Wondering About Wonder Woman

When I was painting a pic of Wonder Woman a couple days ago, after reading about DC's plan to redesign her costume once again, I had a thought. Maybe there's nothing wrong with Wonder Woman's costume. Maybe what's wrong is the way it's drawn.

Is this how Wonder Woman should be drawn?

This is basically the same costume. What's different?

The way Wonder Woman is drawn in comic books has changed drastically since comic books aren't bought by kids anymore. All I know is, if my wife was Wonder Woman (and she's pretty close), she wouldn't be posing for covers like this:

And if there wasn't some Grand Conspiracy to keep comic books away from places where kids can actually buy them, maybe even this would be an improvement:

Wonder Woman is one of those characters who has always had enormous potential, but who has never quite achieved it. Is it because she's basically wearing a strapless bathing suit? Is it because male writers and artists don't know what to do with a female superhero? Is she simply a token female superhero? Or maybe Wonder Woman simply provides a buff cheesecake fantasy-fest for male comic book readers. I don't know.

J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Changeling) will be the writer in charge of "reinventing" Wonder Woman. He's a great writer, and he did an awesome job with Spider-man, pulling me back into reading comics for a while after several years. Maybe he can do something with Wonder Woman. I hope that's the intent, rather than it being a shallow attempt to build up strength for the movie. (I think if They could figure out a way to dump the comics and just do the movies, They would.)

I'm sure I had a point in there somewhere. I reckon I'm just a disgruntled grown-up who misses the comic book spinner racks. When we did my Spooner comic book five or six years ago, I actually called the Sea Monkeys people and the Charles Atlas people so I could put their ads in my comics. And I tried to talk publisher Scott Sava (Dreamland Chronicles) into printing them on cheap newsprint, but he wouldn't. And now I'm digressing. And drawing Archie's Veronica as Wonder Woman. I should probably go roast some hot dogs or something.

A Crogan Adventure

Chris Schweizer has posted a Crogan Adventures story from his Free Comic Book Day offering. It's an awesome read and an excellent, excellent lesson in sequential art. He has other comics posted online as well.

If you haven't read Chris's graphic novel series of the Crogan Adventures, you're missing out. Chris is a great visual storyteller.

Chris Schweizer's Blog

The Sideways Comic Strip

And here I always thought I had invented the sideways comic strip.

I just saw over at Bhob's blog via Comics Reporter that Roy Crane did it long ago, and of course, 'way better. I'm a huge fan of Crane's work in Buzz Sawyer and Captain Easy.

Actually, I was never so vain as to think I "invented" the idea; I just haven't seen another one until now. Occasionally I liked to push the envelope a little and see what I could do with that little space of newsprint.

If you know of any other "sideways" comic strips that have been published, let me know.

AMENDMENT:
Stacy, you were right about Rose is Rose. I found this "sideways" strip of Pat Brady's.

Comics

Somebody once told me that Mort Walker liked my comic strip.
Somebody else once told me that Sparky Schulz would have liked my comic strip if he had lived to see it.
One time a guy in Texas sent me home-made beef jerky in exchange for signing a newspaper photo copy of my comic strip.
One of my comic strips appears in The Official Nora Roberts Companion.
I'm pretty sure my comic strip set a record by being with a different syndicate each year it was in newspapers.
Somebody once told me it doesn't matter how good you are.
Writing and drawing a comic strip is pretty hard unless you don't care what anybody thinks.
The only thing worse than being a bad cartoonist is being a stupid cartoonist.
My "beans don't have mommas" strip appeared in a PETA newsletter.
One time I drew a whole month's worth of daily strips in a 48-hour period.

Newspaper Funnies Today and Yesterday

This is a comparison of a modern newspaper comics page and one from the hey-day of comic strips. It boggles the mind! Mine, at least. Not that it takes a whole heck of a lot to boggle it. BTW, the relative sizes are accurate. Newspapers in the thirties were around 15" to 16" wide. My local paper is 11" wide, the same width as the Dan Dare strip in this example.

(P.S. There is one thing that the two pages have in common. Can you guess what it is?)

Once Upon a Bedtime, Part 4 of 4

Here's the finale, I know you've been on the edge of your seats!
Have yourself a merry one, since Christmas has been saved!

Cheers! And to all a good night!

-stacy.

Once Upon a Bedtime, Part 3 of 4

Once Upon a Bedtime, Part 1 of 4

This is Part 1 of 4 of a special Christmas-themed episode of my comic, "Once Upon a Bedtime."
I will post each part every Monday.

Gasoline Alley Sunday

A lot of folks don't get to see what it was that made Sunday comics special. Today the Sunday comics can actually be smaller than the dailies, if that's possible. Frank King was awesome in his day, and I thought I'd post an example of what's possible when you have a full page for your comic.

I find it odd that there is so much more freedom with web comics, yet the majority still stick with the awful format of daily newspaper comics. We have more people than ever doing comics nowadays, yet most of the innovations happened before any of us were born.

I won't get into the monopolization of syndicates, or how newspapers moan about money yet profits are double-digit and the industry is considered a cash cow. The best work in comic books is coming from independent publishers, and it would be nice to see the same spirit with comic strips.