Women Comic and Manga Creators!
By FoxxFireArt 0 Comments
Manga and Anime isn't the stereotyped boys club many believe. A discussion of the influence women have as creators and readers.
Recently, I've been writing quite a few editorial and new articles for Anime Vice. I've covered a lot of issues, but one I've written about recently I think effects more than just the anime community. It also speaks to the Comic Vine audience as well. I'm not going to go into all the details on here. It was after reading Sara Lima's article on the state of DC's female staff that I was inspired me. I was thinking about all these women that you see on the staff of DC Comics. There was some writers, editors, and artist. I just wonder, how many of these women are actually the creators of the series they work on? Rather than women hired to work on a series that was originally created by a man. There are comics out there that are created by women and are very well done, but they are sadly more often Indy level series that never get the level of attention they actually deserve. That's because the comic market is swimming with series by Marvel and DC publishing. DC has/had (depending on the New 52 rebalancing), but Marvel not so much.If you look into the manga industry. There are a lot of incredibly popular and high selling series that are created by women. In many cases, they are the original creator, writer, and artist. The most well know to the Western audience is Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa is a woman and her series was incredibly successful during it's run in one of the biggest manga publisher in Japan. The list doesn't end there. There are a ton of high selling series created by women. One of the most influential design group in Japan is actually an all female team that goes by the name CLAMP. The artist behind the original Suzumiya Haruhi light-novel series that spawned the blockbuster anime is a woman named Noizi Ito. Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of Ranma 1/2, is credited as one of the highest selling female comic artists in history. Her various works have sold over 170 Million copies.
Layla Aker, a senior editor with VIZ Media, even boasts that their publication of Shonen Jump (a serialized magazine collection of several manga) has a 40% female reader base. How many mainstream comics can make that claim? Aker has also said that she believes that women are more open minded as readers.
I just can't possibly believe the dubious claim that there just aren't any talented women artists and writers out there for DC and Marvel to find then publish the series of their creation. Not when Japan's manga market is filled with women who are producing some of the highest selling series. These aren't even "girly" series or even manga specifically targeted to women. Many have broad appeal across genders.
Women in anime are also the voice actors behind some of th biggest characters in the industry. This is really only a preview of what I cover in the article on Anime Vice. I hope the readers on Comic Vine come check it out. The conversation in the comments has been really good. Readers have been adding to the list by naming off the series they love that are created by women. It's pretty interesting. There are a lot of series that I've heard of but never realized women were the creators.
Join the Discussion HERE
Here is the first opening for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The anime adaptation for Arakawa's manga. You can even find most of the episodes available for free streaming on FUNimation's youtube channel. Episodes: HERE
-Kristoffer Remmell ( FoxxFireArt ) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ animevice / @ FoxxFireArt