Mara Williams

Underpaid Career Friends Eight Page Zine about Gender Inequality in Comics Publishing

3 by 3 square grid comic in bright colors. First panel: A brown monkey, a red cat and a green dragon hug each other tightly. The title says 'Underpaid Career Friends in Dragon Difficulties'. Second panel: The dragon looks forlorn and says 'Mel! Mel!' The cat pokes her head in and says 'yes.' The dragon says 'I can't do this anymore. I just got my printing bill.' Third panel: the dragon stands holding cardboard boxes labeled 'comics' and says 'Everything I put into my self-published comics goes back to them. It's like.. it's like' Fourth panel: The cat looks distressed. A speech bubble from the side says 'it's like a dragon eats its own tail!' The cat says 'oh no' Fifth panel: The dragon is curled up in a circle with its tail in its mouth. She makes the noise 'Pffzzrt zzz' Sixth panel: the cat knocks on a door with a picture of bananas on it The cat says 'I am getting some help.' Seventh panel: the monkey and the cat strain to pull the tail out of the dragon's mouth. The monkey says 'you sure are stuck this time'. Eighth panel: A large block of text fills the panel. The monkey says 'It's not surprising - only 58% of female self-publishers and 54% of male ones cover the costs of making comics with money they make from selling comics. For non-binary folks that drops to 34%' At the bottom of the panel the money and the cat pull the dragon's tail free. The dragon coughs. The cat says 'got it'. Ninth panel: The three animals hug contentedly. The dragon says 'I'm sure glad you were here to help me friends!' The monkey asks, 'Can we have pie now?'

In 2012, I went to Chicago for two weeks to attend the Adventure School for Ladies: Comics Intensive. For two weeks about 10 women and non-binary folks met in a one-room community library to make comics based on qualitative and quantitative data about gender and the comics/ graphic novel industry. I learned a lot about how to make more comics (and better comics). It was also my first exposure to anything like Art School. As a group we produced a book called Hand Job: A Labor of Love (available to read at select artistic and academic institutions, and my own bookshelf).

Underpaid Career Friends came out of an assignment to create a 4+ page comic in a specific genre. My genre was "animal comics." I got handed a pile of old Donald Duck comic books to learn the genre. The three by three grid was inspired by Adventure Time comics. My favorite part of this project was creating the activity pages.

black and white activity page style comic in four sections. The title is It's the underpaid career friends activity page! The heads of Irene the Monkey, Mel the Cat, and Margaret the Dragon pop up behind a burst that says 'ACTIVITY PAGE' To the side, is a note 'color this page- give the cartoonist a break' Mel the cat has a paw raised and says 'Let's learn the COMICS HUSTLE 1 find a partner and keep your day job 2 follow these simple steps three 3 repeat until you make rent' A box labeled start points to a confusing series of paw-shaped dance steps labeled L and R Margaret is in a cloud bubble saying 'it took Julie Ducet 3 years to leave Comics. She left because 'I spent 12 years drawing comics and only Comics not even a Sketchbook so I was working like a dog all the time and it was just no fun anymore.' Don't let that happen to me. Help me find my way out of the industry.' underneath there is a simple maze in the top left corner has a drawing of Margaret the bottom right corner reads 'You're out!' A flag contains a caption 'Help Irene connect the dots between women's submission rates and who gets published. What do you think is happening here?' a partially completed cartoon of Irene with numbered dots. Irene is roller skating and wearing flight goggles and a scarf. There is a partially-rendered poof of gas behind her. Irene says '50% of male Comics creators and 55% of female Comics creators have sought out publishing in a 2012 survey, but-' a box caption reads: 90% of recent titles from Fantagraphics were written by men. black and white activity page style comic in four sections. a rectangle word search box eight letters across and 10 letters down. Every letter is a capital E. To the right, Mel says 'Can you find all the words?' Beneath her there is a vertical list word search: cultural production, capitalism, self-publishing, sardines, distribution, work for hire, friendship, self-care, bananas, institutionalized racism, hugs. Margaret stands holding a ticking pocket watch. A fancy Banner says 'Guess what time it is? It's question time!' Text on the page says: Answer the following. Turn the Page upside down to see if you were right. 1 In anthologies from 2010 how often were female characters sexually assaulted. Upside down text is Answer: one in seven books contained a rape. 2 In DC/Vertigo titles in 2011/2012, were there more characters of color or more talking animals? Upside down text is Answer:there were more talking animals. 3 What percentage of comics creators earning over $10,000 a year from self-publishing are men? Upside down text is Answer: 92% are men, 8% women, 0% non-binary. Two pictures stacked on top of each other vertically. In between the pictures a circle of instructions reads Spot the differences between the UPCFs current work environment and Allison Cole's 'Utopia World' In the top picture, Irene is distressed, it is raining and thundering outside, Mel works at an artist's desk. In the room there is a large stack of paper labeled bills, a sardine sandwich, a clock on the wall set to 12:10. In the bottom picture Irene is smiling and counting money. It is sunny outside and flowers are blooming. Mel is working at an artist's desk with hearts surrounding her. In the room there is a tap labeled 'BEER', a pile of fresh vegetables, and the clock reads 5:40 Irene is smiling and holding a sardine sandwich in her left hand. There is a blank speech bubble and the drawing of here her right hand is unfinished. Underneath a caption reads: Finish the drawing: fill in the missing lines and add what Irene is saying to the rest of the comics industry. In the upper left corner a square burst reads: BONUS: Add a background.