When we went to Boston Comic Con this year, we didn’t just want to ask the comic creators we interviewed about the vague concept of “strong female characters” — so we asked them about anti-heroines. That is to say, flawed fictional women who make mistakes, save the day for dubious reasons, or who may have questionable morals. In response, we heard about these creators’ favorite examples of the form, as well as their thoughts on encouraging more diversity when it comes to female personality traits.
In the video above, you’ll hear from Ming Doyle (illustrator of Constantine: The Hellblazer), Laura Martin (colorist of A-Force), Babs Tarr (illustrator of Batgirl) and Erica Henderson (illustrator for The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl).
Here’s the transcript for “What Do You Think About Anti-Heroines?”
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Ming Doyle: Aren’t we all? … The end. [laughs]
Laura Martin: Ooh, that’s a tough question. Man, that’s a good one.
Babs Tarr: Sailor Moon is — one of the reasons I love her so much is because she got bad grades, she was super clumsy, she was not equipped to be the leader. She’s full of flaws.
Erica Henderson: Yeah, I think there should be flawed women, but I think just because of that, there has to be more women.
Ming Doyle: Well, otherwise all the women fall into the “Madonna” or the “Whore” kind of complex. You can’t just have the extremes. You have to cover the entire spectrum of humanity.
Erica Henderson: Because you can have 20 male characters, and they all have different problems, but you’re not making a comment on men as a whole, because they all have different issues.
Laura Martin: So, if there is a good flawed heroine out there, who is just an awful person, but has a heart of gold on the inside? [thumbs up] Tank Girl comes to mind, you know? I love ’em. I think they’re fantastic.
Ming Doyle: Even to imply that women can’t fulfill every role out there, or that it’s somehow groundbreaking that some of us might be kind of shitty people with some redeeming qualities? [rolls eyes] It’s ridiculous!
Babs Tarr: I think it’s really good to see people — imperfect people — who struggle to do perfect, good things.
Laura Martin: And you want them to save themselves. There’s a little part of you that wants to save them, too. But you want to see them redeem themselves, and that’s the core of the story. I love it.
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