Hope Larson has been called "one of the most promising cartoonists of the 2000s."
At 27 years old, Hope has already achieved success as a graphic novelist that aspiring artists twice her age have not. She was recognized early in her career by cartoonist Scott McCloud, worked on the Flight anthology (a graphic novel edited by Kazu Kibuishi that recognizes promising young artists and writers) and had three graphic novels published by AdHouse, Oni Press and (most recently) Atheneum Books for Young Readers (a division of Simon & Schuster.)
Hope is a special guest of the International Comic Con this year and she was gracious enough to spare a little of her time to sit down with BitchBuzz to discuss women's roles in the comic world, her career, feminism and following your dreams.
Here is part one of our interview with her:
KK: How do you feel women -in general- are represented in programming at conventions of this size? Is it disproportionate?
HL: Is it disproportionate? Yes. Especially at a con this size, which is the main comic show... there are, what, five women that are special guests this year. Meaning that they fly us out and that they pay for our stay. And, I'm the only cartoonist.
There's an inker/artist, Gail Simone, who is a writer; and, a voice actress [June Foray.] It's really not representitive of the numbers of women in the comics world. There are tons of women doing comics and they are just not being invited to the show. It kind of pisses me off.
I assume that you've had a chance to come to this Con before, maybe not as a special guest, to just enjoy the con. Do you feel like the programming for women is getting better?
I honestly don't know. I'm not going to have a chance to attend any programming, which kind of sucks. There seems to be a fair amount of manga and anime type programming which is something that appeals to women. There's more of a balance of male and female within that fandom than in straight superhero comics which is more male focused.
Twilight has a huge presence this year, which is aimed at teenaged girls, and has been hugely contriversial. You know that there seem to be a lot more women here this year, especially younger women, which is cool to see.
How long have you been going to cons?
I've been going since 2003, maybe early 2004 -- since then I've gone to at least two every year -- usually more than that.
As woman what are some of the challenges you've found in presenting your work as a cartoonist in a male dominated industry?
I have to start out by saying that I don't feel like I've been held back or especially discriminated against in the industry. Please don't take that to say that I don't think that there is not sexism and discrimination going on because there absolutely is. I'm fortunate in that I write mostly for adolecent girls.
I am kind of, guess, some cartoonists or some fans see that as what I should be doing as a woman, anyway. I do feel like the average male comics fan is a lot more resistant to the kind of work that I do than to - I hate to use this example because I'm married to him, my husband's work, Scott Pilgram? His work is often touted as being really feminist and he gets a lot of coverage from feminist blogs and publications and stuff like that; and, it's always brought up that "this is a comic with strong female characters."
And, I'm always surprised that - here I am - actually doing comics with a female main character and I don't get - I understand that he's at a different level of fame than I am - but, why am I not getting the coverage from the sites that I should be getting it from?
Women should be supporting women. There are a lot of awesome women doing comics and I don't feel like they're getting the kind of coverage they should be getting, either.