WomenWriteAboutComics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WomenWriteAboutComics (WWAC) is a comic book website, founded in December 2011 by Megan Purdy. The site has been nominated four times for an Eisner Award, winning three back-to-back from 2020-2022.[1] As of 2022, the site is run by Wendy Browne and Nola Pfau.
Type of site | Comic book |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Created by | Megan Purdy |
| Editor | Nola Pfau and Wendy Browne |
| URL | www |
| Launched | December 2011 |
| Current status | Online |
History
WWAC was originally published by Purdy as a WordPress blog, with writer Claire Napier joining as a co-editor early into its existence. The blog was set up with the stated agenda to feature a diverse group of intersectional, international feminists who provide equally diverse insight into the world of comic book culture and the comic book industry at large. In 2012, a post inviting comic bloggers to write about the women in refrigerators superhero comic-book trope gained widespread attention[2]
The intersectional feminist style of the website and its contributors has led to it being used as a source by several publications including The New York Times,[3] Vulture,[4] and Mother Jones.[5]
In 2017 Purdy stepped down from their role as editor, with Napier following shortly afterwards. In the following year, Nola Pfau and Wendy Browne took over the site as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, respectively.[6]
The site features reviews, reports on mainstream and local conventions, comic book-inspired recipes and crafts, feature essays discussing socio-political happenings in and around the comic book industry, and interviews with members of the comics community.
The website has been archived by the Library of Congress.[7]
Comics Academe
Comics Academe is an ongoing series published monthly on WWAC since 2015, originally curated by Francesca Lyn, a PhD Candidate from the Department of Media, Art, and Text at Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2017, Comics Academe has been curated by Katherine Tanski, a PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University. Tanski was joined in 2020 by Adrienne Resha, a PhD Candidate in American Studies from the College of William & Mary.[citation needed]
Comics Academe has garnered international attention from scholars in comics studies, including Rutgers University Press[8] as one of the few curated spaces for public-facing scholarship available for women and non-binary individuals who have a scholarly interest in comics studies.
Awards and nominations
- 2017 Eisner Award nomination for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"[9]
- 2020 Gilbert Seldes Prize for Public Scholarship for "4 Colorism: The Ashiness of It All" by Zoë D. Smith[10]
- 2020 Eisner Award win for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"[11]
- 2021 Eisner Award win for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"[12]
- 2022 Eisner Award win for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"[13]