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!

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Hi! We haven’t updated in a while as we’re busy making top secret plans for issue 4! There’s a few more event coming up in the near future but in the meantime here’s some photos from our workshop at the Glasgow Comic Con a few weeks ago. Plus you can read a feature on all the indie creators here on the Down the Tubes website.

So after an exhausting but brilliant week, all the comic con madness is over. Gill, Kat, Coleen and Claire were representing the team at Saturday’s event and we had a ball. It was great to find cool Wonder Woman and Transformers comics, meet lots of other creators and write Mark Millar a love letter (IDST), but the highlight was all the lovely people who came to our stall, talked to us and bought our comics- thanks guys!! And thanks to Sha and John for organising such a successful event.

We were also nominated for a ‘Scottish Independant Comic Book (SICBA)’ award under the category of best comic. Although we lost out to the vert talented Burke and Hare guys, it was an honour to be nominated and thanks to all the people who voted for us and let us know that you care about TGC and enjoy reading our comics. We’ll be back next year for sure!

And finally a little report from the Team Girl DIY Workshop that was also held in the Mackintosh church on the Tuesday leading up to the event. We were amazed by the great turn out, especially for an afternoon event, and we managed to get a great discussion going about what women and girls want from comics and what we as creators, publishers and fans could do to improve the situation. The conversation went everywhere, nothing was left uncovered! Gill is now working on a report that gathers all the thoughts and ideas generated at the comic con workshop, and the Stripburger workshop that was held in London a few weeks ago. We’ll keep you posted xxx

Come to Team Girl Comic’s DIY Workshop! Tuesday 14th June at the Mackintosh Church (about 10 mins from St Georges Cross or Kelvinbridge underground). It starts at 2pm and we’ll be discussing comics for young women and girls. Everyone’s views and ideas are welcome (including men!), and as it’s a daytime slot feel free to bring the kids along and there’ll be something to keep them occupied.

So if you remember the old days of Bunty, Mandy and Judy, if you are a Beano or Dandy loyalist or if you’re from the manga generation, come along and tell us what you think! Likewise if you’re an aspiring cartoonist, a writer, or thinking of starting your own comics empire, let’s discuss what we can all do to make comics more fun for everyone x

Thanks to everyone who came to the Free Hetherington yesterday, we had a great time :)

The one rubbish photo I (Gill) took at the Alternative Press Festival, showing Adam from Khaki Shorts behind our stall. I’m terrible for remembering to take photos, hopefully we can borrow some from others soon! The fair was a great success, we had a great time selling comics and meeting lots of interesting and cool people. Thanks Alternative Press! But before all you lovely Glasgow folk can feel too left out, we have another stall tomorrow at the Free Hetherington zine fair! The venue is next to Glasgow Uni’s QMU and the fair runs from 3-7pm. Hope to see you there x

Team Girl Comic will have a stall at the International Alternative Press Festival in London next weekend. It looks like it’s going to be a great event, with loads to see, do and buy so if you’re in London check out the site as there’s stuff going on all over the next couple of weeks. We’ll be sharing a stall with our friends Khaki Shorts. Very exciting!

Also, on the following Monday 30th May our editor Gill will be running a workshop in Orbital Comics entitled ‘Team Girl Comic Brainstorm: Comics for everyone, let’s make it happen!’ as part of a series of workshops organised for Slovene comic group Stripburger. The workshop will run from 3-5pm, and will involve a discussion about how young women and girls should be catered for in the comics industry. With case studies, a brainstorm and of course a browse through some comics!

A photo of Team Girler Steff ‘manning’ the stall at our friend Jenny Soep’s art sale/ knitting/ drawing event. Steff managed to fit in some doodling between selling pots of paint, glitter and ink and you can see some of her work in the new Team Girl Comic.

Team Girl Comic will be on sale at Loop de Loop in Mono tomorrow and Thursday. Come along for an open music and drawing event, art materials sale, and a chance to see our friend Jenny Soep’s wonderful artwork. A chance to grab the new issue and Team Girl 1 and 2 if you missed out the first time round.

It starts at 4pm tomorrow and costs £2.00, to raise funds for women’s charities. Check out the facebook event for more details. And here’s a photo of Jenny with Team Girl Comic, why not.

Last night was the opening of the ‘Telling Stories’ graphic novel exhibition at the Market Gallery on Duke St, Glasgow. The exhibition is open until 6th March, and features work by Team Girl’s Heather Middleton and Penny Sharp along with friends such as Rob Miller, John Miller, Frank Quitely and Innes Smith.