Women's Lib and DC

[mistygeek]

A small look in to a bit of comics (DC in this case) history here. From The Comics Journal No. 38, Feb. 1978.

Warning: Really big image under the cut. If I shrink it, I find it hard to read. I will though, if comments call for such.




and in case the is not legal enough...

Wonder Woman "The secret of the Magic Tiara" art by Neal Adams.

Comments

[cleome45]

[tries to understand what was wrong with the original costume, which looks perfectly fine here]

[gets out a bottle of bourbon and a straw]

:/

[mistygeek]

I think of all the jokes lost, if there was no boob window.

[cleome45]

I always feel like the joke's on me, though.

Also, it was a window back in the Eighties. Since then, it seems to have graduated to more of a windshield.

[mistygeek]

Okay, I've seen some artist draw it 80s small.

Your point is no less taken though.

[cleome45]

Now I'm curious. Do you remember which artists?

[mistygeek]

While I have some nice fan art, I only know one legit DC artist who drew it in a more 80s style way. I've been looking since I posted, but so help me I can find his name. I recalled that it is a he (which says nothing) and it happened in the last few years.

[jkcarrier]

The boob window outfit was the original. Here's a panel from her first appearance.

[cleome45]

Okay.

Still like the one here better, though.

[halloweenjack]

The weird thing about that panel is that there's no cleavage.

[cleome45]

To clarify, I mean PG's costume. :o

[greenmask]

Marilyn Jo Bethke, you spoke well.

[cleome45]

I wonder how long she stuck around CJ. I attempted to read it in the Eighties, and don't recall much feminism other than the straw kind.

[greenmask]

I don't know if I'm showing my ignorance about comics journalism (or feminist journalism?) but I'm not familiar with her name. I wonder where she is now?

[cleome45]

It's a new name to me, too.

I'm kind of having this daydream now, though. She comes out of retirement and tells Wendy "You Dumb Girls Better Forget All This Feminist Shit If You Want To Be Cool Like Me" Pini to buy a fucking clue.

[greenmask]

I just googled her and all it's giving me is a bunch of links to this article! Boo.

Daydreams can be so.. cathartic.

[cleome45]

:(

I actually have some obscure woman-drawn comics I want to post soon. (Not superheroes.) I was hoping to find out what became of the artist (she was active in the 1930s) but it's proving very hard because her name is ridiculously common. Also, it's possible that she used a different surname if she got married, but there's no way I can find out if she married because-- no history. [grumble]

[greenmask]

Tracing artists is such a bummer! I was trying do do that for some '20s annual stuff a while back; I wanted to see if any of them were dead and if so, had they died soon enough after their publication that I could cast of copyright worry (CALLOUS but practical). But, like you say - almost impossible.

But I will look forward to that! And who knows, maybe it'll turn out she's someone's grandmother, and history will piece itself together before our eyes?

[cleome45]

I like the style in which you think. :D

Also, I hear you about the copyright thing. What I'll probably do is post a handful of pages here, and then have an offsite link to some others. I spend lots of time on flickr, where they have the Creative Commons options for posting images. So I'm thinking that way nobody would have to worry about the copyright thing.

(First though, they need a bunch of cleaning up in Photoshop --old images are old-- before I can think about writing a post anyway. So one problem at a time.)

[mistygeek]

http://comicbookdb.com/creator_title.php?ID=19124&cID=27440&pID=1

You aren't the only one who has gone looking. I've found little.

[flidgetjerome]

Man, now I really want to read the issues referenced but the Justice Society trade cuts off at All Star Comics #67. For what it's worth I do really like how Peej was orginally written there under Levitz and Conway.

[mistygeek]

Showcase #97 has crossed my path several times. You should be able to find it, and never spend more than $5 on it unless you wanted it for something other than reading.

BTW I Google and it is on EBAY for .99 in nice reading shape.

[stubbleupdate]

Showcase 97 is in the Power Girl trade that came out around Infinite Crisis.

I bought it today and may post from it later this week.

[mistygeek]

Please do so!

[flidgetjerome]

Seconded, please!

[stubbleupdate]

unless you wanted it for something other than reading.

:O

Are you talking about adding it to your spank bank?

[mistygeek]

After I posted it that, I saw how it could be taken. ^_^;

I meant for collecting.

[kenn_el]

The complaint about PG's powers had a LOT to do with an inconsistency in portraying both she and Superman of Earth-2's powers since they were introduced (or re-introduced, in his case). There were some attempts to make them no more than the original 'faster than a speeding bullet, etc.), while other times (the Aquarius two-parter comes to mind) the two Supermen were evenly matched.

[blackruzsa]

That's why, for the most part, I hate it when feminists don't act like feminists. Complaining about how women are always in every way oppressed and having constant hate-ons for men are not the traits of a strong woman.

[arilou_skiff]

The way I see it that's kind of... Beside the point. Feminism is a very wide-tent ideology. And I don't think it's fair to say that there's a specific way feminists can or should act (at least as feminists)

Feminists can be wrong. They can be stupid and ignorant, counterproductive or just plain bad people. None of these things make you any less a feminist.

As long as you believe that men and women should have equal rights (however you define that) you qualify asa feminist. Even if you're a complete idiot with stupid ideas of what that entails.

There's this tendency for people (not just feminists) to try to restrict their ideology to the "right sort" of people, and that's wrong, I think. You can acknowledge someone's feminist beliefs and still think they're thinking with their ass.

[blackruzsa]

I apologize, since my definition of feminist is probably different from the standard definition.