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How to Build a Girl Squad | Comic-Con@Home

By July 25, 2020August 24th, 2020No Comments
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Creative Writing:

Squad Goals

Growing up, many of us had to contend with the Smurfette principle: stories where there was only one girl in the whole gang–the token, the love interest, and the character who had to stand in for all girls everywhere. But times have changed, and many creators are writing their dream girl gangs, squads, and inclusive ensembles. So how do you build your modern squad from the ground up? How do you decide what kinds of characters will best complement, conflict, and have chemistry with each other? And why is writing and/or drawing a girl gang just so gosh darn fun? Join creators Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes), Sarah Kuhn (Heroine Complex), Sam Maggs (The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope), Afua Richardson (Black Panther: World of Wakanda), Steenz (Heart of the City), and Rebekah Weatherspoon (A Cowboy to Remember) as they discuss the challenges and joys of squad goals and building the modern girl gang.

Originally posted on ComicCon@Home

Cecil Castellucci

Writer

Cecil Castellucci is the award winning and New York Times Bestselling author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Shade, The Changing Girl, Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, Female Furies and Odd Duck. In 2015 she co-authored Star Wars Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure. She is currently writing Batgirl for DC Comics. Her short stories and short comics have been published in Strange Horizons, Tor.com, and many other anthologies. In a former life, she was known as Cecil Seaskull in the ‘90s indie band Nerdy Girl. She has written two opera librettos Les Aventures de Madame Merveille (World Premiere in 2010) and Hockey Noir: The Opera (World Premiere 2018). She is the former Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus, a two-time MacDowell Fellow, and the founding YA Editor at the LA Review of Books. She lives in Los Angeles.

Sarah Kuhn

Writer

Sarah Kuhn is the author of the popular Heroine Complex novels—a series starring Asian American superheroines. The first book is a Locus bestseller, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award nominee, and one of the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog’s Best Books of 2016. Her YA debut, the Japan-set romantic comedy I Love You So Mochi, is a Junior Library Guild selection and a nominee for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. She has also penned a variety of short fiction and comics, and her hotly anticipated graphic novel Shadow of the Batgirl is coming out in early 2020 from DC Comics. Additionally, she was a finalist for both the CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) New Writers Award and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. A third-generation Japanese American, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and an overflowing closet of vintage treasures.

Christina ‘Steenz’ Stewart

Cartoonist

Christina ‘Steenz’ Stewart is a St. Louis based cartoonist, editor, and professor. She's the co-creator of Dwayne McDuffie Award-winning graphic novel Archival Quality from Oni Press and is featured in several short story anthologies such as Eisner and Ignatz Award-Winning Elements: Fire, Mine!, and the upcoming horror anthology Dead Beats. Steenz launched and edited the popular RPG periodical Rolled & Told. She participates in and creates community-building comics-related programming, and is a frequent panelist at several comic cons. Steenz currently teaches cartooning at Webster University while editing upcoming titles like Work For A Million.

She lives with her husband and cat and watches a lot of esoteric social documentaries.

Sam Maggs

Writer ?? + ? On-air personality

Sam Maggs is a bestselling author of books, comics, and video games. She’s been a senior games writer, including work on Marvel’s Spider-Man; the author of many YA and middle-grade books like The Unstoppable Wasp, Con Quest!, Tell No Tales, and The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy; and a comics writer for beloved titles like Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, My Little Pony, and Transformers. She is also an on-air host for networks like Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.

Afua Richardson

Illustrator , Writer

Afua Richardson [ Pronounced Uh-FOO-wah ] is an American illustrator best known for her work on the Eisner winning series Black Panther World of Wakanda. Other works include Xmen 92, All-Star Batman, and HBO's Lovecraft Country directed by Misha Green and Produced by JJ Abrams and Jordan Peele. In addition to being an illustrator, Afua is a singer/ Songwriter, Musician and voice actor, and mentor to many aspiring artists. She is the creator of her upcoming series Aquarius the Book of Mer.

Rebekah Weatherspoon

Writer

After years of meddling in her friends’ love lives, Rebekah Weatherspoon turned to writing romance to get her fix. Raised in Southern New Hampshire, Rebekah Weatherspoon now lives in Southern California where she will remain forever because she hates moving.

Her BDSM romance At Her Feet won the Golden Crown Literary Award for erotic lesbian fiction. Her novella FIT (#1 in the FIT Trilogy) won the Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Erotica Novella, SATED (#3 in the FIT Trilogy) was nominated for the Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Digital Erotic Romance and most recently SOUL TO KEEP VSS#3 won the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Erotica.

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