Written by Kneel Downe. 

Our love of comic books, or as Orr Man insists on calling them-”The funny pages”, is well known here at The Den. Some of us grew up on reprints of Lee and Kirby’s fantastical tales. Others amongst us spend a fortune each month on the latest releases…that reminds me, we haven’t seen Paul since the D.C section collapsed  last month. He’s not tweeting from under them all again is he?

But I digress. Despite making leaps and bounds in recent years, the mainstream is still far too happy to portray female leads as little more than spandex heaving eye candy. When was the last time you came across a truly believable or rounded heroine? Worse still, where are the female artists, writers and creators that the genre so desperately needs to grow and mature?

Where, pray tell, are the journalists?

Some time ago, details are sketchy-time flows quite oddly in the Den, I came across a website of rare wit and intelligence. This writer knew her stuff and looking closer I saw that she had worked quite extensively for The Independent, The Void, The Phantom Zone and our own beloved SciFiNow.

Here was a voice that cried out and deserved to be heard. I grabbed the Bat Phone and placed an important call.

Laura Sneddon (codename @thalestral) are you there?

Hello Laura. For those not aware of your site or your work could you give us all a brief biography?


I'm probably known best for my website, www.comicbookgrrrl.com, which I started up last summer as an online portfolio for my freelance comics journalism. I'd not long started out on my writing career and the almost instant popularity of the site was quite a shock! My writing focuses on comics from a feminist angle, while indulging in as much comics history as I can, and was given shout outs on twitter by writers including Warren Ellis, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone and Jim Lee.

Since then I've worked for The Independent on Sunday, SciFi Now, and CBR, as well as The Void (which gave me my first breaks) and The Phantom Zone. The very first face to face interview I had was with Grant Morrison which was quite the break, and since then I've interviewed Alan Moore and Stan Lee as well as the lovely Alex de Campi.

 I love your website and articles. Do you see full time journalism as your ultimate goal?

Ideally I'd love to write full time in any capacity. I enjoy comics journalism a lot as it's a subject that is very dear to me and it comes quite naturally. My ultimate goal is probably to try and get a book published about comics, which is what I was working on before the Comic Studies MLitt degree was announced that I'm now studying. 

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 I cant help but wonder if you don’t harbour ambitions to one day become a comic creator yourself? As we’re aware, the industry does need more female creators after all. 

Interestingly enough, part of the Comic Studies degree I'm doing has a Creating Comics component that I'm working on right now. We're going through the entire process from scripting to inking, with each student acting as both writer and artist. Fiction writing is actually where my original talents lie – journalism was intended as more of a road back to that but took on a life of its own!

I'm hoping that this semester I'll find out if I've got what it takes, and so far I'm really enjoying it.

 I notice, with some small amount of pride, that we have certain things in common; notably our love for Transmetropolitan, The Invisibles and Spider Jerusalem. Can you put into words just why these creations are so wonderful and important?

For a long time my favourite comic was Preacher (by Garth Ennis), as it was so outrageous and multi-threaded. When I first came across Transmetropolitan (by Warren Ellis) I had the experience of both reading a bloody good comic and having a minor epiphany. Writing and journalism were suddenly what I knew I wanted to do, and more importantly they were something I knew I could do. For various reasons I hadn't written anything for a very long time, and yet I somehow knew this was a talent I still had. Best of all, I remembered that it was something I really enjoyed.


Spider Jerusalem is a cynical fuck who loathes corrupt politicians and the apathy of the public that elect them. He believes in finding and telling The Truth regardless of the consequences, is ridiculously loyal to those close to him, and is far from perfect – drug taking, chain smoking, foul mouthed, and a short-temper. He'd also string me up for seeing him as my role model despite my own more hippy zen persona. But hey, he inspired me. I love him.

I can't remember the first Grant Morrison comic that I read, it was probably We3 or All-Star Superman – what can I say, I'm young! But when I got to The Invisibles (and then very quickly afterwards devoured Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Filth, and Seaguy) it was pretty much my “Watchmen” moment. That's what my lecturer describes as happening when you read a comic and it changes your entire perception of what comics are; a comic that you just want to run out and tell everyone to read.

Morrison writes comics with a deeper meaning, comics that not only have something to say about the world, but something to change about the world. Those comics made me realise that not only are comics proper literature, not only are they valid entertainment or vehicles for political thought, comics can actually shape the world. They already have. Superman was born decades before me, and will live for decades after I've gone. We've created immortal beings shaped of ideas, and they're pretty damn amazing ones at that.

 I must admit that sometimes I feel a tad jaded when looking over the latest releases…what is it that really fires your imagination at the moment? 

Regarding the Big Two, I'm really looking forward to the Flex Mentallo HC and catching up with Batman Inc and Daredevil in collected editions. Having just finished reading through Lucifer I'm desperate to get my hands on Mike Carey's The Unwritten, and I'm really excited about Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples, and Walter Simonson's The Judas Coin.


However, I think indies are still being hugely ignored by comics press and mainstream press alike. If it's not superheroes, big comic sites tend not to devote much attention to them, but because it's still a comic, newspapers aren't too interested. Three of the books that have excited me the most in the last five months are Fish + Chocolate by Kate Brown, The Wrong Place by Brecht Evans, and The House That Groaned by Karrie Fransman – all of these titles are doing something really new and different with the medium.

I also have a large pile of interesting looking small press titles that I desperately need to find time to read.

 For any aspiring comic book guys out here, would you recommend the course you are currently on at The University of Dundee? 

Hah, comic book guys or comic book women?! I'd recommend the course to anyone with an interest in comics, either creating them or studying them. For myself I thought the course would be invaluable as a backdrop to my journalism, and also for that book I want to write some day. The Comic Studies MLitt is run by Dr Chris Murray who is without doubt one of the top academics on the subject and is hugely enthusiastic about the future of comic studies as a field.

I geek out about comics history which is what we're studying this semester, looking at the various comic cultures across the world and how they differ. We're also working through the Creating Comics module I mentioned, and last semester we were focused on autobiographical comics which is a huge part of the medium. We are of course well placed in Scotland to have lots of industry celebrities visit – recently we had a workshop with Alan Grant, and last semester we had Frank Quitely and Cam Kennedy speak to us, as well as John Wagner, Paul Gravett, Colin MacNeil and Robbie Morrison at the annual Dundee Comics Day.


And I know for a fact that next years class has some big names lined up already!

My classmates are a mix of artists, writers, comic fans, and comic professionals. It's a wonderful course to take, and I'm currently trying to sort out some funding to continue in the field.

 Now, I really do hate spoilers but I understand that you recently completed a very exciting interview for SciFiNow…are you allowed to tell us anything? 

Well, I can tell you that the interview was with Stan Lee which for a comics journalist is tantamount to talking with God! He's a really entertaining guy to speak with, and is genuinely excited about coming back to the UK for the London Super Comic Con. The rest will be in the magazine!

 Many thanks Laura! Have you any final thoughts on the state of comics and hopefully the emergence of new and powerful female creators? 

I think it's very easy to get the impression that the state of comics now and in the future is very doom and gloom, but I believe we're really just in one of those frequent periods of flux. Comics are historically a boom and bust industry, but the medium as a whole is incredibly important – both culturally and politically. I think comics will morph and survive as always, and the only ones that will be lost are the ones that don't quite measure up anyway. Once we can find our way back to pushing good stories over good sales, and get out of the current “jobs for the boys” mentality, everything will be grand. Until the next dip!

Women make up a huge percentage of the book buying market which I think can only help comic sales if publishers realise that potential. There's a lot of talk about “women in comics” as if it is some new phenomenon – it's not, we've always been here! But with the rise of geek communities on the internet, it's been far easier to meet other women with similar interests and realise that this minority is not so minor. Indie comics are already getting more and more female creators out there as book publishers look to expand their range. Graphic Novels of course is one of the few genres that is experiencing steady growth.


If superhero comics can start to shake the image that they are for boys only, with stereotypical women in skimpy outfits being the norm, then they'll start to attract not only more women readers, but women creators too. I think we're seeing some small steps being made in the right direction, and I hope that continues.