Ladies Who Love Comics

Panel 1

[Image] A girl with long blonde hair reading a comic book and smiling.

[Caption] For as long as I can remember I have LOVED reading comics.

Panel 2

[Image] A road sign reading “Next Actual City 150 KM” on a small incline.

[Caption] It was tough being a young comic book fan from a small town. The closest comic book store was a 2 hour drive away.

Panel 3

[Image] The girl sitting in the backseat of a car, reading a comic book and looking very happy. Two parents sit in the driver’s and passenger’s seat in the foreground, looking content.

[Caption] But I was was lucky, because sometimes my parents would make the trip. Or sometimes I would get invited to travel there with friends.

Panel 4

[Image] An open comic book next to a stack of other comic books, haphazardly arranged.

[Caption] Regardless, I walways returned home with a stack of comic books to read. It was such a treat! And as I got older, my love of those stories, gorgeous artwokd and speech bubbles grew with me!

Panel 5

[Image] The girl, looking a little older now, seated at a desk and holding an open comic book. She is looking up at another girl with darker hair who is standing and leaning over the desk.

[Caption] I started making new friends who had the same interests.

Girl: Hey!
Darker-haired girl: Hey! Which issue is that?

Panel 6

[Image] The girl waving at two smiling friends at the front of a crowd, and standing next to a sign reading “Comic Con”.

[Caption] They were all very passionate, positive and encouraging!

Panel 7

[Caption] I appreciate them so much for being so wonderful because unfortunately, the rest of the world isn’t necessarily so wonderful at the moment.

Panel 8

[Image] A silhouette of a large city’s skyline

[Caption] When I graduated, I finally moved to a bigger city. I joined a local comic convention group online to keep up with any events that might be happening in the area.

Panel 9

[Image] A screenshot of a profile of “Local Comic Artist”, showing a comic book image of a woman holding a sword.

[Caption] One day, a local comic artist began posting their artwork on the group. He had been posting occasionally on the page but I noticed the most recent post was getting a lot of comments, so I clicked it.

Panel 10

[Image] A closer look at the comic image of a woman holding a sword. She is wearing a cleavage-revealing, pantless bodysuit, and is positioned so both rear and cleavage are clearly visible.

[Caption] Someone had critiqued the artwork based on the obvious anatomy flaws. You know the pose. The one where a woman’s spine is completely twisted? There’s an entire blog* dedicated to how absurd it is.

*Eschergirls.tumblr.com

Panel 11

[Image] A closeup of a comment made by “Local Comic Artist” made on the website.

[Caption] Somehow it escalated to the artist claiming that WOMEN DON’T BUY COMICS! Fans of the page were rightfully outraged by the comment.
Panel 12

[Image] The caption is set over images of other comments in the background. The comments read:

“No they don’t. I worked in a comic shop and we NEVER had female customers.
Ppl are mad because of my ART. It’s just 2 sexy for this page, lol.
Sorry some of you were offended by what I said. But I don’t get offended when other people have opinions I don’t agree with!
But girls don’t read comics!
You ppl are way too sensitive!
This is what happens when we allow women’s rights, lol.”

On the last comment an arrow is pointed at the end of the sentence, and the word “What???” is superimposed.

[Caption] The next few hours of comments passed by as a disgusting blur. I internally scolded myself as I have on countless other occasions just like this one: “Don’t read the comments.”

Panel 13

[Image] The girl, young again, in the backseat of a car. She is smiling, and hugging a comic book to her chest.

[Caption] I mostly thought about the little girl in the car…waiting patiently for hours to read her favourite comic books.

Panel 14

[Image] A series of five images of girls and women of different ethnicities all holding open comic books. They are all smiling.

[Caption] I just can’t imagine someone telling her that comics weren’t for her. Or for the thousands and thousands of other girls just like her.

Panel 15

[Caption] If there’s one thing that I wish I had said to that artist about ladies who love comics, it would be simple:

Panel 16

[Image] The girl, surrounded by six other girls and women of all different ethnicities, hair lengths, and ages. All are smiling, and looking directly at the reader.

[Caption] Open your eyes. Because we are everywhere.