Cripes, when did March become Girl Power Month at the Webcomic Overlook? First I reviewed Sister Claire, a gothic story about a young nun. Then I took a look at The Princess Planet, which was all about a treasure-hunting teen. And, last week, I posted my thoughts on Dawn of Time, starring a curious young girl who lives in the prehistoric world. And I started off the month interviewing T. Campbell, who is not a teen girl, but is best known for a comic about teen girls.
And yet, it’s not an unwelcome phenomenon in comicdom. Old school followers of print comic books know that you will hardly find a comic on the shelves starring a female protagonist. And those that do make it there are shamelessly cheesecake (or “good girl art,” if we go by the 50′s vernacular). Note to Marvel and DC: stuffing Sue Richards in a bikini with the number 4 cut out in the center to expose her cleavage is not the way to attract a female audience.
Fortunately, manga came along with its strong female stars. Young women were finally cracking open pamphlets and relating to the characters. The downside? Every girl portrayed in those books looked like jailbait. If you’ve got one of those books on you, you run the risk of being called out as a perv … like, ahem, my younger cousin did when she spotted the Love Hina collection on my bookshelves.
So thank you, webcomic creators, for being able to put together comics with female characters that don’t make me feel like a lonely Japanese businessman. There are several other great comics with female stars in addition to the ones I listed above: Gunnerkrigg Court (reviewed here) and Roza (reviewed here), to name a couple more. Give yourselves a hand for expanding the scope on the depth and variety of comics. It gives hope that, unlike the print counterparts, webcomics will be for both the girls and the boys.
So, appropriately, I will close out the month with yet another comic starring a teenage girl: Evil Diva, created by Pete Menotti, illustrated and written by Brinson Thieme, and inked by Honoel A. Ibardolaza. I’ll be referring to these three collectively as Team Diva, as Menotti/Thieme/Ibardolaza is ridiculously clunky to write repeatedly. Their webcomic is tale about a teenage girl who can be … a real hellion. (A ha ha… Tales from the Crypt writers, eat your hearts out!)
