I work at a LCS, and I super love this as a resource for my pride comics pyramid, but what about creators? Writers, artists, colorists? Is DC honoring them/what comics can I feature from them?
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We have more than 70 created and in the pipeline, expect more posted in the next few days. Really hope they help, and if you donât mind, a snapshot of your pyramid would be awesome 
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itâs a three tier, the bottom tier is kids/teens books like Lumberjanes. Latest other history is up, and if we could keep Poison Ivy: Thorns in stock, it would be there too!
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That makes me so happy to see, congrats.
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This is lovely! Thanks for putting all these profiles together! Off to read Hydes first appearance thanks again!
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Happy 
to be of service, and remember to check back
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With The Author DeadâŚ
Well not exactly dead. I do think intent matters, but not nearly so much as the audienceâs reception of the communication. We all see and hear communication, including art, through the lenses we build up through our lives. I was raised in a small Wisconsin town long ago, I joined the Army and met the love of my life. All that and everything that happens after necessarily impacts how I view everything including movies, books, or music. I used to think Bobby Darrinâs Beyond the Sea was a fun little karaoke bait tune Iâd make a try at if I had a couple. Now, I hear the most crushingly sad song ever written about loss and the promise or hope of reuniting in another time and place. Neither interpretation is wrong, they are the result of life experience and changing perspective.
So, I wonât always see the same message in comics as the next reader. Thatâs fine. Doesnât make either one of us wrong.
Next, relax itâs just literary analysisâŚ.ANDâŚ.sometimes they mean it.
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Question: Andrea mentioned that the code was updated after first being released, do you know if this was a yearly update or every few years?
Looking at the code now things like
-no sympathy for villians
-no wolves, vampires, zombies etc
-divorce should not be shown as desirable
-The letters of the word âcrimeâ on a comics-magazine cover shall never be appreciably greater in dimension than the other words contained in the title.
(From the code above)
-The treatment of live-romance stories shall emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage. (Scode above)
Kind of blows my mind. Not to mention that Andrea said DC kept with the code until 2011, thats seems crazy to me (Iâve only been reading comics since I joined the dcu little over 1 ish year ago)
Edit: is it ok to post discussion things jn this thread?
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Most important question first: Though I run on and on, of course post what you will. At some point when this is all over weâre going to post a clean thread with just the profiles. My understanding is the code was updated in the late '60âs early 70s, and you saw some drug depiction. The code against anything LGTB was gone in '89. And the code was further modified, but by then DC and the other publishers just werenât putting the code on comics they didnât want to put it on. So, DC may have had it on some comics till 2011, but it also published comics without it. I think it stopped having a real impact by '89. And, the code above that was original 1954 code, so thatâs the strictest it was.
And, donât we want to take a class from this professor? Sheâs pretty cool.
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Ah ok very cool because after I posted i started thinking about Toddâs death unsure when that originally happened but im assuming it was violent/gory so I was wondering if they even followed the code then. Thanks for answering/clarifying.
Also yes that would be cool, I think comics are a great way to tell powerful stories with beautiful art, I had 1 professor back in the day who did teach Watchmen.
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Pride Profile: The Marstons. William Moulton Marston is credited with creating Wonder Woman but, like much of what Marston gave himself credit for, that is only a partial truth at best. Olive Byrne, all but legally Marstonâs second wife, wrote an article for Family Circle magazine about her âvisitâ with the famous psychologist William Marston where he lauded the educational potential of comic books. This made him known in the offices of DC, who eventually offered him the chance to write a comic book. From this, he developed Wonder Woman with suggestions from his first and legal wife Elizabeth Holloway to make the hero a woman, using her knowledge of ancient Greek and modern feminist literature, a shared experience among the three with lie detectors, and their personal history with the feminist movement. Marstonâs Wonder Woman stories are infused with the ideas of early feminism from literally breaking the bonds that held women captive to an island or a future ruled by women. And, critics of Wonder Woman, including Seduction of the Innocent author Wertham, were not entirely off base identifying a lesbian undertone with the idea of Paradise Island. The contributions of his wives, particularly Elizabeth, went far beyond âinspired by.â
As for this unconventional household, while the 2017 movie Professor Marston and the Wonder Women depicted an intimate relationship between Elizabeth and Olive there is no available evidence to support this and the family has steadfastly denied it. And really, in the end it is beside the point. Both women, and Marston himself, came of age fully immersed in what was then the radical fringe of early 20th Century feminism challenging ideas of womenâs place in society and the family. The relationship and roles these women developed were also essential in supporting the family with Marstonâs continual career instability. We do know the women loved one another and stayed together as a family until their deaths decades after Marstonâs. What we can say, is that this family in more than one way made major contributions to Pride representation in comics.
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Coding: Relax Itâs Just Literary Analysis.
Upset because you think somewhen seeing Gay Coding is wrong, or upset because someone else doesnât see the coding? Itâs just another form of literary analysis. The reader is looking at a written work from a certain perspective and seeing what it may tell them or how it could be interpreted differently. We do this all the time from other perspectives. Supermanâs origin story can easily be examined from either a Judaic or a Christian faith perspective. You can filter early Silver Age comics from a Cold War or emerging science perspective. I was in a grad course on military leadership that ended up spending a day examining Star Trek for lessons in command and sacrifice because one student said the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.â
Taking on any of these perspectives doesnât mean the results are the definitive answer, just a possible interpretation, or the answer for that person.
Except of course, when they really did mean itâŚ.
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Pride Profile: Jeffrey Catherine Jones. There are artists who you simply cannot do justice to in a short prolife, Jones is one of those. Jones graduated with a degree in geology in 1967, but then moved to New York with wife Louise (who would go on to marry Walt Simonson and cement her own place in comics history) to pursue work as an artist. The work came quickly from comic companies including DC. But it was drawing beautiful strong female characters that earned Jonesâ reputation, particularly for Vampirella . After years with magazines like Heavy Metal and National Lampoon, Jones eventually stopped working for hire to produce more intimate meaningful art. Jonesâ personal life was a struggle falling into heavy drinking trying to deal with gender identity issues. Eventually in 1998, after years of conflict, Jones added Catherine to her name and began living fully as a woman, and returned to some more commercial work, including DC again. Unfortunately, Jones passed away in 2011 from a combination of medical issues.
The Art and Life of Jeffrey Catherine Jones
Jeffrey Catherine Jones: A Life Lived Deeply
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For more on the Marstons, Golden Age Wonder Woman check out two of my favorite topic threads weâve done here. When we talk about coding and how we look at these books through out personal lenses, I think these discussions are a great illustration. Plus, theyâre just plain fun.
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Pride Profile: Element Lad & Shvaughn Erin. Fans reading comics and detecting something unwritten about their favorite characters sexuality or identity is not a recent phenomenon. Legion of Superhero fans were so convinced that Element Lad was gay the question was asked of a DC panel at a 1976 convention. As early as 1964, stories suggested that Element Lad was either uncomfortable or uninterested in romantic entanglements with women. Writer Jim Shooter admitted that he assumed Jan Arrah was gay. Later writers would seemingly backtrack on this by involving Jan with Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin. Eventually, even this was squared with the original belief in Element Ladâs sexuality when Tom and Mary Bierbuam revealed that Shvaughn was actually a transgender woman who had transitioned in the hope of attracting Jan. When the drug that transformed Shvaughn was no longer available and he reverted back to Sean, Jan said that whatever they shared was in spite of the drug, not because of it. Sure itâs convoluted, but sometimes so is love.
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Pride Profile: Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass. Vi and Lightning Lass are a prime example of a time in comics when two women could be a couple, without being officially coupled. Salu âViâ Digby, a Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney creation, dates from 1961âs Action Comics #276, while Ayla Ranzz, the twin sister of Lightning Lad, came along in â63 thanks to Edmond Hamilton and John Forte. Both spent years as part of the Legion family saving the universe, falling in love with one of the guys, and going through traumatic personal events. By the mid-1980s, this shared history of trauma brought them closer in books first written by Paul Levitz. Through different series and multiple writers, the pair were often drawn in close physical contact, confiding in one another, and professing their admiration and affection. But, an unseen line was never crossed, thereâs no confession of love, no kiss, no true romantic moment. And yet, most of their writers and many of their fans considered Vi and Ayla to be a loving couple.
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Coding: And, sometimes they mean itâŚ
The two examples from the Legion of Superheroes of Element Lad & Shvaughn Erin, and Shrinking Violet & Lightning Lass show sometimes that coding is not entirely in the eye of the reader. In the case of Element Lad, some readers had detected something in the character that suggested he was gay. Whether this was the original intent or not, it certainly became incorporated into his depiction by writerâs in the '70s and 80s. The example of Shinking Violet & Lightning Lass comes from a little later in the '80s, but several writings of the series have stated that they wrote the two women as a couple. Now, until it turned explicit with Element Lad and Shvaughn a reader could have understood these relationships differently, but the writers were attempting to portray LGBT relationships and identity through coding.
Then of course thereâs baiting, but thatâs a whole other topic
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Those Wonder Woman covers are AMAZING!!!
I have read her story on a few sites and I have to mention how sad it is. The artwork posted here makes me wonder if it reflects the inner turmoil that Jeffery Catherine Jones had.
Thank you for doing all of these wonderful profiles!
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Thanks. For most profiles we kept images to a minimum, but with Jones those creations are the story
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Pride Profile: Danny the Street. Introduced, once again by Grant Morrison, in Doom Patrol #35 Danny the Street was originally described by the now outdated term as being a transvestite. But, with his brilliant inclusion into the Doom Patrol television series Danny was depicted as genderqueer. We would tell you all about Danny, but we thereâs no way we can do better than Rosie Knight in her DC article â5 Reasons We Love DOOM PATROLâs Danny the Street.â Spoilers, itâs because Danny is kind, genderqueer, a former Teen Titan, unfathomably powerful, and totally unique. And, we couldnât agree more as Danny proved that a sentient, transporting, genderqueer street makes for compelling storytelling and a great loyal friend to have.
https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/news/5-reasons-we-love-doom-patrols-danny-street/
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