Green Leader, art and story by Daniel Warren Johnson, colors by Matt Davis

Oh just fuck everything goddamnit

I’M DEAD WITH SADNESS

GUYS THIS IS THE STUFF 

I’m not crying, it’s just been raining on my face.

How To Interview A Woman

I’m in the middle of press for No Mercy’s next arc (Issue #5 drops on 12/9/15, kids, give me your money) and by and large the interviews have been a lot of fun. Nice people asking smart questions. But then…

le sigh.

So, y’know, I dragged his ass to the curb like he was yesterday’s garbage.

Then I thought, maybe there are people out there who need a little refresher course on how to interview a woman. Friends, shall we offer some pointers? Please feel free to add in your own suggestions – I come to this as a cis white chick so there’s a whole bunch of stuff I know I’m going to miss. 

1. Do not treat her existence in her chosen industry, in which she is obviously quite successful (unsuccessful people don’t get interviewed, yo) as a novelty. Just because you don’t read / listen to / watch the work of women, PoC, queers, etc does not mean it doesn’t exist. She is not a woman in comics. She is a WRITER or ARTIST in comics. She is not a woman in music. She is a MUSICIAN in music. The fact that we are here, and are female, is! not! news!

Neko Case FTW

1b. Seriously, the “what’s it like to be a woman in ____?” question? NO. NOPE. DELETE. NEVER ASK THIS. After all, what’s it like to be a man in journalism? Is that an interesting question? 

1c. “How did you get into ___?” also needs to be retired, for everyone. C’mon, you can’t think of anything better? (Also when you follow it with the “what’s it like to be a woman in…” question, it takes on a nasty shade of “hey, little girl, what are you doing HERE in this MAN’s world”, even if you don’t mean it that way.) 

2. Of course feel free to ask us if we’ve experienced inequality in our profession / lives, but a) ask us directly; b) bear in mind we’re going to open up a lot more to someone of the same race / gender / orientation; and c) respect us if we say we don’t want to talk about it. 

3. Don’t ask us about our genitals, or our sex life. Basically, think to yourself, “is this a question I would ask The Rock?”

You want to know WHAT?!

3b. Golden rule: if you wouldn’t ask The Rock a question that you’re about to ask a woman, don’t ask it at all. 

4. Commenting on our fuckability, our clothes, or what we ate for lunch is generally discouraged. When you write an article about an extremely successful female cartoonist in your newspaper, and your lede is about how she seems too cute to be a cartoonist, or her elfin blonde hair, but nothing about HER ART, please know we are all making voodoo dolls of you and stabbing them with every available sharp object in our houses. “But what about women in entertainment, who market themselves on their looks? Aren’t they fair game?” Well, at this point I’d like to turn over to my esteemed colleague from Barbados:

We are not things to patronize and comment on. I know it burns you that we’re more successful than you are so you itch to put us down, but maaaybe if you hustled as hard as you hated, you’d get somewhere. Cheers!

5. If we call you on some questions that we prefer not to answer or feel are inappropriate or poorly phrased, this is not the way to respond: 

Because then you have to go explain to your editor-in-chief why your interview was cancelled.

And hey, women are half the population. We’re everywhere. We do everything. Always have. We’re also all really different and unique, so sure, some women may be fine with very intrusive questions into their sex lives and appearance, or OK with being treated like some exotic curiosity who has been led into the Royal Geographic Society by the Great Explorer. But some may just be too inexperienced or too embarrassed or too shocked to turn those questions down. The rest of us, though, we’ll drag you to filth.

If this is a lot to understand, please remember the golden rule: if you wouldn’t ask The Rock a question, don’t ask a woman.

Isn’t he such a cute little thing in his skintight $500 shirt from Barneys? He probably had a salad for lunch, he’s clearly obsessed with maintaining his figure. Gosh, what’s it like for him, being a man in the acting profession? I wonder how someone like him got into it… 

Preview of my limited edition INKJECTION sketchbook for Thought Bubble this weekend

Vader Down variant cover for Vienna Comic Con

PHIL.

Dum dum dum

You guys already saw this preview of our new arc, yess?

Here are a few pages from Pretty Deadly#6 that were first shown at this last Image Expo.

Pretty Deadly team below:

(w) Kelly Sue DeConnick

(a) yours truly

© Jordie Bellaire

(l) Clayton Cowles

Out in November and soon ready to preorder.

Stay tunned for moar and much moar, we’re on fire, finally!

HOW WE VIEW WRITERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 14 2015

Several people have alerted me to the fact that I’ve been nominated in the SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS category for this year’s HARVEY AWARDS for my work on SEX CRIMINALS. While it is an honour, of course, to be nominated, it sadly continues a trend in comics which simply cannot continue: it ignores the writer.

Comics, for the most part, is a team effort. Pencillers, inkers, writers, letterers, Jordie; all of these roles are integral to the creation of a comic book and, time after time, positions like writers are routinely ignored in reviews, news and awards. Is it the fact that they’re invisible to the process? That when you’re reading a comic you’re noticing the beautiful drawings, the vibrant colours, the well-placed and designed lettering? Possibly. But it doesn’t mean writers aren’t integral to the process, or aren’t human beings who need to be noticed a lot.

With that being said (or, more accurately, WRITTEN), I simply cannot accept this HARVEY AWARDS nomination as it stands. I urge the awards committee to change the ballot to say “Chip Zdarsky and Matt Fraption, SEX CRIMINALS, Image Comics.” If it does not get changed to exactly that wording, I will ask them to remove my name from the ballot completely, allowing the awards to replace my position with another middle-aged white man.

Comic book writers are important. They are crude storytellers—desperately describing what they wish to see yet cannot create—but storytellers nonetheless.

So, the next time you open a comic on a Wednesday and see a powerful, beautiful, full-colour rendering of Captain America punching a horse in the face, remember that it probably started with a writer, typing out the words “Panel 4: Cap pnches horse in face.”

Chip Zdarsky President Zdarsco, Inc. • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 14 2015

I thought chip (Steve) was nominated for a HARD-y award. I misheard. How did you get this number?

Matt Fraction Treasurer Milkfed Criminals Masterminds, Inc.

I had someone mention on twitter that I should provide a black and white version too for those who wouldn’t know how to adjust their printer. So here you go! Ready for easy printing or photocopies! 

<3 P 

Gals and guys, listen up…

Zodiac Starforce is a fun, energetic, heartfelt, amazing comic. But this is not the kind of book Dark Horse normally publishes. It’s a passion project from two talented and dedicated creators who are pouring their hearts and souls into this book, so… in that regard, it’s a total Dark Horse book. But, it’s pink, it’s silly, it’s geared toward a growing audience in comics that, let’s be honest, Dark Horse doesn’t do many books for. Yes, Dark Horse has had great success with Buffy and Avatar—and if you love those properties, I think ZS is absolutely for you!—but those are major franchises with built in audiences. Zodiac Starforce is brand spankin’ new, original content, straight from driven creators’ brains and pens to your face. It’s the type of book that we talk about when we talk about the types of titles that comics needs more of. And, just like all comics, but especially the new, weird, unique, amazing ones that don’t look like anything else, it’s gonna need a groundswell of fan and retailer support to thrive. 

Likes are great, but reblogs are much better. And social media word-spreading is great, but preorders are where you need to use your wallet to vote for more comics just like this. 

This is a call to action. If you like what you see, act now. You’ll be glad you did, rewarded with many, many, many more issues of one of the best, most enjoyable comics you can imagine.

TODAY. Convergence: Shazam! #2 is available now, at your comic shops and digitally. Check it out! More of the Marvel Family from the first issue! Gotham by Gaslight Batman gets involved! Surprise guests! Explosions probably!

I’ll probably say more at some point but I hope you all have fun with this, we certainly did.

@faitherinhicks tweeting a little pep talk for “older” aspiring artists/cartoonists (funny to call anyone in their late 20s “older” but that’s how it feels in comics and many other creative industries). That last tweet is important, you are not an athlete where typically your prime years are all but over by 30, if you’re consistently working on your art, you should only be improving with time and experience. 

I wrote a thing on twitter yesterday. Glad to see people found it encouraging.

What Faith said. A career can be a lifetime, so be ready to be creating and growing artistically for the next 30-40-50 years or more! 

Different artists, different paths, different pace. Heck, I am a turtle compared to a lot of other artists out there! 

I needed this. I’m “too old for the internet” according to a lot of people, and that hurts that I’ve never “become” something. I feel like I need to pack it in, give up, walk away. Stop doing things, stop liking things, start being a “business professional” whatever the hell that means. I changed my art tumblr tag to “Stubborn Fool” for that reason. This helps. This really helps.

My cover for GROOT #2, colours by Jordie

Tomorrow.

Honored that marvelentertainment tapped me for a new colorist interview series, Coloring the Secret Wars. This week the series launched with jordiecolorsthings (coloring Gabriel H. Walta’s Magneto on the left) and Ive Svorcina (coloring Esad Ribic’s Secret Wars on the right).

Tim O’Shea asks me some good questions and I answer ‘em! This interview is all about one of my very favorite books...MAGNETO!

EDIT: Link to the interview here!

Oh, I miss coloring this book!

I’ve got some bad news, writers. In comics, the artist works harder than we do. On a simple one to one basis, they just plain work harder. A writer can easily write a script a week (or at least, should be able to.) An artist has to spend an entire month on...