Are we getting some real girl power in comics?

As reported in the NY Times,DC Comics is launching a line of female friendly comics next spring aimed at teenagers. The line will be called Minx and their first graphic novel will be "The P.L.A.I.N. Janes",about a group of girls who start up an outreach campaign known as People Loving Art In their Neighborhoods and all have Jane in their names(sort of a Anti-Heathers). Other graphic novels to follow will be "Re-Gifters"(about a Korean-American Cali girl into martial arts),"Clubbing"(London party girl who investigates a mystery either Veronica Mars or Nancy Drew style)and "Good as Lily"( woman meets three different versions of herself at different ages,sounds like Freaky Friday redux).

This does sound good-the only thing that makes me a wee bit nervous is that DC is using Alloy Marketing as a consultant/partner. You remember Alloy,those folks involved with the Opal Mehta mess? Yes,they are the current experts in the field when it comes to mass-marketing teen girl lit but I just hope that they're more of a help than a hinderance here.





On the other hand,they seem to be recruiting some top notch creative people to this project. Writer Cecil Castellucci and illustrator Jim Rugg were tapped for the P.L.A.I.N. Janes and their credituals are sharp. Castellucci has written a couple of Young Adult novels(The Queen of Cool and Boy Proof) and Jim Rugg was the co-creator of Street Angel,a comic book series about a homeless girl who fights crime.I like these folk already(Street Angel sounds so Buffy)and it's great that young women are being seen as a viable audience for mainstream comic book publishers to provide quality material for.



The Minx books are due out in May,so that's yet another hot item to look forward to in '07. The Wonder Woman movie is still being worked on(please pick a leading lady soon,Joss!)and with rising teen heroines such as Heroes' Claire and Disney Channel's Wendy Wu,we should have some pretty powerful gals to keep hope alive for young womanhood until then.

I just wish that stuff like this was around when I was growing up. True,did have the WW TV series and others on the small screen like Isis but it would've been cool to have had a comic book heroine who didn't look like a sexed-up Barbie doll(nothing against Barbies,I have a few superhero/villian ones myself) or had to deal with some real world conflicts that don't involve destroying a death ray. Guess I was born too soon but am glad to see the change a-comin' for the next generation.