Women In Comics Statistics: DC And Marvel, March 2013 Odds And Ends

With the monthly numbers for March 2013 up over at Bleeding Cool, it’s time to take a closer look at the stats and see what both publishers were up to this month.

DC COMICS

DC was down from last month overall, but by the smallest amount possible.  Let’s compare their numbers to past totals in our brand new six month rolling comparison.  I wasn’t happy with comparing the numbers to the 2012 averages because both publishers changed a lot over the year and the annual averages don’t necessarily reflect that, so now each month we’ll compare the current numbers to the average of the six months previous.  Here’s DC:

They’re up 0.6% overall, which isn’t huge but which isn’t too bad.  Cover artists and writers were each up noticeably as well, and editors had a small gain while letterers matched the recent average exactly.  Colorists and assistant editors fell by small amounts, but the art is where it gets sort of ugly.  Inkers were down slightly, while pencillers had the largest drop of all the categories this month despite having only 2.5% female creators to start with!  The art situation at DC is in very rough shape, even just relative to the past few months.

Now to the odds and ends:

• That 0.8% for pencillers at DC represents one lady on one book: Nicola Scott on Earth 2 #10.  I suppose if you’re only going to hire one female penciller, Nicola Scott is an excellent choice.
• For the second month in a row, there was at least one female writer every week at DC.
• Also, the Arrow comic is particularly good for female writers, with three of them on Arrow #5: Tiffany Williams, Mary Iacono, and Katherine Walczak.
• Two new series started in March: Ame-Comi Girls #1 at 1 of 9 (Sarah Gaydos editing) and Constantine #1 at 1 of 10 (Katie Kubert assistant editing).
• The Vertigo anthology special Time Warp #1 came in at 5 of 37 (Jordie Bellaire coloring, Karen Berger editing, Shelly Bond editing, Sara Miller assistant editing, and Gail Simone writing).
• Time Warp #1 was also the busiest book of the month, with Arrow #5 in second place with 16 creators, 4 of them women (including the writers mentioned about and Bettie Breitweister coloring the cover).
• The book with the highest percentage of female creators was Smallville Season 11 #11 at 4 of 8, with Fairest #13 close behind at 3 of 7.  The best New 52 book was Birds of Prey #18 at 3 of 9.

MARVEL COMICS

Marvel’s in an odd spot, having dropped by not insubstantial amounts for a few months running now while still maintaining the top spot in terms of overall percentage of female creators.  I suppose that’s what comes from setting a new record a few months ago; there’s a long way to fall when you’re that high.  But still, the downward trend is troubling.  Let’s look at the numbers:

This is where the new rolling comparison works better.  This month, Marvel would have flattened their 2012 average, but they’ve been on such an upswing recently that this month they’re actually down 0.5% compared to the past six months.  Writers are up nicely while colorists are about the same, and a slight gain for editors is balanced out by a slight loss for assistant editors.  Art, however, is low.  Not by massive amounts in and of themselves, but because we’re starting with such a low average to begin with these slight drops carry more weight.  Cover artists, pencillers, and inkers are all down from recent months.  This is an unpleasant trend for both publishers, particularly considering the wealth of great female artists working in comics today.

Let’s go through some specifics:

• Marvel also had at least one female writer every week in March!  It was a decent month all around for female writers at the Big Two, though one dwarfed by the fact that there were at least 16 male writers every week at Marvel too.
• There were a bunch of new books in March: Age of Ultron #1 at 1 of 14 (Lauren Sankovitch editing), Monsters, Inc.: Perfect Date #1 at 4 of 10 (Anna Merli penciling, Michaela Frare inking, Antonella Donola and Jann Jones editing), Ultimate Wolverine #1 at 1 of 10 (Emily Shaw assistant editing), Wolverine #1 at 2 of 14 (Jeanine Schaefer editing, Jennifer M. Smith assistant editing), X-Termination #1 at 3 of 12 (Majorie Liu co-plotting, Jeanine Schaefer editing, Jennifer M. Smith assistant editing), and Guardians of the Galaxy #1 at 2 of 13 (Ellie Pyle and Sana Amanat assistant editing).
• Yet again, there were no female letterers at Marvel, making it 856 DAYS since Marvel has hired a female letterer.
• The busiest book of the month was a threeway tie between Age of Ultron #1 (1 of 14), Wolverine #1 (2 of 14), and Astonishing X-Men #60 (3 of 14).
• The book with the highest percentage of female creators was X-Treme X-Men #12 at 4 of 8.
• To learn more about this statistics project and its methodology click here, and to see the previous stats click here.

Women In Comics Statistics: DC And Marvel, March 2013 In Review

The full monthly stats for a gender breakdown of comics creators for March 2013 are up over at Bleeding Cool.  Marvel took the top spot despite a decline with 13.1% female creators overall, while DC slipped slightly to 12%.

After the usual stats fun, we take a look at the same numbers but from a different angle, counting creators individually instead of by how many credits they had in March.  The numbers turn out similar, but there’s a somewhat troubling trend at Marvel compared to a year ago.

Head on over to Bleeding Cool for all of the monthly stats excitement!

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – August 2013 Solicits

August isn’t looking great for ladies at Marvel, real or fictional, though there are a few bits of good news here and there.  As I often point out, Marvel has a small core of regularly working female creators, and thus relies on a lot of guest artists and writers to bump up their numbers each month.  This is, of course, hit and miss, and some months they’re just not there.  This is one of those months.  Let’s go through the solicits:

• For writers, Kelly Sue DeConnick pens Avengers Assemble #18 and Captain Marvel #15 which both tie into the big Avengers Infinity event, Kathryn Immonen writes Journey Into Mystery #655, and Marjorie Liu double ships in August with Astonishing X-Men #65 and Astonishing X-Men #66.
• For art, Sara Pichelli is on interior art and the cover of Guardians of the Galaxy #6 while Annie Wu is a very fun guest artist for a Kate Bishop story in Hawkeye #14.
• And that is it for female creators in the August solicits.
• In terms of new books, the Infinity mini-series is the only new title.  One cover features Black Widow and Spider-Woman with women comprising 2 of the 6 characters, and another shows what I think is a new alien lady (she’s on the top row above), so that’s some okay representation.
• On the other hand, Red She-Hulk has been cancelled, so there goes one of Marvel’s few female-led titles.

All together, there are 5 different women working on 7 different books in the August 2013 solicits, which is not a lot.  There were 8 women on 9 books last month, so this is a big drop.  Once you hit only 5 different women, you know things are bad.  Even in the early days of the New 52, when DC was excoriated for their lack of female creators, they still usually had at least 5.  Marvel has been up and down for a while now, but that they’re dipping this low is disconcerting.  I hope they bounce back for September.

Annie Wu on Hawkeye should be fantastic, though.  I’m really looking forward to that issue, but just Wu and Pichelli on art is an unfortunate decline.  While you’d be hard pressed to find two cooler artists, Ming Doyle, Stephanie Hans, and Amanda Conner were all on either covers or interiors the month before.  The quality remains sky high, but the low numbers are a downer.

Female characters do seem to have a decent role in Infinity, and a Kate Bishop-centric issue of Hawkeye is very fun.  Also, Dazzler is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. now, which should be a good time.  It’s a shame about Red She-Hulk, though I suppose that wasn’t the most well known character to hang a series on.  Perhaps there’ll be some new female-led books in September now.

Ultimately, August looks to be a pretty quiet month for women at Marvel.  We have the core four (DeConnick, Immonen, Liu, Pichelli) with Annie Wu, and a few gals in Infinity and that’s about it.  Hawkeye’s going to be killer, though!  But still, Marvel needs to get it together a bit.  These are some low numbers for female creators.

Women In Comics Statistics: DC And Marvel, February 2013 Odds And Ends

The monthly numbers for February 2013 are up over at Bleeding Cool, so let’s dig into the stats a bit more and see what interesting things were going on this month.

DC COMICS

DC’s numbers improved from last month, but how did they do compared to their 2012 averages?  Here are the numbers side by side:

Their overall average was higher than their 2012 total by 1.3%, which is decent.  Cover artists, writers, and letterers were up a bit from 2012, with assistant editors also making a big jump.  A lot of categories were firmly in the average range, and nothing was lower than the 2012 numbers by any sizeable amount.  That’s a pretty good showing.  Here are some other notes:

• Writers being 2.1% more than their 2012 average may not seem like a huge jump, but relative to that past percentage is an increase of nearly 64%.  With such little numbers to begin with, seemingly small changes are relatively large.
• In fact, there was at least one female writer every week in February.
• The Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 featured 4 female creators: Ann Nocenti wrote and Emanuela Lupacchino illustrated a Catwoman story, Shelly Bond edited two stories, and Eva de la Cruz coloured a story.
• Three new series started in February: Katana #1 at 2 of 7 (Ann Nocenti writing and Rachel Gluckstern editing), Justice League of America #1 at 2 of 7 (Sonia Oback coloring and Katie Kubert assistant editing), and Justice League of America’s Vibe #1 at 1 of 9 (Katie Kubert assistant editing again).
• The busiest book of the month was Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 with 29 credited creators, 4 of them women.
• There was a tie for the highest percentage of female creators, Fairest #12 and Smallville Season 11 #10 both at 3 of 7.

MARVEL COMICS

Marvel was down overall in February, but they were in record territory last month so I suppose we can’t be too upset about the drop.  We shouldn’t expect them to be near record totals every single month.  Let’s look at their numbers compared to their 2012 totals:

Up 1.5% overall from last year is good, and there were some strong showings by category.  Cover artists, inkers, and colourists were down slightly, but not by any huge amount.  Writers and pencillers saw decent gains, while editorial blasted past their 2012 totals!  They remain well ahead of last year’s numbers.  Some other notes:

• The large editorial gap two months in a row is good, but also shows the limits of this format.  Editorial started very low in 2012 and grew over the course of the year, and the average ended up not so great.  Once we’re a bit further into 2013, I’m going to change up the average comparisons so they’re against more recent data.  Or perhaps change it to a rolling six month average comparison.  We’ll see.
• Again, no lady letterers.  That makes it 819 DAYS since Marvel has had a female letterer.
• There were a bunch of new titles in February: Fearless Defenders #1 at 2 of 10 (Veronica Gandini colouring and Ellie Pyle assistant editing), Powers: Bureau #1 at 1 of 7 (Jennifer Grünwald editing), Secret Avengers #1 at 1 of 15 (Lauren Sankovitch editing), Uncanny X-Men #1 at 0 of 16, Alpha: Big Time #1 at 0 of 8, Nova #1 at 1 of 14 (Sana Amanat assistant editing), and Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 at 1 of 9 (Sana Amanat assistant editing again).
• The busiest book of the month was Uncanny X-Men #1 with 16 credited creators.  There are no ladies on this book or All New X-Men #1, both of Bendis’ new X-books, but Bendis is usually decent for female creators, as evidenced by two of his other titles above.
• The book with the highest percentage of female creators was Monsters, Inc: Humanween Party #1 at 5 of 8.  Dark Tower: Sheemie’s Tale #2 was at 3 of 5, and the main line Marvel book with the best total was Astonishing X-Men #49 at 4 of 7.
• To learn more about this statistics project and its methodology click here, and to see the previous stats click here.

The First Trailer for Thor: The Dark World Debuts!

The Marvel movie franchise is remarkably impressive, churning out hit after hit and then bringing everyone together for an epic Avengers film.  Now with Phase Two about to begin, I am far and away the most excited for Thor: The Dark World.  I love all of the movies, but Thor is my favourite thus far.  It’s Norse gods AND superheroes.  What more could you possibly want from a film?  There’s a reason Loki was the villain in The Avengers: Because Thor was such a super cool movie.

Iron Man 3 is out soon, and I’m sure that’ll be fun, but Marvel’s just released the first teaser trailer for Thor: The Dark World!!  Give it a look:

Jane in Asgard!  Evil dark elves! Long haired Loki!  It looks like so much fun.  Plus it’s directed by Alan Taylor, who did an amazing job with so many episodes of Game of Thrones.  This movie is going to be a spectacular mélange of awesomeness.  I loved the style of the first movie, and I’m hoping it gets blended with the more down to earth fantasy that characterizes Game of Thrones.  From this trailer, it looks like a good mix.

Unfortunately, we have to wait until November to see it.  There are several superhero flicks to tide us over until then, but man oh man I want to see Thor: The Dark World most of all.  Mark November 8 on your calendar… draw a big hammer on it or something.

Women In Comics Statistics: DC and Marvel, February 2013 In Review

The full monthly stats for February 2013 are up over at Bleeding Cool, and Marvel was tops again for the overall percentage of female creators.  Marvel was at 13.6% overall, a drop from last month though still high, while DC rose to 12.1%.

We also take a look at how many books feature at least one female creator and how that’s grown steadily over the past two years.  The more widespread presence of female creators gives me some hope that this will become the new normal and the number of female creators will grow even more.

So head on over to Bleeding Cool and check out all the stats fun!!

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – July 2013 Solicits

July might not be quite the Amanda Connerpalooza that June was, but there more women making comics at Marvel than last month AND Amanda Conner stuck around to still do a couple covers, so we’ve got wins all around.  With some extra female creators and some female characters in new books, July is looking pretty good for Marvel.  Let’s go through their solicits:

• For writers, we’ve got Kelly Sue DeConnick finishing up “The Enemy Within” crossover with Avengers Assemble #17 and Captain Marvel #14, Kathryn Immonen on Journey Into Mystery #654, Marjorie Liu writing Astonishing X-Men #64, and Robin Furth co-writing the Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – So Fell Lord Perth one-shot.
• On art, Sara Pichelli is doing interior and cover art for Guardians of the Galaxy #5 and the cover of X-Men #3, Ming Doyle has a story in Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1, Stephanie Hans is on interior art for Fearless Defenders #7, and Amanda Conner is doing covers for Avengers Assemble #17 and Captain Marvel #14.
• We’ve also got a bunch of ladies in new books: Avengers A.I. #1 features Monica Chang and Alexis and women account for 2 of the 6 characters shown, Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1 (which seems to be a collection of the digital comics, but I could be wrong) includes Gamora, Dorothy is back for The Emerald City of Oz #1, and finally we’ve got some new Spider-books with a lady villain I don’t know on the cover of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1 putting women at 1 of 5 there and two Avengers (Black Widow and Spider-Woman) in Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1 for 2 of 11 there.

All told, we’ve got 8 female creators on 9 different book in July, an increase of 2 female creators from last month though one less book.  I told you last time that Amanda Conner probably wouldn’t be on 5 covers again!  That really boosted the book total in June.  All together, I’d call July a step up from June.

For female characters as well.  There are 7 females characters featured on the cover of new books in July, and spread out as well.  I’m really digging Marvel’s recent spate of women-starring titles, but it’s good to see female characters popping up in other team books too.  And they’re all different, which is another plus.  There are ladies everywhere in Marvel comics lately, at least in the fictional department.

Things are more widespread on the creator side too, though.  We’ve got THREE female artists inside books in July, which is a big jump.  It’s usually just Sara Pichelli all on her own. Plus there’s a nice selection of covers and the usual, quite excellent writing gigs.  It’s still just a handful of each, but it’s a growing and very talented handful.

Overall, July looks decent for Marvel.  Their female character representation continues to be strong, and there are more female creators than last month.  That’s what we like to see here.