{"id":138,"date":"2008-09-28T00:47:53","date_gmt":"2008-09-28T07:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2008-09-28T00:47:54","modified_gmt":"2008-09-28T07:47:54","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-still-a-man%e2%80%99s-man%e2%80%99s-man%e2%80%99s-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s (Still) A Man\u2019s Man\u2019s Man\u2019s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not quite a year and half after being launched and the DC imprint, Minx, is kaput<\/a>. Minx was focused on releasing comics oriented for female teens. I had high hopes for what Minx meant to the comics industry. It was something I would regularly bring up and mention to my colleagues \u2013 a beacon of hope to get comics into the hands of students everywhere.<\/p>\n

First off the press back in 2007, The Plain J.A.N.E.S<\/em><\/a>. was such a refreshing read that I was thrilled with where Minx would push the industry. I bought a class set of the graphic novel to incorporate into the graffiti unit Mark and I taught. His seventh graders ate it up and my eleventh graders breezed through the text as well.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the rest of the Minx catalogue \u2013 at least what I perused of it \u2013 didn\u2019t match the quality of The Plain J.A.N.E.S.<\/em> It didn\u2019t even come close. Sure, I ho-hummed my way through The New York Four<\/em><\/a>, but that was only because it was a \u201cBrian Wood Book\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking at the titles that existed under the Minx imprint, I\u2019m not exactly surprised by what happened. However, the idea of helping to bridge the gender gap in comics was exciting. I don\u2019t know if the failure of Minx will further scare away other publishers from expanding in such a way.<\/p>\n

I think this is also an appropriate place for an aside about how comics have emerged as a part of my day-to-day reading habits. I initially came towards comics with the same sense of self-righteous \u2018I only read graphic novels\u2019 attitude I see in some of colleagues. I liked Chris Ware, read Maus<\/em>, the “important” Alan Moore work, and therefore was more than a little elitist in my comic book habits. It was through the patient handselling of the two Davids that run Secret Headquarters<\/a> that I began to diversify. I\u2019m pretty confident that Y: The Last Man<\/a><\/em> serves as a sort of gateway comic as well \u2013 students swear by it and it\u2019s the kind of book most people can pick up and need to read in the same kind of fervor that some get afflicted with Harry Potter or \u2013 more recently \u2013 Twilight. At this point, I\u2019ve begun wading into the fell fledged heroes in capes and masks kinds of comics. I still like \u201cthe other kind\u201d of comics too, but I\u2019m an equal opportunity offender. More pertinently, not to out her in any way, but the example is worthwhile; Rhea is also reading pretty much whatever ends up in our routine purchases. That means she too has undergone a transformation towards accepting more mainstream comics. No, she didn\u2019t need Minx to get into comic books, but it took a lot of patience, conversations, and trust in the local comic store guys to get to a place where either one of us are interested in comics beyond the snob\u2019s canon.<\/p>\n

There is a whole \u2018nother argument to be made about the thrill of serialized storytelling, its potential impact on teaching & learning, and the reason it makes reading easier. However, I wanted to focus primarily on Minx at the moment, so that will have to wait.<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>