Eugene weekly., June 28, 2007, Page 38, Image 38

BY MOLLY TEMPLETON
From Mary Jane to
Plain Janes
Highs and lows for women in comics
C
ecil Castellucci is having a busy year.
The young adult novelist —
credited on the flap of her most
recent book as a writer, filmmaker, actress
and singer-songwriter — had two books
come out in the last two months: Beige, a
young adult novel, and The Plain Janes,
the first book from a new DC Comics
imprint, Minx. Minx, which kicked off
with Janes in May, is “the first graphic
novel imprint from a major American
comic book publisher devoted to reaching
the teenage girl.” It’s worth noting that DC
partnered with Alloy Media + Marketing
to create Minx; Alloy is the power behind
Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants, among other things.
Minx’s debut stirred up a lot of chatter
in the blogosphere, but not nearly as much
as the suggestive Mary Jane statue
Sideshow Collectibles released the same
month, which is somewhat telling. Major
media outlets weighed in on the figurine,
38 JUNE 28, 2007
which depicted a thong-baring, pearl-
necklace-wearing MJ pulling Peter
Parker’s Spidey costume out of a basket.
Fangirls — and some boys — were
annoyed, if not seriously pissed. (One of
the most amusing responses was a draw-
ing of Spiderman in the same position,
clad only in a thong.) In The Huffington
Post, Douglas Wolk wrote of the figurine
and several recent comic covers, “They’re
just sleazy, bad for business in the long
term, and tacky as all hell, because their
symbolic value is precisely that they do
piss people off; there’s a snickering tone
of ‘in your face, ladies!’ to all of them, and
that’s their selling point.”
Wolk is dead on. The uproar wasn’t, as
some people tried to claim, about one fig-
urine; it was about the general boys’ club
vibe of mainstream comics. The statue
simply became a lightning rod.
So what’s Minx’s place in this boy-
heavy comic book world? While it’s
admirable for DC to actively try to appeal
to young women, it’s hard not to feel — at
least initially — that Minx is largely a
marketing ploy. Putting aside the question
of what’s already out there that appeals to
teen girls (from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman
to Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways and a ton
of independent comics in between), could-
n’t they simply have released these books
under the DC Comics imprint?
Maybe. Maybe not. The smaller-sized,
black-and-white Plain Janes sits some-
where between indie comics’ personal sto-
ries and petite books of Japanese manga
(of which DC also produces a line). And
whatever the purpose behind the imprint,
Castellucci’s debut makes a strong case for
Minx’s future success. The story, beautiful-
ly illustrated in clean, hip, classy lines by
Jim Rugg, follows a girl named Jane as her
parents move her from Metro City to sub-
urbia following a bomb explosion that
injures Jane. In her new home, Jane works
to find a place with her “tribe,” which hap-
pens to be made up of other Janes, one
brainy, one sporty, one dramatic (the one-
note characters are the book’s weakness,
but hopefully there will be other Jane
books in which to explore the girls).
Inspired by a sketchbook, Jane leads her
new friends to decorate their small town;
the group’s name, P.L.A.I.N., stands for
“People Loving Art in Neighborhoods.”
But the local police find the art threatening,
and crackdowns get tougher and tougher as
the girls continue their “art attacks.”
I read The Plain Janes right after
Castellucci’s Beige and see the two as
linked not just by timing, but by two spe-
cific things. One is Castellucci’s clear love
for her characters, warts, addictions, weak-
nesses and all. Beige is
the story of a very normal
girl who finds herself liv-
ing with her punk rock
father (whom she barely
knows) in Los Angeles
for a summer. Katy
(dubbed Beige by her
“temporary” friend Lake)
doesn’t care about music
and likes things to be
tidy; she likes normal
boys and posting com-
ments to her friends’
blogs. It’s no surprise that
Katy changes over her
L.A. summer, but the
gentle, careful way
Castellucci depicts her
change — feet dragging,
heart breaking — is what
makes Beige compelling.
As is the other connec-
tion between these two
books: the redemptive,
beautiful, scary, awesome
power of creating. Jane
goes looking for some-
thing to create to make
herself feel safe again;
Katy finds a creative joy
when she’s not looking.
The Plain Janes is Castellucci’s first
published graphic story; subsequent Minx
titles are from a wide variety of creators
(though not as many women as some crit-
ics would like). Cynicism about marketing
ploys aside, the inspired, inspiring Janes is
proof that Minx is a step in the right direc-
tion, just as last month’s Mary Jane uproar
is proof (as if any were needed) that
comics and their creators must consider
the women of all ages in their audience.
It’s serendipitous that Castellucci’s two
recent books nearly go hand-in-hand; with
any luck, Minx readers will cross over to
the non-graphic section of the library for
her other stuff — and vice versa.
ew
For more about Minx titles, see www.dccomics.com/minx;
for more from Cecil Castellucci, check out her blog at
castellucci.livejournal.com