KAREN BERGER TALKS MINX

[MattBrady]

Saturday, it was announced that DC will launch a new imprint in May of 2007 named Minx, which will publish a line of original graphic novels aimed at teenage girls.

The line will launch with The PLAIN Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, with other OGNs coming from creators including Andi Watson and Josh Howard - Clubbing; Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm - Good as Lily; and Mike Carey, Louise Carey, Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel - Re-Gifters.

As reported Saturday, the imprint isn’t being viewed by DC as a fly-by-night matter, or something that the market will discover and help thrive all on its own, as “build it and they will come” mostly serves as an epitaph rather than guidance in comics. As such, DC has budgeted $250,000 to promote the line to its intended readership and will team with Alloy Marketing + Media to promote Minx in the coming months.

The line will be overseen by Shelly Bond and Sr. VP Karen Berger, both from DC’s Vertigo imprint.

We spoke with Berger about the genesis of the line, and her expectations, both in finding an audience, and the forthcoming books.

“About three years ago, Shelly Bond, who’s been a Group Editor at Vertigo for many years, pitched me the idea to do Minx,” Berger said. “She was really looking at the influence of manga, for the most part, and really wanted to do a line for teenage girls that was an alternative to manga.”

While more recent fans known Berger as being synonymous with Vertigo and the…creepier side of the comics published by DC, but before that…well, it’s safe to say that for her entire career in comics, Berger has always had a little Minx in her.

“Comics for girls has always been a passion of mine since I started here – I worked on Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld in the early ‘80s, and I worked with George Perez on Wonder Woman in the late ‘80s, but even with those, it’s hard to really create a large audience for readers who don’t normally read comics when you only have one book out. You really need a line in order to do that, but the time then wasn’t the time to do it. Girls really weren’t reading comics in any large quantity. Again, the influence of manga is something that was so wonderful for our medium, because it really got older girls reading comics.”

Since the idea was suggested by Bond (and approved by DC), Berger said that the editor has been busy both planning out what kind of stories would make up Minx, as well as finding creators.

“We really cast a wide net for this – we weren’t going after one specific group,” Berger said. “We wanted to get new voices into comics, and wanted to try and find women as well who could write and or draw as well. Shelly really canvassed a lot of different areas, from alternative publishing to webcomics and other sources to see who was out there and see what they were doing. On top of that, there were people we knew, such as Mike Carey, who we knew writes really great stories that click with teenage girls, like My Faith in Frankie, which was, I think, one of the best things he’s ever done. So we knew he had the sensibility to do this stuff for us.”

Of course, Carey is bringing in an expert in the field along with him. “Mike’s 15 year old daughter, Louise, who’s quite a writer all on her own, it co-writing the book, Confessions of a Blabbermouth with him,” Berger said. “It’s a family affair.”

From the outside, one might make the assumption that the books that will make up the Minx line came about – and perhaps the line itself did as well – as a collection of projects submitted to DC that were on the fringes of other imprints.

Nope, Berger said.

“These books really couldn’t fit anywhere else, to be honest. They really are geared for teenage girls, so it’s really not something that you would put out as a DCU book, because the majority of people who read DCU titles are not teenage girls. Likewise, it wouldn’t work in Wildstorm either. And while we do have a lot of women reading Vertigo, it skews older. Girls do tend to read up, but as an imprint, Vertigo is geared for readers that are older than teenage girls. And rounding out the list, CMX is import manga. So we really didn’t have a place for these books, and wanted to create a place that was directly for the American reader.

“Again, these are stories about real girls in the real world. There are no genre or fantasy aspects to it. We’re looking at this as an alternative to manga and as an alternative to young adult fiction.”

And while Berger has credited manga with playing a role in the formation of Minx, she also pointed to another influence - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Despite not being aimed at them, the book has become a hit with teenage girls, according to Berger.

“Girls tend to read older, and even though it wasn’t designed for teenage girls, Persepolis was a book that I know many teenage girls found and read,” Berger said. “So we’re really looking to fill this spot where teenage girls have either read manga or Persepolis, or have heard about graphic novels as being a medium that has many, many different types and styles of material – a place where you can find something you’ll like, even if you’re not ‘into’ comics.

“Again, obviously, we can’t overlook the importance of manga in getting teenage girls to read, but we really want to create graphic novels for American teenage girls who might not have even looked at manga, or may have looked at it, or may have read Persepolis, and know that there is this category out there. We’re not bringing in manga storytelling devices, we’re telling clear straightforward stories in a way that we feel they should be told, but we’re not adapting any manga. We’re looking at this as an alternative to manga – as an alternative to young adult fiction – we’re trying to find a new area of contemporary fiction. There’s no one out there, when you think about it, doing a line of graphic novels for teenage girls. You have manga, but it’s import and, while there’s a lot of really great stuff, it’s not fully for teenage girls. Scholastic has a few titles, but those are skewing younger or older. No one is really attacking this area in a full-fledged way with a major imprint, and we’re doing it.”

The books themselves, Berger said, will be a little bigger than digest-sized, more in line with Young Adult paperbacks. “They’re 176 pages,” Berger said, so we’re not thinking about doing them as comics, but first and foremost, as books.”

As announced in the Times article, the launch title for Minx will be The PLAIN Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg. “It’s really a phenomenal book that touches on real life in many ways in a post 9/11 world,” Berger enthused. “We see how this girl named Jane is affected after her family’s flight to the suburbs after a smaller scale terrorist attack at the beginning of the story. The story then is about this city girl starting a new life, and going through all the challenges that teenagers have when they’re in a new school and a totally different environment, and having to deal with all the relationship, friendship and rivalry aspects that presents them with. What sets this book apart from a typical Mean Girls story – there’s an extra layer in it that touches on the idea of what it means to be living in the world today, and how you can make it a better place for all of us.

“The girls form a secret art gang, and create these ‘art demonstrations to bring about change for good, but to really show that things don’t have to be done the conventional way. There’s romance, unrequited romance, friendship, rivalry, family stuff – a real sense of living in the here and now, which I think, really sets it apart. It’s very uniquely written and drawn.”

Janes will be the opening salvo in a move by DC to carve out, define, and capture a market share, as Minx will see one OGN released a month for the remainder of 2007.

“All told, we’re really excited about the material, and we’ve got a lot of great writers and artist who are really passionate about the stories that they want to tell.”

[matchesmalone]

This is a great idea. I hope it is successful. If so it will serve as a nice counterbalance to the abundant comics that objectify and trivialize women - a disturbing number of which have been published by DC in recent years.

[SeamusMcClernan]

Now there was a genius book!

That would RULE as a TPB.

[The_Adventurer]

NM, I need to read the full post I'm quoting before commenting.

[Michael C Lorah]

Best of luck with the new line. I expect the best from Karen and Shelly, and I hope that DC is able to get these titles in front of their target audience!!

[EmeraldGuy32]

I really hope these find their audience. I'll buy some to my female friends in hope of getting them hooked.

[Hobowatcher]

I still think this a great idea. Now if only they could make a new Amethyst series to be a strong contender against the fantasy manga.

Or maybe a Lois Lane series.

Or maybe Fire & Ice.

They have a lot of characters that can easily be retooled and work for the target audience they're shooting for.

And who cares if the creators are men or women. As long as its appealing and marketed properly, the stories will do just fine.

[Ye Olde Iowa]

I really hope that the new line does well. When it was first announced I was a bit worried that the books would completely miss their mark and end up as trivial, nonsensical, watered-down soap operas; but between the great talents they have working on this and the leadership of Karen Berger and Shelly Bond, I have good feelings about what the Minx line is capable of. It'll definitely be a tough sell, but they have all of the right peices for a great product.

Also, matches, the objectification and trivialization of women is nothing new in comics. In fact, its probably no worse now than it was during the Golden and Silver Ages. At the very least, there are currently some strong superheroines that get just as much facetime and credibility as male heroes; The Birds of Prey, Manhunter, Stargirl, and Catwoman are great examples of this. We will probably never get beyond the "cheesecake" factor in superhero comics, but to see Catwoman as just a great body in a tight leather suit or Black Canary as great legs in fishnets would be to ignore their other qualities that can be seen as strengths and positive characteristics they never would have had 30-40 years ago. I'm not saying that there isn't objectification and trivialization of women in the DCU (to me, Power Girl is never represented as more than a crime fighting pair of breasts), nor am I saying that its right; but I think it is foolish to only judge the surface characterstics when there is plenty for a modern comic reading feminist (like myself) to rally around.

Either way, back on subject, best of luck to the Minx crew!

[EmeraldGuy32]

Alex de Campi would own this line....

[whippis]

These titles and creators sound great. I will plan on picking a few of them up if I can be assured that, as not a teenage girl, I will not be subject to ridicule by "real" comic fans. I already receive my fair share of derision from those who consider comics to be "dorky." Any further blows to my fragile self-esteem could be devastating. Wait, maybe I AM a teenage girl. And a dork. Or both.

[PhilipAMoore]

at least they are being smart about writers Mike Carey is a smart choice.
now if only they could get Phobia Gloekner to do somthing after all she wrote the book on teenage comics
good day

[KyleV]

My only concern with a lot of books aimed at teenage girls is the art. Not whether it's any good, mind you, but how the girls are portrayed.

The fact of the matter is that most girls in these types of comics are drawn as being pretty thin (as opposed to superhero comics where they're all hourglasses). It'd be nice to see a "cartoonish" character drawn more like the average young girl.

This is a great way to create a little pocket of positive body images.

[Hobowatcher]

Originally Posted by KyleV

My only concern with a lot of books aimed at teenage girls is the art. Not whether it's any good, mind you, but how the girls are portrayed.

The fact of the matter is that most girls in these types of comics are drawn as being pretty thin (as opposed to superhero comics where they're all hourglasses). It'd be nice to see a "cartoonish" character drawn more like the average young girl.

This is a great way to create a little pocket of positive body images.

ETTA CANDY!!!

[Cray_ws]

We really cast a wide net for this – we weren’t going after one specific group

these are stories about real girls in the real world. There are no genre or fantasy aspects to it. We’re looking at this as an alternative to manga and as an alternative to young adult fiction.

They’re 176 pages,” Berger said, so we’re not thinking about doing them as comics, but first and foremost, as books.

Minx will see one OGN released a month for the remainder of 2007.

Absolutely like everything I've heard so far of the Minx line. I think if they do release a new OGN once a month they can change the face of comics, but for it to work, the OGNs must ship on time otherwise everything it worked to gain new readers will collapse. Timing is everything with new readers.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by SeamusMcClernan

Now there was a genius book!

That would RULE as a TPB.

Yep.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by Hobowatcher

I still think this a great idea. Now if only they could make a new Amethyst series to be a strong contender against the fantasy manga.

YEAH!

Originally Posted by Hobowatcher

Or maybe a Lois Lane series.

A modern version of "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane"

Originally Posted by Hobowatcher

Or maybe Fire & Ice.

They have a lot of characters that can easily be retooled and work for the target audience they're shooting for.

And who cares if the creators are men or women. As long as its appealing and marketed properly, the stories will do just fine.

Agreed.

[tarjeetb]

From American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.:

minx

NOUN: 1. A girl or young woman who is considered pert, flirtatious, or impudent. 2. Obsolete A promiscuous woman.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably from obsolete mynx, playful little dog, perhaps from alteration of obsolete Dutch minneken, darling. See minikin.

I realize that this imprint is the idea of women. I'm also not a prude or of the belief that children need to be shielded from every suggestion of prurience.

That said, "Minx" is a poor choice of name for an imprint. All due respect to the American Heritage Dictionary, minx still has a sexual connotation to many people, myself included.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by matchesmalone

This is a great idea. I hope it is successful. If so it will serve as a nice counterbalance to the abundant comics that objectify and trivialize women - a disturbing number of which have been published by DC in recent years.

Back to your favorite subject, eh?

[Disco Cookie]

I can't recall when I was this taken by a new imprint line. A great idea and in Berger and Bond it has some solid talent overseeing the show. Looks great...just wondering how my wallet is going to feel when I tell it I want to buy them all...

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by tarjeetb

That said, "Minx" is a poor choice of name for an imprint. All due respect to the American Heritage Dictionary, minx still has a sexual connotation to many people, myself included.

Do yourself a favor, ask every female non-comic reader you know a question. Ask them if they were to be offended if there was commercial product produced and aim at women and teens girls from a company calling itself Minx, and putting out products with names like Clubbing or Plain Janes. Use examples like TV show or video game, and eventually mention comics. See what their responses instead deciding for yourself that its a poor choice for a imprint. Sorry to say but most guys including myself are clueless about women, and teenage girls. Otherwise its all speculation on our part.

[Disco Cookie]

Originally Posted by tarjeetb

From American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.:

minx

NOUN: 1. A girl or young woman who is considered pert, flirtatious, or impudent. 2. Obsolete A promiscuous woman.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably from obsolete mynx, playful little dog, perhaps from alteration of obsolete Dutch minneken, darling. See minikin.

I realize that this imprint is the idea of women. I'm also not a prude or of the belief that children need to be shielded from every suggestion of prurience.

That said, "Minx" is a poor choice of name for an imprint. All due respect to the American Heritage Dictionary, minx still has a sexual connotation to many people, myself included.

I've stayed out of this whole debate so far but I am a little mystified as to why this has been such a big issue for some people.

Battle of the Dictionaries! My (Oxford English) dictionary says a minx is a cheeky or mischievious girl - no mention of anything insalubrious. The word may have had some sexual connoation (even your dictionary says that use is obsolete) but it has clearly moved beyond that. And in all honesty, an American based dictionary is going to carry a puritanical bias that other cultures simply don't subscribe to... Language is a slave to the culture that speaks it. Not a criticism, just an observation.

[Zadillo]

Cool to see Jim Rugg doing stuff too; can't believe I didn't recognize the art style before.

I'm still really hoping Rugg will do some more Street Angel as well.

[Gordon McAlpin]

Originally Posted by KyleV

The fact of the matter is that most girls in these types of comics are drawn as being pretty thin (as opposed to superhero comics where they're all hourglasses). It'd be nice to see a "cartoonish" character drawn more like the average young girl.

Average young girls are typically pretty skinny. But if what you meant by "average" was "fat," then I'd point out that the girl on the right end of the line-up on the PLAIN Janes cover does look more full-figured than the rest. But then, it's hard to tell.

That cover is a terrific book design -- it doesn't hide the fact that it's comics, but the photo emphasizes how it's grounded in the real world.

And I really love how they're not mandating some fake pseudomanga art style.

[c_andrew_s]

I am really excited about this... I know my nieces will like this

[Kid Kamikaze]

Okay, sorry to derail the topic, but the PG fan in me wants to exploit how hypocritical your post was, Ye Olde Iowa.

First, you said this

Originally Posted by Ye Olde Iowa

We will probably never get beyond the "cheesecake" factor in superhero comics, but to see Catwoman as just a great body in a tight leather suit or Black Canary as great legs in fishnets would be to ignore their other qualities that can be seen as strengths and positive characteristics they never would have had 30-40 years ago.

Which I agree with definitely.

You've even said this, which I also agree with:

but I think it is foolish to only judge the surface characterstics

But before that, you said this.

I'm not saying that there isn't objectification and trivialization of women in the DCU (to me, Power Girl is never represented as more than a crime fighting pair of breasts)

Which is not only a load of BS, but a personal bias, and most importantly, you didn't "practice what you preached". I won't go any further than that.


So back on topic, I'm happy DC continues to broaden the scope in terms of stories and titles. Hopefully, this line will gain more popularity. Sorry about that everyone, I was just really ticked off at that post.