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Fiona Staples

  • #VisibleWomen

    Update: Turns out that Dorman’s wife wrote the post in question below. A strange admission, but nonetheless the truth.

    Looking at our collective bookshelf at our apartment, Leah (@dumcurator) and I collect a wide array of books, and mediums of the written word. From audiobooks to comic books. We snag em up when we can.

    Between the spines of Stephen King novels and Brian K. Vaughn trades — lie some incredible female writers and illustrators. Hell, our dog is named after Mary Shelley’s legendary cautionary tale, Frankenstein.

    My favorite comic as of writing, is probably Saga, and notably not because of Vaughn’s writing this time (although friends and LOST fans know just how much I love that man). I enjoy Saga for the story, sure — but really, I love the series because of Fiona Staples.

    I bring up Fiona because I love her style and work. I previously quoted a story about Dave Dorman. For brevity’s sake, Dorman had published a controversial critique of Staples cover — but it turns out his wife wrote the post. Despite the criticism (penned by either Dave or his wife), it’s still without merit. The cover in question is from Volume 1, is amazing. Take a look:

    Cool, right?

    So, why am I bringing all this up? Well, this week has been teeming with amazing work on Twitter. Work from hundreds, if not thousands of wonderful female artists that deserve the spotlight. I’m of course talking about #VisibleWomen. Fiona didn’t start this hashtag movement (more on that in a bit), but it serves as a segue into why we need more #VisibleWomen (in all creative industries).

    A sampling of some of my favorite artists so far (in no particular order):

    https://twitter.com/nadiyahrs/status/1031750239026171904

    https://twitter.com/32september/status/1031840415077429249

    https://twitter.com/itsbabypears/status/1031890952195952641

    An amazing collection no doubt. The textures, techniques, and approaches are all so refreshing and lovely. Variety is what makes the creative industry so fantastic. Suppressing that variety (i.e. malicious criticisms and sexism), needs to stop.

    After doing some googling, it turns out that this whole project/event was coordinated by Milkfed, a company founded by the writers of Bitch Planet.

    https://twitter.com/kellysue/status/894577082981679104

    Best part? Milkfed put together a spreadsheet of artists looking for work so anyone in the comic industry looking for fresh talent knows where to look:

    https://twitter.com/kellysue/status/894593536619708416

    Amazing ✌️