Episode 114, “Run For Your Life!”
X-Men #131, March 1980
“Run For Your Life!”
Written by Chris Claremont, Pencils by John Byrne, Inks by Terry Austin, Lettered by Tom Orzechowski, Colors by Glynis Wein, Edited by Roger Stern, Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter
The Female Is The Deadlier of the Artistes!
In Which We Learn That The Hellfire Minion Funniest Facial Expression Contest Always Ends In A 20-Way Tie, That 1970s Detroit Builds Nothing The X-Men Won’t Mangle, And That Kitty Pryde Is Just Not Sure She Can Deal With The Amount of X-Nudity Required!
Hey Jean, Mike Tyson Called To Say That He Is Really Worried About You!
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A bit of controversy hit the 2016 Angoulême International Comics Festival, which published a short list for their Grand Prix containing 30 creators, none of the women. The implication is that there are no female comics creators deserving of their prize. While there is no arguing that the comic industry is very male-dominated, the festival was soundly criticized for not being able to come up with one worthy candidate. Here is our list of five worthy lifetime award candidates, along with three younger alternatives.
Marie Severin
Marie Severin worked at Marvel Comics from the 1950s through the early 2000s, an integral part of the legendary Marvel Bullpen, doing everything from pencils to inks to coloring to character design to television graphics. Basically when someone needed art and they needed it yesterday, Marie Severin would step in and save them. Top Left) A cover from a monster comic, typical of Marvel Comics output, pre-superhero rebirth. Top Right) Marie Severin showing off both Namor the Submariner and her self-portrait abilities. Bottom) Severin shows off her top-notch caricaturist skills with this birthday card for Stan the Man.
Wendy Pini, along with her husband Richard, created the Elfquest comic series in the late 1970s. Incredibly influential, Elfquest was at the forefront of the rise of the independent, self-published comic book.
Jill Thompson
Jill Thompson has been working in comics since the 1980s. Her early work included DC comic’s Wonder Woman (above, left) and Neil Gaimain’s Sandman. Her art continued to evolve through the years, becoming increasingly painterly. Her Beasts of Burden (above right), written by Evan Dworkin, has won multiple Eisner and Harvey awards.
Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel published her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, for 25 years and is one of the earliest regular representations of lesbians in popular culture. Alison may be best known for her “Bechdel test,” (the original strip is shown above) which has become a frequently used metric in cultural discussion of film.
Karen Berger
Karen Berger made a name for herself as an editor at DC comics where she shepherded such comics as Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. From there she became the Executive Editor of the Vertigo mature-reader imprint, producing a long list of titles that were both highly successful and influential: Fables, Hellblazer, The Invisibles, 100 Bullets, Preacher, V for Vendetta, and Y: The Last Man. No one person did more to single-handedly popularize sophisticated comic books with mature themes.
Amanda Conner, Fiona Staples, & Kate Beaton
While perhaps not yet deserving of a lifetime achievement award, these three artists are definitely among the best and brightest working today.
Although Amanda Conner has been around for some time, it is her more recent work at DC comics (Power Girl, Harley Quinn) that has made her one of the most in demand artists in the industry.
Fiona Staples is one of the hottest young talents in the industry. Her comic Saga (two images pictured above), which she created along with writer Brian K. Vaughn, has already won her multiple Eisner, Harvey, and Joe Shuster awards. She is now also working on a ground-breaking Archie relaunch with Mark Waid.
Kate Beaton is a unique comic voice and her web comic, Hark! A Vagrant, explores esoteric topics of history and Western literature with a very modern and generally hilarious eye.
Ugh, I tripped with all my superhero friends watching! I am so embarrassed I could die!
Phoenix at the school drop off in the morning. Or, any Mom at the school drop off in the morning.
Let’s see… I’ll take 5 Whoppers… What? Oh, yeah, the gags. So I guess I’ll just need the one Whopper.
All night Go-Go cage dancing is tough, even with a mutant healing ability. I don’t know how Moira does it. (MacTaggert slam!)
So… uh… just wait one sec while I put this teenager down… crap… really hard to do this with the claws popped… yeah, I definitely did this in the wrong order… No, no I got it. Yep. Got it. …And I cut her arm off. Damn it!
All car explosions are now officially sponsored by the tourist bureau of Krakow, Poland.
Nightcrawler did not want to be delayed in his rush to get to the Maria Bamford show.
Who is your favorite French Impressionist, Emma? Is it Clawed Monet?!
Boom, nailed it.
And that was when Ron Jeremy finally remembered where he had met Professor X before.
Jason Wyngarde Has Come A Long Way Baby!
