Javeria: The Super Women behind Comic Books

by Angela Abram

The comic book world has been struggling and going on from years and generations. You’re elder siblings and even parents can be expected to be genuine comic book fans. Moreover, with time there have been significant changes found to come along with comic books, their material, cartoons, characters, stories and even their illustrators, writers and cartoonists. As the society is moving from a strict patriarchal approach to a bit of gender equality at work places, so have people’s minds changed regarding them and now women are pursuing those career opportunities that were once seemed to be reserved exclusively for men only.

Similarly, even the comic book world has treated women right by allowing them to work as illustrators, cartoonists, writers and showing off their extraordinary talent. Furthermore, a change has occurred in the troop of comic book heroes and super heroes which previously followed a determined and firm chauvinistic approach by always having male roles set for such characters. However, this has changed and now females are being introduced as heroes and super heroes as well. So let’s celebrate the diligent work of such amazing females who have vastly contributed to the comic book industry with their wonderful work which has been liked and appreciated all across.

05. Becky Cloonan
This wonder woman has been loved and appreciated for more than a decade now for her work. Dear readers, anyone remembers Demo which was published back in 2004? Yes, Becky Cloonan was the mind behind it. She had always been passionate and creative with her work in the form of mini comics during her college period which eventually led her to becoming a successful female comic creator.

 I’d call her a wonder woman in terms of her profession because she writes as well as draws for comic books which have surely given her an edge amongst fellow comic artists in the industry. Furthermore, she’s best known for her unique and exclusive adapting skills which make her create flexible and matchless characters right according to the story line. She has the power to make you so engaged in reading the comic book that you find yourself becoming addicted to it. Some more work of her are:

• The Mire
• Demeter
• American Virgin for Vertigo
• Strange Tales for Marvel
• East Cost Rising

04. Fiona Staples
Another super amazing female comic creator is none other than Fiona Staples. She started off with her career around a decade ago and hasn’t once touched the ground since then; she has been going high with flying colors surrounding her and has known to be one of the best and most successful artists working currently in the comic book world. She knows the art of grabbing the reader’s attention by her drawings and hence she creates such delicately perfect characters with bold figures, delivers the storyline in the form of her art so flawlessly and beautifully and does sound justice to every story she works on. She efficiently works on sweeping space shots and masters in bringing the facial expressions on paper. A List of her work is as follows:

• Thunder
• Agents
• Saga
• North 40
• DV8: Gods and Monsters

03. Alison Bechdel
She is the female comic creator with great hairstyle who is widely known for her outlook on LGBT culture. Her cult comic strip has been widely appreciated for a good twenty five years! This best seller critically acclaimed comics depicts her personal life like irreplaceable loss of her father and the discovery of her gender identity. Consequently, she has been considered to be one of the most crucial and vital voices behind the LGBT culture and comics. Hence, her work in Dykes to Watch Out For was based on the everyday lives of lesbians which wasn’t about punches and puns but was of a realistic nature which highlighted its subject matter quite effectively. Consequently, this was one comic which the audiences were enthusiastically waiting for and dying to see. She even started the much talked about ‘Bachdel Test’.

Furthermore, her drawings are an inspiration of her own life which depict much intimacy and honesty which makes the audience completely hooked to her comics. She’s known to be able to take along light and dark, good and bad, positive and negative simultaneously which shows in her comic book drawings and lays great emphasis and bases for LGBT values and beliefs. Her work has been recognized by and appeared in:

• The New Yorker
• The New York Times Book Review
• McSweeney’s
• Slate

02. Gail Simone
She’s a real wonder woman who has struggled her way towards the staircase of success from writing ‘You’ll all be Sorry to her recognition through the term ‘Women in Refrigerators.’ She’s that female comic creator who made her way into the comic book industry by penning down her thoughts and presenting them on paper in the form of amazing writings. ‘Women in Refrigerators’ referred to the scene in which the hero’s girlfriend has been murdered by the villain and her corpse was stored in the refrigerator. This referred to those female superheroes that faced injuries, sexual assaults or other traumas as a plot device sought exclusively for the male character. She’s best known for penning down emotions so beautifully that the reader doesn’t seem to get enough of it. More of her work is:

• Secret Six
• Welcome to Tranquility
• Deadpool
• Wonder Woman
• The All-New Atom

01.Noelle Stevenson
Noelle Stevenson is another female comic creator whose work has been critically acclaimed, liked and appreciated throughout. She has a massive fan following on Twitter and Tumblr and consequently her work swiftly goes viral because her fans literally wait for her new work to publish and feel amongst the lucky if they get their hands on her comics before the others. She’s considered to be a bold and strong personality; both in her personal life and it is depicted through her drawings as well. She can definitely take over the comic industry by a storm in future as she previously did through her work sci-fi fantasy web comic Nimona. Looking forward to her new work!

Angela Abram is Senior Writer for OLWOMEN.com, an avid reader, fashion and make up enthusiast who simply lives to write and talk about all kinds of stuff. Trying to sneak peek into the real lives of celebrities without makeup these days!