Greetings Top Cow Herd,
I know I haven't been attentive to our relationship/journey, as I promised. I'm working on it! (Please forgive me if my thoughts deviate, I'm all hopped up on cough syrup and manuka honey.)
Now, there appears to be some hullabaloo over a blog Filip wrote for Newsarama (you can catch the article here). Cliff notes version of the blog: what up with the notion that Top Cow is a T&A comic publisher.
Here are the facts: I'm a girl. And I work for Top Cow.
What do I make of this? The uproar? The arguments? I know you didn't ask, but I'd like to share. (I feel like I’m treading on Betty Draper’s territory. I have thoughts.)
I'm not a feminist (I don't think they'd like me to rep them), nor am I speaking on behalf of all the chickadees out there (this is where Jessie Spano would interject with a monologue about referring to women as chicks). What I do value is putting your best foot forward and having some propriety. (I know, coming from a girl who has an agenda against pants.)
Let's talk about sex, baby. It still boggles my mind that a soccer mom can carry a handgun to her children's game (I know, bad example), but god forbid mommy Sara Pezzini shows some extra skin, plus an ankle or two.
Browsing the past ten covers of Witchblade, I'm not offended nor did I think anything was overdone or of poor taste. The images didn't make me feel bad about myself nor did they make me doubt my kickbutting skills (I'm Asian; I'm born with ninja skills.) Nor do they sway me from entering a comic shop (paying for parking does, though).
[Random Sidenote: Girls have girlcrushes. Take a look at what drives women to pick up a magazine. I have girlcrushes on fashionable women. And well, muscular men scare the bejesus out of me. So I’m not contributing to sales there. Archibald ‘Archie’ Andrews is the boy for me.]
It really all just boils down to business. All anyone has to capture someone’s attention is seven words (that’s a fact) and a few seconds. One commenter hit the nail on the head: “It’s hard to depict ‘intellectual maturity, a good sense of humor, and a nice personality in one image.” And this issue does span multiple industries. Even outside of business. For example, on a social networking site with a dating angle, my profile has, at most, if that, three minutes to get your attention. How is that time spent? No question about it. The pictures. Would you even consider any recipient worthy of your attention sans photo? I’m quite certain a girl on the couch in her pjs watching TV isn’t going to illicit a call-to-action from you. Presentation matters. Simple.
What happens next? You can read the solicitation/one-sentence or 3-word descriptor. Now, you make the decision to send a woo/purchase the comic. And good job if you do because Ron Marz is a fan-flippin-tastic writer. And, a small percentage of you would not have come to this realization unless Stjpan Sejic brought you there.
It is what it is.
I, personally, think the system isn’t broken. Flawed, sure. Broken, I think not. Top Cow doesn’t do things because the herd is doing it.
Witchblade works because once you get past the pleasing-to-the-eye Sara Pezzini (Of course, she’s fit. She’s a lady of the law. Just like Olivia Benson), there’s depth to her. She has worries. She’s sassy. She’s set in her ways. She’s human (not accounting for her mystical powers), in that she’s trying to figure out how to live her life the best she knows how with what comes at her.
It all boils down to – content.
A relationship with a girl next door, or with the femme fatale, just isn’t going to work out if you’re making snap judgments about who they should be based on what they look like without taking time to get to the layers. (Look at that, Professor Selby. I still remember.)
If you made it this far, thank you. Now pardon me, as I rip off my stars and be just like everyone else. I kid, I kid.
While there may be overlap with other companies, so be it. It’s life. It’s messy; it’s not within lines. One doesn’t have to be one thing and not the other.
For real this time, pardon me as toss my white gloves aside but keep my hemline the length I see fit. You do you, and let me do me.
Yours,
Christine Dinh the First, Emperor of the United States
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