1. Creative Writing
4/30/15
Research Paper
Gail Simone, Comic Book Writer
Born on July 29, 1974, Gail Simone made a name for herself before she even started
writing for the comic books she wrote for. Before becoming a writer, she was a hairdresser in
Oregon who studied theater in college. She also wrote for a blog, and was the founder of it. That
blog is Women in Refrigerators. It was founded in 1999, and was dedicating to identifying
female superheroes and characters that had been killed, raped or suffered many traumatic
experiences for a plot device for the main or any male character in a series. It’s to give the male
character development even if it’s using a long standing female character. To this day, Simone is
still compiling names and characters that are still written this way. This blog was the reason she
started writing for comics. It brought her into contact with many people that wrote the characters
she talked about, and others too. After being brought on to write a column for Comic Book
resources, Simone went on to write the Simpson Comics. She also penned for many Sunday
comics that had The Simpson characters in them. Around May of 2002, she finally hit the main
stream comic world. Making her major debut with a few issues of Deadpool in the Marvel
universe. She only moved up and onward from there. After a small dispute with Marvel and how
they wanted to take Deadpool’s story, she moved onto writing for DC. She is mostly known for
writing a huge amount of the Birds of Prey series. She’s also written a few other series, such as
Wonder Woman, The Secret Six, Welcome to Tranquility, a few issues of Superman and the
reboot of Birds of Prey and Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl. Currently, she is working on a

2. convergence title for DC called Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle. The next issue for this comic is
set to debut early in May. Even if she is now considered a freelance writer, which not many
people can pull off. Simone seems to be able to pull it off successfully. Right now she writes the
Red Sonja, it’s her own title that she freelances.
Ever since Simone had started to write her blog, Women in Refrigerators, in 1999 she
started to make a huge impact on the female characters, and how authors wrote them. Her
commentary on her blog stated how much women character were overlooked and how they could
only be used as a plot device. The title of her blog comes from a Green Lantern comic, where
Kyle Rayner finds his girlfriend murdered and stuffed into a refrigerator (Asselin). It isn’t often
where you find a female character used as a plot device. It happens often in the Batman comics,
with the Batgirl’s he trains. Barbara Gordon is a great example of someone used for a plot
device. She was Batgirl for a short time, until the Joker shot her and paralyzed her from the waist
down. Even if the Joker is a sick character, the way he deemed her by taking pictures by
undressing her was unneeded. Her lifelong injury was only to cause pain to her father and Bruce
Wayne. Which she was only put in the wheelchair, Alan Moore, Dick Giordano, and Len Wein.
Who had approved the decision by saying “Yeah, okay, cripple the bitch. (Goldenstein)” Which
is stated in another interview that Simone had been a part of. Which it did, but it wasn’t needed.
Even if we had gotten an all-female team, The Birds of Prey out of it. Diana Prince, also known
as Wonder Woman is another great example. When her character was first introduced in
December 1941, her weakness was if any male character could get her hands behind her back.
They could make her do anything they wanted to. She was supposed to be the first feminist

3. character, but failed being what she was created for. But these aren’t the only cases. It happens
throughout media these days, even if there has been a huge push to fix it.
Simone often talks about how many authors in the comic book world (DC and Marvel)
are classified as either authors that appeal to women, or authors that appeal to men. Though this
doesn’t just happen in comics. Simone talks about how when she first started writing, people
would try to classify her as either and she didn’t like that (Asselin). It is funny how some
publishers and authors are still astounded to this day that there are female comic book readers. In
the recent years, comic books such as Batgirl, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, and Harley Quinn
have become popular. All strong female characters with backstories that people can relate to, or
at least somewhat relate to anyway. As Simone states, “I would be happy to have seen the last
generation of guys in charge who don’t attempt to court a diverse audience. I think it’s time to
send those people home (Asselin).” It’s time to make a change and give female characters a
chance to grow and be something other than a sexualized object that gets thrown around for
kicks.
Even though Simone’s number one issue is that women are over sexualized or used as a
plot device. She often goes into another territory that not many people are willing to cross into.
That topic is sexuality. During her time writing for the reboot of Batgirl, where Barbara Gordon
was no longer in her wheelchair. Simone had introduced Barbara’s best friend and roommate as a
transgendered. With no need to add a warning or display label for the squeamish cisgender.
Even after the character was introduced, Simone was taken off the Batgirl run for an issue or
two. Fans up roared and she was placed back on to finish up the series (Goldenstien). Nowadays

4. it isn’t odd to find characters in media that aren’t straight, or even a cis female or cis male. The
show and comics featuring John Constantine show a male bisexual and he is a huge character in
the DC comic world. Simone herself introduces a bisexual character who goes by the name of
Catman. He is in her comics, The Secret Six. She states that it wasn’t a problem for her to
introduce him as a bisexual character. She only had trouble with introducing it with the limited
time span she was given before DC would reboot their series yet again (Goldenstien). Still DC, is
pretty famous for having a famous and well known remember be a part of the LGBTQ. That
character is Batwoman, or also known as Kate Kane who is a lesbian. Even with Kate Kane
helping the representation, we still have a long way to go gender, sex and even color wise. It’s so
sad to read that many people that are avid comic readers, don’t get to read stories about
characters they can relate to. It’s all the same story, all of them about the white male getting the
girl and saving the world.
Simone has won many awards and has been nominated for many others during her time
as being a writer. Which she always wanted to be. One of her recent awards was given to her in
July of 2014, she was awarded the first ever True Believers Comic Award for Roll of
Honor/Comic Excellence at London Film and Comic Con by Stan Lee himself. Then back
tracking in 2010 and 2012, Simone was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding
Comic Book through her work on Secret Six. She didn’t receive the award, but she was noted for
her outstanding work. Which is a compliment.
Comics have been such a huge part of my life for the past three years. I’ve been to seen
many of the movies, which lead me to read more and more of the comics that started it all. In
media women are not portrayed as they should be. There are not many strong written women,

5. they are either the damsel in distress or the love interest. Rarely do you find a woman being the
hero. But in Gail’s case, she rose awareness for that in all of her written works. My favorite hero
of all time, Barbara Gordon, was written by her. She’s a strong independent woman who is the
daughter of a cop. She isn’t the run of the mill hero that has a tragic backstory like Bruce Wayne
or Clark Kent. She’s a genius who took it upon herself to become Batgirl because she looked up
to Batman. Barbara grew as a character ever since she was created and Gail Simone helped that.
I really admire her for that. I hope she continues to shape and move the strong female hero
movement in comics and any other type of media. She even helps the movement for more
diverse characters and I commend her deeply for that.

6. WORKS CITED:
Asselin, Janelle. "Gail Simone: The Comics Alliance Interview, Part One." Comics Alliance.
Comics Alliance, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 May 2015. <http://comicsalliance.com/gail-
simone-the-comics-alliance-interview-part-one-batgirl-birds-of-prey-and-women-in-
refrigerators/>.
Goldstein, Rich. "Gail Simone’s Bisexual Catman and the ‘Secret Six'" The Daily Beast.
Newsweek/Daily Beast, 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 May 2015.
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/06/gail-simone-s-bisexual-catman-and-
the-secret-six.html>.

7. BIBLOGRAPGY:
http://www.dccomics.com/talent/gail-simone DC Comics, 2015
http://comicsalliance.com/gail-simone-the-comics-alliance-interview-part-one-batgirl-birds-of-
prey-and-women-in-refrigerators/ Comics Alliance, Jenalle Asselin, Dec 1, 2014
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/06/gail-simone-s-bisexual-catman-and-the-secret-
six.html The Daily Beast, Dec 6, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6rvhSUZ_9I London Comic Con, July 2014