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pro-woman comic books?

June 18th, 2006     by Thea Lim     Comments

Hey Holland, thanks for reminding me that I had a book question for our readers!

I just finished reading Black Hole by Charles Burns. I sorta recommend it: it’s very upsetting. It’s about high school, and even though the plot revolves around a pretty fantastical idea, it still manages to evoke a horrifyingly realistic portrait of some of high school - likely to cause gruesome flashbacks if you had a rough time between the ages of 13 and 19.

But here’s my question: I’ve read a lot of graphic novels recently, and while I enjoy them, I hate the way the women are drawn. Even in stories like Black Hole, where the women are real characters - not just there to flesh out some aspect of a male character - they are often drawn naked, or in a way that’s extremely graphic. That would be fine, except for the fact that they’re always thin with big boobs and wide hips. A comic book illustrator explained to me that it’s just easier to draw women that way, but I’m not sure I buy that. Does anyone know of some good female-friendly graphic novels?

Tags: arts, miscellaneous

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