It's about freaking time.

Johanna at Comics Worth Reading beat me to the punch about the New York Times article about DC's new chicks graphic novel line, Minx. She mentions some reservations she has. One thing she brought up which strikes me upside the head is that the creative powers behind the books are predominantly male. Scholastic's Graphix line featured tried and true female creators who already had proven their abilities to write to girls. So why did DC choose male talent when there are still so many talented women in the industry ready to work? Why all the boys? I mean, maybe they can appeal to girls, but male names on the cover of a girls' book would make me a bit skeptical. I worry that upon encountering such a graphic novel directly aimed at young women, I would flip through it with thoughts like "Is he drawing her realistically? Or is this more guys-telling-me-what-I-should-look-like crap?" and "If I were in that situation, I wouldn't do what she did. Is that because that character has a different personality from my own or is that because she was written by a guy?" would be dribbling through my head the entire evaluation period.

I also worry that male creators will have to work harder to win over hesitant female readers (like yours truly) who get a bad taste in their mouth whenever they see male names on female products. At least it is a step in the right direction, and I can no longer say that all of the Big Three have their heads up their bums about girls and comics.