Female Characters in Comics

Last week at work during a break I was in the break room reading a book (I believe it was Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware). I was hoarding the one comfy chair and was so completely engrossed in the book that I didn't notice a coworker standing in front of me. He started to chuckle, so I looked up.

He said I was confusing because I come across as this socially aware, liberal, political minded woman and here I was reading comics of all things. I asked him what was so uncool about reading comics and he said it was because of the female characters. He said that the women always have big boobs, raging hormones, and little to no character development. After diving into the conversation a bit deeper, ends up that my co-worker is more a 'superhero' comic book reader. I started to think about how the different divisons of comics represent female characters, and also whether most women like me prefer independent comics to the mainstream comics for this very reason.

There are a couple great resources representing women in comics. I really like Sequential Tart and Friends of Lulu for just existing. But I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and really dive into this inherent divide in the comics world.

So I did a little reasearching online. I ran across an interesting article on how to convert your lady friend to reading comics. The article basically stated women want more character development and emotional attachment than fights and crashes. Duh. I also read an piece that Silver Bullet Comics summarizing why women don't like comics and what to do about it. However, the most interesting read was a more historical dissection of comics and gender differences. It also addressed the different ways independent and small press comics represent women compared to the bigger publishing houses.

There are obviously a lot of articles out there, but the common themes addressing women and comics were how to attract women to comics for better sales and how to convert women to reading comics so you don't have to worry about her getting mad about spending money on release dates. It makes me wonder if the only reason why women are even being considered as a small but growing faction of comic fans is because we have money to spend and companionship to offer. I hope there will be a time when Marvel or DC will have books with characters like Enid from Ghost World or Hopey from Love and Rockets. But for some reason I don't see this happening any time soon. Is there room in the comic world for a female character with a great rack and a brain?