The lack of women on Free Comic Book Day

If you're looking for an intellectual, unbiased, well thought out analysis, keep looking because I'll be honest this is a bit more more anecdotal than some of my other writing, and I'll admit I haven't written in a while. And it's a bit, shall we say "whiney." You have been warned.

Today was Free Comic Book Day, my first in fact. I went to the local New England Comics to see what they had to offer. It was a pretty good deal, really. They were giving out a free Tick comic, plus two from the table and an additional two from a box at the end of the table. Five total. Plus a ton of great deals throughout the store, almost everything was on sale, so I got my fill of books for a while. Although Comicopia just got my Zatanna book in (Volume 2, currently the only Zatanna book in print >_< why has it been so friggin difficult to find this damn book?) so that'll be a priority when I'm able to pick it up. Speaking of comics featuring female protagonists, they were scarce. There was an Aphrodite comic on the table, which I picked up even though I've never heard of the series, but all the other books featured men heavily or exclusively. I also snagged an X-Men comic from the box since it featured Storm on the cover. I don't read X-Men that often but I do like that, despite the title, they do feature women pretty well. Or maybe that's just the impression I got in my Women of Marvel book - maybe those issues were the exception to the rule.

(my haul, of the day, plus cat)

And while checking out the comics, the trend carried over to most of the store. All of the action figures were men, all of the special harcover books on sale were about dudes, and the Buffy books in that display were on the second to last shelf - I almost didn't see them. Yes, we have Wonder Woman, we have Batgirl, we have Buffy and Black Widow and Supergirl and Zatanna (barely), and they are awesome characters. Their presence counts, but it doesn't count that much when their male counterparts are still the ones dominating center stage.

I realize that it's not fair to only read comics about female characters, and trust me I don't limit myself in that way. I just seek them out more actively because I do identify more with Batgirl and Wonder Woman than I do, say Spider Man. I still read comics about men, just less frequently. Besdies, I'm voting with my wallet, I know I'm one consumer but if I can contribute to the demand for more badass women in comics, maybe more will be published. One can only hope.

Now, there were girls in the store! Not a lot, the store was still mostly dudes, but so often I'm the only girl in the comic book shop (unless it's Newbury Comics, but that doesn't really count these days, especially the one in Fannuel Hall which at any given time these days is loaded with high school kids let loose on a field trip) that it's refreshing. And two of the kids, the cutest little ones in the store, were African American - and yes, this is significant to point out, since nerd culture may be becoming more egalitarian gender-wise but it's still overwhelmingly white, which is arguably an even bigger problem.

So while things are getting better, but if Free Comic Book Day 2013 is any indicator of how things are progressing, we still have a long way to go.