Well-known comic writer, artist, and historian Trina Robbins saw recent retailer comments on comics for kids (see 'Timothy Davis of Alternate Reality on Comics for Kids'), and more specifically on comics for girls (see 'Holly Sedor of 8th St. Books and Comics on Comics for Kids' and 'Timothy Davis on Comics for Girls') and sent us this comment on an issue about which she is both knowledgable and passionate.

 

Timothy, you need to read your comics history.  There was a time when more girls than boys of a certain age read comics, in the late 1940s and in 1950, and what they were reading were comics aimed for girls: love comics and teen comics in the Archie vein.  That's right, although Archie was definitely the first teen comic, it was by no means the last, and from the middle 1940s through the end of the 1960s, Marvel comics, under the names Timely and Atlas, produced the most and some of the best, teen comics aimed at a girl audience.  Not only that, but, although there were some women working in the field, most of these were written and drawn by men!  While I definitely want to see more women contributing to comics, who says men can't draw and write for girls?  The two best children's books in the English language, with girls protagonists, were written (and illustrated!) by men: Alice In Wonderland and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.  You don't need to be of a specific gender to create comics for girls, but you DO need to be of a certain mindset, and it's quite probable that todays's superhero artists and writers don't have that mindset.

 

You also may not know that there is an organization, been around for almost ten years now, called Friends of Lulu, that is founded on the principal of getting more girls and women involved in comics, both professionally and as readers, and that Friends of Lulu always pushes girl-friendly comics.

 

Yes, Timothy, there ARE girl-friendly comics, but you have to look beyond Marvel and DC for them.  Some titles that come to my mind immediately are Quicken Forbidden, Electric Girl, and Action Girl, but there are tons more.  I'd also like to modestly suggest my own comic, GoGirl!, written by me and drawn by Anne Timmons, which fits all your criteria for a kid-friendly comics, except that it's in black and white.

 

The reason GoGirl! is in black and white (as are the other comics I mentioned) is that we can't afford color, and won't be able to afford color until comic book stores discover that there is more out there than Marvel and DC and start ordering and carrying our books.

 

Which brings up my last point: Brian Hibbs wrote about how stores won't carry kid-friendly titles, and you put the responsibility for producing these comics on women.  I say it's the responsibility of all of us: publishers and editors, retailers, and comics writers and artists.  The editors have to give our kid-friendly comics a chance, and the retailers have to stock them.  Only by working together can all of us add much-needed diversity to the comics industry, and maybe save it from going under.