kind of book we’re hoping for, strongly editorial-driven?) raises the percentage to 25% (4 out of 16), which certainly reads much better.

[...]

In short, how do you talk to a target audience if you’re not allowing members of that audience to speak?

I think this was fair criticism then, and it remains fair criticism today.

[speedingtortoise]

This looks like a nice read - I really love the art too : )

I'll put it on my absurdly long list of "things I should totally read when I have the time/money/energy to search for them on ebay"

[ravenous_raven]

Ah, Minx! My library was awesome and had a bunch of these (probably because it employed a bunch of us geeks). I was going to post scans of these, but unfortunately a broken cooling system wiped them all out...

[speedingtortoise]

Well that's a bummer about the cooling system

Were a lot of books damaged?

[blackruzsa]

This is cheerful, sweet.... am I supposed to be scared for something happening, or will it just me like this the whole way?

[ravenous_raven]

Nah, don't be scared. It's a fun book, but keep in mind that the other Minx books have different writers with totally different plots. Nothing dark, but it's not all shiny rainbows.

[feyandstrange]

I didn't hear about Minx' existence until less than a month before it was being shut down.

And the first reaction my inner teenager had was "Ew, girl books? Why don't they go make Wonder Woman not suck and be something I'd want to read first? I don't read that Sweet Valley Twilight crap and I'm not gonna read the Archie girls fighting over Dipshit or whatever romance girl comics either."

In other words, if it's pink and girly, I'm not gonna touch it long enough to find out that the content is awesome.

Which is a shame, but that's how this tomboy teen was. (I have since gotten over my bad self and will watch shojo manga, although it helps that the boys are purty.)

This comic is adorable, and I may need to post that "keep your weapons sharp" page over my boyfriend's and ex-girlfriend's makeup cases. Their weapons are sharp, but their eyeliner is *so* not.

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, I was like that too as a teenager - I collected Batman and wouldn't have touched a "girl book" with a ten foot pole. I got over that anti-feminist hatred of "girly" stuff, but it seems to be a pretty common stage for a lot of (Western) comics-reading girls. Which is why Minx should have been in the bookshops next to the manga - with which it shelves perfectly - and in the YA section, not in the specialist comics shops.

(frozen)

[tsunamiwombat]

I would surmise the failure of the line had less to do with the writers and what appendages they did or did not have or the melanin content of their skin, and more to do with that horrible art, which skims between Super Deformed Cuteness and just Godaweful, In some strange new form I shall coin ADORABAD.

Clearly though it's all white male peoples fault and any logic to the contrary is irrelivant.

(frozen)

[mrstatham]

The line wasn't just based on art like this. New York Four, for instance, had artwork by Ryan Kelly, and the team on that was the same one that put together the critically acclaimed (and female-led) Local.

[philippos42]

I think I've read all the Minx books except Kimmie66.
Some were better than others.

Like CMX, Minx suffered from DC not understanding how to sell & market print cartoons as such.

[ravenous_raven]

Ooh, read Kimmie66. I really liked that one, it was a "slice of life" story set into the future where everyone practically lives in a virtual reality using their avatars and really gets into the issue of reality.

[darkblade]

This actually looks pretty cool. A shame I hadn't heard of it before now.

On an unrealted note does anyone else think the parents look like Asian Clark and Lois?

[mcity]

I do like the "party as battle" metaphor.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I found Minx through Sonny Liew's work on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. His quirky, manga-mixed-with-Charles-Schultz style really captured the crucial elements of narrative in Austen (much better than the interior artist on P&P), so I tried to find more, and discovered not only was Re-Gifters in my local library, but there was a whole line of sweet, well-done OGNs that weren't just superheros (not that I don't love superheros, but I do love the ability of comics to do anything, not just the capes and masks). I was saddened to find out after I blitzed through all the ones I could find (about six or so of them, I think) that the line was cancelled - but enjoy greatly what was left to us. Kind of a successor to Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane for me - both in art and tone (and I mean McKeever's run, not the rather forgettable Moore relaunch misfire).