She Makes Comics & Superheros Unmasked

She Makes Comics (Stotter, 2013) was an inspiring documentary detailing the long-spanning contribution females have made to the comic industry since the 1900s. Unlike Superheros Unmasked (Kroopnick, 2003) the 2013 feature highlighted another perspective regarding comic history and raised a fundamental question necessary in evaluating any industry, medium, or comic strip, namely, who/what is missing and how does the presence or absence of certain individuals and groups change the story? In Superheros Unmasked the rise of specialized comic book stores was framed positively in that they garnered a cult following and created a place for comic book enthusiasts to converse. She Makes Comics, alternatively, noted that specialized comic book stores greatly alienated female comic book readers, who at the time made up more than half of comic book readership. Each documentary informs a particular interpretation of comic history, and although She Makes Comics may be more nuanced both are incomplete.

Looking forward, Stotter’s documentary emphasized that the increased presence of complex female characters in comics requires the increased presence of female comic authors in the industry. As a female college student I can look to few females within comics that I related to growing up, or independent heroines in books or movies for that matter. For many of the comic authors featured in the documentary their desire to create comics stemmed from a personally relatable character they encountered in a comic book. One profound moment they experienced as a child or adolescent informed their career, and in many cases their work inspired the next wave of female comic authors. As workers within a medium capable of informing social change comic authors hold an advantage concerning the audience they cater to, and if created from a socially conscious perspective, hold the potential to educate an attentive and impressionable public.