When I first started out in comics they would put me on these Women of Marvel panels, and these young women would come up to me and say, "I really want to write comics but I don't know if I can because I'm told that it's just for guys." I would say, "That's bullshit. That's absolute bullshit. Look at me!" But the one area where we still need to work on is that we need more women of color. That's not common thing yet.
Marjorie M. LiuNice characters are boring! I like writing upbeat characters - that's my natural tendency.
Marjorie M. LiuI believe that the mainstream publishers, DC and Marvel, need to catch up as well. Out of the fifty-odd books that are published each month, just a handful are written by women, and even less of those are written by women of color. It's not right, and it's not good for the companies in the long-term. It's also not good for fans, for readers.
Marjorie M. LiuIn real life, I knew that fandom was made up of women, and women of color, and women of all ages. But on the publishing side of comics, it was a lot of white, straight men. It was often jarring to me to be the only women at a meeting or at a panel at a comic-con. Fortunately I had mentors who were not blinded by my gender and who said, "Yes, we know you can write these books." That hasn't been the case for everyone. What gives me great hope is that in the eight to nine years since I've started, I've seen tremendous growth.
Marjorie M. Liu