Women and comics. Women on comics. Women in comics. This isn’t a new subject area by any means. The past decade has seen an unprecedented surge in women comic creators, particularly in the indie graphic novel domain. This is a medium that has gradually been gaining greater popularity and credibility as a form of literature- I’m sure many of you are thinking Persepolis right now. More and more women are picking up comics and embracing them whole-heartedly. However, at the same time, our classic British girl comics have completely disappeared, with DC Thomson’s Bunty comic holding on the longest until its final issue in 2001. Unlike their ‘boy’ counterparts The Beano and The Dandy, these girl comics simply couldn’t keep up with the times and became seen as dated, boring and uncool, little more than a throwback to our mothers’ childhoods. Despite all the promising signs on the adult’s side of comics, something seems amiss, as now more than ever mainstream children’s comics are being aimed towards a primarily male market. This was a mystery that we at Team Girl Comic, Glasgow’s all-female comic collective, were asked to explore for both London’s Alternative Press Festival and the Glasgow Comic Con 2011- a challenge we embraced wholeheartedly!

So what do young women and girls want from comics, and what can we do about it? Let’s ask them! We got together two groups of women (and a few ‘enlightened’ men) to brainstorm some answers. The chance for a group discussion on comics clearly brought many of the attendees into their element and the amount of thoughts, ideas and opinions we generated in just two hours was overwhelming, but there were a few stand-out points that we kept returning to throughout. Much of the brainstorm revolved around how girls can be welcomed into the world of comics, what we as women and girls are looking for in the content of our comics, and how some changes in attitude could go a long way in combating the gender imbalance in the comics market.

For many of the women attending the workshops, our stories were very similar: as little girls we loved Bunty, Twinkle, The Beano and The Dandy with a passion…but as we grew older, comics somehow just slipped out of our lives. It wasn’t until our mid-teens to early adulthoods that many of us managed to ‘re-discover’ our love of comics, whether this was through manga, superheroes or indie graphic novels. Now that those classic British girl comics are a thing of the past, the likelihood of a young girl discovering comics nowadays seems even less likely.

Much of the brainstorm was dedicated to the type of themes, characters and characteristics that young women and girls want from comics. We looked at popular trends in today’s media, from Bratz and My Little Pony to Twilight and Harry Potter, as well as looking back on our own experiences growing up. We came to the general consensus that the types of comics we want are not necessarily all that different from what the boys want- many girls still love action and excitement, and are even partial to a good fight scene! It is worth noting here that The Dandy, traditionally seen as a boy comic, currently has a 40% female readership. However, often girls want a slightly different take on the story. We want to emotionally invest in strong characters, to learn about their feelings and their relationships. As one fan put it- “less speech bubbles, more thought balloons”. Many of us love fantasy and escapism, but at the same, it’s important to see some kind of emotional struggle that we can relate to. Many of the workshop attendees felt that manga was able to deliver on these points, but Western comics just haven’t quite got it yet. Oh, and we definitely don’t want to be patronised either. Without digressing into the debate on ‘sexualisation of young girls’, there is no doubt that little girls are growing up faster than ever, and they’re simply far more savvy and sophisticated than the Bunty readers of days of yore. It’s also a well known fact that girls tend to read ‘older’ than their age (how many girls wait until their teens before they read ‘Seventeen’ magazine?) and that needs to be taken into account.

Do comics like we’ve described exist? Of course they do, and at both workshops there were plenty of fans keen to sing the praises of the many comics that had brought them immense joy and excitement throughout their childhood and young adulthood. But what about today’s little girls, how can we make it easier for them to discover the world of comics? There were a great many ideas and opinions put forward on this topic, and it perhaps triggered the most passionate responses of all. Not too surprisingly, all of the feedback could be summarised with one word: adults. Parents, teachers and librarians need to understand that comics are ‘real’ books that children should be encouraged to read, and that they are not exclusively for boys (sneaking a peak at our brothers’ X-Men and Hulk comics was another common story at the workshops). Comics can be as inspiring and educational as any other medium, and the stigma that many grown-ups attach to comic reading can affect the enjoyment by both genders.

On the publishing side, we want to see creators and editors who genuinely care about reaching out to young women and girls and creating content they can identify with. During the brainstorm we talked about the much loved yet short-lived DC MINX series, that produced graphic novels specifically aimed at teenage girls. Whilst some see the failure of MINX as a sign that girl comics is not a lucrative market, many feel that given better marketing and a little patience, this innovative concept could have grown into a success.

Finally, many of us had a thing or two to say about the grown-ups running comic shops. There was much laughter as workshop participants recalled uncomfortable contact in crowded isles, awkward conversations with bemused shop assistants and a feeling of being lost in the rows and rows of volumes, serials and collections with no idea where to start. Growing up, many of us saw  comic shops as an exclusively male domain.

So what does the future hold for girl comics? Perhaps the shift in demographics we are seeing in the comics market- the demise of comics for young girls coinciding with the rise in graphic novels created by women- may be a promising sign. The old, outdated and stereotypical comics of the past are left behind and a new generation of women comic readers will be inspired to fill the gap in the market with work that genuinely meets the needs of girls today. Others may as teachers and parents be delighted to see girls experience the same joy in comics that they once did. However one thing is for certain: despite the disappearance of the traditional girl comics we read as children, girls comics are definitely not a thing of the past.