Creating Women, a new web series about today’s British comics community, culture, and production will debut next month on YouTube, on Friday 28th May 2021.
Intended to be equal parts enlightening and entertaining, its production team – Amy Galloway, Rachel Davis, Ashling Draws and Holly Roberts – aim to document the careers and experiences of individuals from marginalised identity groups working in the UK comics industry. “By doing so,” they state, “Creating Women will advocate for and amplify diverse comics perspectives and realities”.
The first season of 10-15 minute episodes will feature nine comics artists and scholars: freelance comics writer/editor Dr. Hailey Austin, whose main research is in anthropomorphism, animal comics, and trauma; cartoonist and illustrator Rachael Ball, Ashling Draws, co-founder of CHIP Collective, a comics collective with the aim of using comics as an accessible medium to share information and creator of The Enchanted Book web comic; Laydeez Do Comics committee member and comic creator Wallis Eates, artist on Wings: A Prison Odyssey with Dr. Victoria Anderson; cartoonist, colourist, and creative educator Rebecca Horner; American visual artist Holly Roberts, known best for her combination of photography and paint; comic creator Dr. Megan Sinclair, co-ordinator of the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies, creator of Close to the Heart, a comic about bereavement; illustrator, graphic novelist an comic scholar Dr. Nicola Streeten, co-founder of LDComics; and comics artist, writer and illustrator Letty Wilson. These experts in their field discuss themes such as gender, the comics industry, and reader relations.
Amy Galloway is Creating Women’s Series Creator. Known professionally as hesitantdoodle, they are a Glasgow-based comics artist. Galloway says that Creating Women “grew from a few exchanges over social media to a project which celebrates the speakers, organisers and their inspirations who are all such bright, hard-working and comic-savvy individuals.”
Galloway is joined in this endeavour by fellow University of Dundee alumni Rachel Davis (co-producer), Ashling Draws (co-editor), and Holly Roberts (captionist). University of Glasgow Ph.D. researcher Danielle Schwertner rounds out the team as an interviewer.
Galloway believes that “contributions from marginalised creators doesn’t detract from the preconceived ‘norm’ which already exists — quite the opposite. It offers a more diverse and representative experience of what has always existed in comics and what the future of comics can be!”
As this video project develops into the future, Creating Women aims to be a forum for discourse, a platform for creators, and a resource for any person interested in British comics culture.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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