The springboard was a Green Lantern story by the great Ron Marz, wherein the hero's girlfriend ends up dead and stuffed into his refrigerator. Gail posited the question, "Why?" To paraphrase, "Why is it that comic book women always seem to end up raped, humiliated, folded, spindled, and mutilated in a wide variety of strange and interesting ways?"
The answers she got to that simple question run the gauntlet from the simply asinine, "As regards the female characters thing, I'm afraid I think it's giving male creators a bum deal." The list does read pretty shocking at first until you think of everything the male heroes have gone through, too, in terms of deaths/mutilations/etc." to the downright disturbing, "Well, I think part of the problem for female characters is that, since our readership is dominated by males, they aren't perceived as having the same economic viability as many male characters." The whole sordid story is hosted for anyone who wants it at Unheard Taunts, among other places. It's called “Women in Refrigerators,” and it's one of the most important essays ever written about the culture surrounding comics.
The next time the amazing Ms Simone crops up is with her ongoing column for Comic Book Resources called, ”You'll All Be Sorry”, or YABS in the common Internet parlance. With “You'll All Be Sorry,” Gail got the opportunity to prove that not only did she have a master's grasp of impressionistic writing, but that she also had some remarkably professional comedic chops. YABS became an Internet darling and proved implicitly that Gail Simone could competently skewer every writer, artist, journalist, and fan on the planet, from her dead accurate parodies of icons like Frank Miller and Mark Millar, to easier targets like Dave Sim and John Byrne.
My personal favorite is her spot-on parody of Planetary, wherein the three major players unearth the remnants of a certain modern stone-age family. It's written in near perfect Warren Ellis style, and it's absolutely hilarious. The “You'll All Be Sorry” archives are located on Comic Book Resources, and they're well worth a read or two, or three, or 20.
At the gentle urging of Scott Shaw (I suspect something involving a flamethrower, wet spaghetti noodles, and a rusty ice pick), Gail submitted a script to Bongo Comics. The script in question was for their Simpsons line, and a writing career was born. Gail's work for Bongo Comics is a testament to just how strong her writing skills really are. The most difficult aspect of writing a comic based on a popular cartoon is that you do it without the benefit of the voice actors.
Article comments
1 - spiralsheep
"the color purple (that's the color, not the Spielberg movie)"
You mean "The Color Purple" the world famous work of literature by Alice Walker? The world famous work of literature by Alice Walker which had a film adaption which was directed by Mr Spielberg. I'm assuming you've heard of the world famous author Alice Walker and your ascribing of her work to a man was merely an ironic slip-up on an article about a woman writer. Right?
2 - Dan Traeger
One comment and I get this bullshit. Fuckin' great! Okay look, nowhere in this article did I mention Alice Walker's amazing and yes, "world famous work of literature," The Color Purple. I was writing about the marvelous comics writer, "unfortunately not yet world famous," Gail Simone. I happened to reference as a humorous aside, the equally "world famous" movie adaptation of Ms. Walker's fine novel, and its "world famous" director, the "world famous" Steven fucking Spielberg. Never, ever put words in my mouth. I did not and never will ascribe Alice Walker's work to anyone other than herself, because I never mentioned her work at all. If I had written an article about Alice Walker, and had attributed the novel, The Color Purple, to Steven Spielberg, that would be an ironic slip-up (and stupid.) As it sits, I wrote an article about a damn fine writer, who happens to write comics, and happens to be female. Next time catch the spirit of the thing, enjoy it, and leave the nit-picking to people who actually pay attention.
3 - gnat
Calm the fuck down, Dan.
4 - Courtney Fifer
Grrrrrrr... must... not... bite... readers...