Thursday, December 13, 2007

Maybe they could draw comics if their hands weren't always full of chocolate...

An actual conversation between me and a customer today:

Dude: It's weird to see girls reading comics.
Me: Yeah, well, there are a lot of us.
Dude: Because comics are usually for guys. It's an old boy's club.
Me: Yes. It's changing.
Dude (not listening to a word I say): There's never really been any women who write or draw comics.
Me: Actually, there are quite a few.
Dude: It'd be something to see a woman drawing comics like a man.
Me: There are women drawing comics, er...like a man. (Go into detail talking about Amanda Conner).
Dude (ignoring me): Yeah, it'd be something to see a woman draw a comic.
Me: Is this...a prank?
Dude: Because women don't really like violence and men like violence.
Me (considering stabbing him): I like violence.
Dude: It'd be something if a woman was writing comics.
Me: THERE ARE WOMEN WRITING COMICS!
Dude: Mainstream comics, I mean. Like the ones men like.
Me (deep breath): Gail Simone is currently the main writer on The Atom, Wonder Woman, and a number of titles for Wildstorm.
Dude: A woman took over Doom Patrol after Morrison, and it went downhill. And a woman wrote Swamp Thing after what's-his-name, and it went downhill...
Me: Well, I think it's hard for anyone to follow ALAN MOORE or Grant Morrison.
Dude: Any woman?
Me: NO. AnyONE. Anyone at all.
Dude: Women can't really draw the way that men like.
Me: ....
Dude (hauling random volume of Swamp Thing off shelf, opening to random page): Like this...now, I know this is a scary picture...
Me: Uh, yeah...I love that series. It's really good. I'm sure a woman somewhere on Earth can draw that page.
Dude: Can you imagine? If a woman could draw that.
Me (REALLY wishing I could draw that so I could just throw down): I...no. No I can't imagine that. It's just too crazy. Please close that book now. That picture is making me faint with terror.


So there you have it. We still have a long way to go, apparently.

39 comments:

mellon said...

wow.

that's...

wow.

Anonymous said...

Well he must be right, as only men know about comics. Probably Winick or Loeb (of Ultimates vintage) is writing for Simone and Liefeld or Land are doing Conner's artwork. Duh.

Will said...

Wow, that's terrible.

Anonymous said...

I'm speechless. I've met some socially awkward ignoramii in my day, but this takes the cake.

How old was this guy?

Anonymous said...

Also, I read somewhere that women can't drive cars because their, y'know, thingies get in the way.

Pulpatooner said...

That is so outrageous that I'd suspect you'd made it up... except I think I met this guy in front of the comics shelf at the Memphis Public Library last night night. 'Cuz there couldn't possibly me more than one of these people, could there?

Adam said...

I think women drawing like men means that women would be drawing while peeing standing up.

David page said...

Wow....that almost feels like a convo between the douschebags that actually run my local comic store...I hate forbidden planet so much....

Nate said...

oh my! did you get the vapors?

SallyP said...

Rachelle, my sweet, I feel your pain. I've had a similar experience, although not quite to the same degree of idiocy that you experienced.

All of which just explains my husband's theory of the world. In dealing with the public, 90% of them are assholes. The remaining 10% are FLAMING assholes, and unfortunately, those are the ones that we seem to run into the most.

FoldedSoup said...

OK, Draw maybe. But wouldn't it be crazy if a woman could blog about comics like a man?!?

Crazy, I tells ya.

David Hahn said...

Did he even know that he was talking to a...woman?

David Hahn
www.HahnDynasty.com

Matt said...

Whenever I encounter such a person, I remember (and sometimes remind others) that it is not polite to make fun of the mildly retarded.

rachelle said...

The argument was so dumb that it wasn't even worth getting into it with the guy. He's just an idiot.

Not only was this guy arguing this point to a woman working in a comic shop, I was standing next to another woman working in the comic shop. And I was also surrounded by comics written and/or drawn by women.

alex said...

It's amazing how many times I've heard people try to use Rachel Pollack's (admittedly not good) run on Doom Patrol as some kind of proof positive that women can't do comics good. I guess it doesn't occur to her that she may not necessarily be indicative of 50% of the world's capacity to make comics.

rachelle said...

For every bad female creator, there are 900 bad male creators.

alex said...

Oh undoubtedly. Also, I meant to write "them" rather than "her" in my last sentence.

Anonymous said...

That just sounded like a Simpsons bit where Homer doesn't understand the conversation he's in, and just blanks over the other person's responces.

rachelle said...

It was actually a lot like that, Andrew.

I could practically hear the Meow Mix song being played in his head.

Caleb said...

There ARE way too few women writing and drawing comics...if by "comics" that dude meant mainstream DCU and Marvel Universe comics.

Like, is Gail Simone the ONLY writer on an ongoing super-comic from Marvel or DC right now? I'm having trouble thinking of another...at least, a solo writer.

And I can't think of any female artist on a DCU or MU ongoing super-comic at the moment. Is Nicola Scott a woman? (I never like to assume, ever since I was 15 and learned Kelley Jones was a man).

Of course, if by "comics" dude meant "comics" well then, yeah, that's not only pretty dumb, it's reaaalllly dumb since he's, like, in a comic shop full of stuff written by, drawn by and written AND drawn by women, I'm sure.

One good thing about your conversation with that dude though, is it made me laugh when I read it online later so...some good came of it.

rachelle said...

It made me laugh as it was happening.

Yeah, I mean, obviously there aren't very many women writing/drawing at DC and Marvel, but this guy was like "Wouldn't it be CRAZY if a woman could write a comic?! But that would never happen."

Jeff said...

What. The. Hell?

You're making this up.

Please. Please be making this up. For all our sakes.

Siskoid said...

Didn't make me laugh so much as make me feel really weird inside. Is this what astonishment feels like?

Is this how Ant-Man's Tales made people feel?

I guess it is.

I don't like it.

Kevin said...

Boy gevalt!
If he hasn't heard of Coover or Simone, then I kinda feel sorry for him.

Chance said...

You must be the most patient person in the world, because you are not currently arraigned for murder.

Skeleton Munroe said...

Wait... Rachel Pollack's run on Doom Patrol was *good*. It only suffers due to the fact that she was following Grant Morrison. I mean, look at Animal Man: one crazy, fun storyline after GM left and then a slow descent into Vertigo mediocrity. Gender hardly comes into it.

Sea-of-Green said...

The guy was probably a 40-year-old virgin, right? ;-)

-- Sea

Anonymous said...

I would love to know what kind of comics this guy buys.

Skeleton Munroe said...

I completely didn't say what I meant to. Those are two completely different cases. In my defense, it was way early.

All I'm saying is it's hard to follow Morrison.

Anonymous said...

I don't know much about Rachel Pollack's run, and I imagine that it couldn't possibly be on the same level as Morrison's (what could?) but she did give us one piece of grade-A comics genius:

The Codpiece

Unknown said...

Yeah... the only thing crazier would be an editor actively seeking out female creators for a major project. Oh... wait...

click here: http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=139334

That guy sounds like a real primate.

Best,

Tom Waltz
Editor
IDW Publishing

Unknown said...

he must be right

http://www.spymac.com/details/?2318691

Jon Hex said...

What a douchebag.

Anonymous said...

wow, uh, that's horrible...

...and Swamp Thing's art was complimented by Tatjana Wood's colors.

chrishaley said...

I would have exploded. Literally. You're a far more patient person than I.

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget that one of the best colorists working in comics is a woman--Laura Allred.

zhinxy said...

Nicola Scott a woman?

Since I didn't see the question answered yet, yes. Yes she is definitely a woman.

And to the original post... Uh... Wow. How old was he, roughly?

notintheface said...

"Liefeld or Land are doing Conner's artwork."

More likely Kevin Maguire.

Ben said...

Nicola Scott is not only a woman, but in fact is an autralian super-model. Which, I believe, would be very much the ultimate idealization of womankind for this sort of individual. I don't know if there's any irony in that, but I choose to believe there is . . .