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.
wow.
ReplyDeletethat's...
wow.
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.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's terrible.
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless. I've met some socially awkward ignoramii in my day, but this takes the cake.
ReplyDeleteHow old was this guy?
Also, I read somewhere that women can't drive cars because their, y'know, thingies get in the way.
ReplyDeleteThat 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?
ReplyDeleteI think women drawing like men means that women would be drawing while peeing standing up.
ReplyDeleteWow....that almost feels like a convo between the douschebags that actually run my local comic store...I hate forbidden planet so much....
ReplyDeleteoh my! did you get the vapors?
ReplyDeleteRachelle, my sweet, I feel your pain. I've had a similar experience, although not quite to the same degree of idiocy that you experienced.
ReplyDeleteAll 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.
OK, Draw maybe. But wouldn't it be crazy if a woman could blog about comics like a man?!?
ReplyDeleteCrazy, I tells ya.
Did he even know that he was talking to a...woman?
ReplyDeleteDavid Hahn
www.HahnDynasty.com
Whenever I encounter such a person, I remember (and sometimes remind others) that it is not polite to make fun of the mildly retarded.
ReplyDeleteThe argument was so dumb that it wasn't even worth getting into it with the guy. He's just an idiot.
ReplyDeleteNot 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteFor every bad female creator, there are 900 bad male creators.
ReplyDeleteOh undoubtedly. Also, I meant to write "them" rather than "her" in my last sentence.
ReplyDeleteThat 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.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually a lot like that, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI could practically hear the Meow Mix song being played in his head.
There ARE way too few women writing and drawing comics...if by "comics" that dude meant mainstream DCU and Marvel Universe comics.
ReplyDeleteLike, 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.
It made me laugh as it was happening.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 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."
What. The. Hell?
ReplyDeleteYou're making this up.
Please. Please be making this up. For all our sakes.
Didn't make me laugh so much as make me feel really weird inside. Is this what astonishment feels like?
ReplyDeleteIs this how Ant-Man's Tales made people feel?
I guess it is.
I don't like it.
Boy gevalt!
ReplyDeleteIf he hasn't heard of Coover or Simone, then I kinda feel sorry for him.
You must be the most patient person in the world, because you are not currently arraigned for murder.
ReplyDeleteWait... 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.
ReplyDeleteThe guy was probably a 40-year-old virgin, right? ;-)
ReplyDelete-- Sea
I would love to know what kind of comics this guy buys.
ReplyDeleteI completely didn't say what I meant to. Those are two completely different cases. In my defense, it was way early.
ReplyDeleteAll I'm saying is it's hard to follow Morrison.
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:
ReplyDeleteThe Codpiece
Yeah... the only thing crazier would be an editor actively seeking out female creators for a major project. Oh... wait...
ReplyDeleteclick here: http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=139334
That guy sounds like a real primate.
Best,
Tom Waltz
Editor
IDW Publishing
he must be right
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spymac.com/details/?2318691
What a douchebag.
ReplyDeletewow, uh, that's horrible...
ReplyDelete...and Swamp Thing's art was complimented by Tatjana Wood's colors.
I would have exploded. Literally. You're a far more patient person than I.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that one of the best colorists working in comics is a woman--Laura Allred.
ReplyDeleteNicola Scott a woman?
ReplyDeleteSince 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?
"Liefeld or Land are doing Conner's artwork."
ReplyDeleteMore likely Kevin Maguire.
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 . . .
ReplyDelete