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NEWS: Gail Simone Wins Lulu Award over CLAMP, Natsuki Takaya


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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15607
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:03 am Reply with quote
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6235
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:05 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes


always the negative one. seriously, when was the last time ANY new character was created at DC?
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8503
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:25 am Reply with quote
I've always liked Gail Simone's work, especially in Birds of Prey and Deadpool. She also wrote an episode of Justice League Unlimited, "Double Date", which was excellent.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:23 am Reply with quote
If you ask me it's more difficult to get a good story out of an age old character like Wonder Woman or Black Canary than it would be to create your own. Hell, has anyone really had that great a success with Wonder Woman. DC just doesn't know what to do with her or how to treat her, so if a writer even gets a half decent story with her at DC, I think that's a small miracle.

Hell, she even made Catman into a cool character. Catman for crap's sake. Aside from being a two bit b lister, even in the DCU world he was washed up. Now he's headlining an amazing if underselling book.

Meanwhile, I love all three contenders, but it's kinda nice to see the more neophyte among the group win the award. To think less than a decade ago she started out writing a fan parody column on a website while working as a hair dresser.
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sunflower



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:37 am Reply with quote
As good as the others are, I'd think that when it comes to increasing and promoting general female readership in the US, Natsuki Takaya has had the greatest impact.
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Paploo



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:13 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes


Actually, she's created a lot of comics-

http://www.onipress.com/display.php?type=bk&id=69

Like the disturbing shojo-styled Killer Princesses with Lea Hernandez, about a seemingly stupid sorority that's actually a group of vapid, self-absorbed , highly skilled assassins. It's full of wonderful swears, and is a must read.

Or the excellent superhero retirement community comic, Welcome to Tranquility http://dccomics.com/wildstorm/graphic_novels/?gn=8380 which is getting a sequel in 2010.

She also did a long running humour column for CBR called You'll All Be Sorry, wrote for Simpsons comics [is currently DC exclusive though] and wrote episodes of JLU and the treatment for the Wonder Woman DTV for Warner.

Characters she created for DC's Superhero line include Savant, Creote, Black Alice, The Queen of Fables (who appeared on JLU), among others. Over at Marvel, she created Agent X and Outlaw.

I love CLAMP a lot [have almost all their series in manga and anime], but it's not as big of an upset as you may think- Gail is a fan favorite writer, and is a female writer who's managed to do a long career and write lots of female-oriented work while also tackling the mainstream. Her success helps to promote women's work in comics in general. The Lulu awards cover the entire comic industry, from newspapers to web to superhero to manga to indy, and you have to keep that in mind. I've read most of her work, and it's all excellent stuff.

Gail totally deserves this, and I imagine CLAMP will be inducted someday. I'm pretty sure they're doing okay.
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Axle911



Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:34 am Reply with quote
It's actually more uncommon to see a women with her popularity in comics then it is to see a popular female Mangaka.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 10:40 am Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
GATSU wrote:
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes


always the negative one. seriously, when was the last time ANY new character was created at DC?


I grew tired of the domestic stuff by the end of the 1980's. Manga was what got me back into reading comics, but when I say ciomics, it doesn't mean a return to western titles. I've been sticking to Japanese & Korean titles.

And it doesn't surprise me manga would lose out considering one still sees pockets of resistance to anime & manga (It's stealing food from the mouths of starving American artists, remember) On the other hand, if I weren't buying manga, I wouldn't be buying American because I don't see much OEL yaoi I like nor do I see incredibly emotional stuff like Wild Adaptor or Saiyuki. I just finished the latest Viz release of Hoshin Engi (Hey! Urahara was in it only his name was Igo) & Dakki is just an incredibly horrible villain in ways we didn't see from DC or Marvel when I was reading & I'm not really inclined to wade thru the dross to find the pearls.

Too many superheroines are guy fantasies of strong women & not real women I can relate to.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1029
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:52 am Reply with quote
Honestly, I would have picked Gail Simone out of the three myself. I've read a ton of her work. Not only is she just a female writing comics but she is one of the topic comic book writers today. Honestly I find her writing/characterization of females in comics much more relatable then almost any female character in a shojo manga I've read.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:25 pm Reply with quote
CLAMP has made some pretty good manga(Magical Knights of Rayearth), they have also made some pretty stupid manga (Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles). Not to mention their disturbing portrayal of pedophilia.

Gail Simone has done wonderful work with the Birds of Prey, and Secret Six. All one has to do is see Catman in the pages of Green Arrow, and Catman in Secret Six.
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Rozarie



Joined: 30 Aug 2009
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:00 pm Reply with quote
brand wrote:
Honestly, I would have picked Gail Simone out of the three myself. I've read a ton of her work. Not only is she just a female writing comics but she is one of the topic comic book writers today. Honestly I find her writing/characterization of females in comics much more relatable then almost any female character in a shojo manga I've read.


Then you truly have never read shoujo manga real shojo manga ):
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:15 pm Reply with quote
So Fruits Basket and CLAMP books aren't real shojo manga? What type of elitism is this? What's a truuuue shojo manga?

I'm guessing you haven't read anything by Simone. I think she's definitely up there with CLAMP stuff I've read and Fruits Basket. Like I said, all three are pretty spectacular creators. Actually, I'd be more tempted to say Fruits Basket's author over clamp since that work is over, but I'm still glad Simone won it. Now if only more people read her books. Never mind other books by female authors, which the whole Friends of Lulu is about.

As for shonen ai, Simone actually notably created a gay couple for a pretty major DC book. Never mind the strong female characters in that book. Of course that book has since been canceled because DC and its politics rather suck, but to me that's more credit to the author.
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ninjaclown



Joined: 17 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:26 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes


I swear, you've used that rolled eyes emoticon more than anyone else combined.
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KrisEllieOphi



Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 111
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:48 am Reply with quote
Paploo wrote:
lots of stuff about Gail's career


I didn't know she had done all of that. But I really enjoy Wonder Woman right now. It's the only DC book I read, and one of only 4 ongoing American comics that I read. Her Diana Prince is really human, and there's certainly about as much drama whirling around her as there is in any shojo manga.
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Hellfish



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 394
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:54 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
That's amusing, considering she hasn't created any of the characters. Rolling Eyes


Except when she does Rolling Eyes

Paploo already mentioned the excelent Welcome to tranquility and Oni Princesses.
Yes, she tends to write for existing characters of the DC universe, but that doesn't mean she hasn't created new characters for those stories. In fact she has created lots (Wonder Woman: Alkyone, the amazons of the circle, the queen of fables; Secret Six: Scandal, Ragdol III, Jeanette; this are only the most recent)

And she is a great writer, she has given new life to boring franchises just by writing on them. And while I love Clamp, Nanase Ohkawa isn't as good as a writer.
It's true there is resistance to recognize manga as and artform by american comic prizes, but this is not the case. Simone was just the better choice for the prize this year.
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