JAMES HUDNALL responds
There are lots of books about how to draw comics--James Hudnall is working on a book on how to write them. One of the tips in the upcoming book is "A STORY IS ABOUT LIFE. LIFE MEANS CHANGE," which seems to be the thrust of his points here as well. The rights to his comic, "Harsh Realm," have been purchased by Chris Carter (of "X-Files" fame) to be his next television series. He created the series "Espers" and worked on the Marvel books "Alpha Flight" and "Strikeforce: Morituri," and also worked on the Ultraverse books for Malibu. He's got one of the best creator web sites out there, at www.thehud.com. Thanks, James! (GS)
The reason characters, male and female, get in all those nasty jams is because they need to keep the comics interesting and so many writers in comics see shock value as interesting. Also, females are largely considered victim material in this society. So they end up victimized. And the male writers who have characters raped think they are being socially relevant or something.
When you have hundreds of issues of a comic like some Marvel or DC books, you have to come up with something new and so eventually someone gets around to doing those things. Also, revolving creators don't have a genuine love for the characters because they are not theirs, so they do obnoxious things with them.
Now we have the trend of women victimizing men. It is just as trite. These misandronistic comics, written by guys, with floss-wearing ninja babes are embarrassing to the industry in my opinion.
The thing you have to remember is heroes are born from tragedy. They do not come into their heroism pristine. If there is a reason for people to battle the odds, their motivation is often a response to pain. So you have to accept that as part of the package.