Part 3: Shade: The Changing Girl Reunion
We held the third of our series of Live Broadcasts celebrating Women’s History Month last night on March 22nd. This week’s broadcast featured most of the creative team for one of the most undercelebrated comic series of the past decade. Shade: The Changing Girl and subsequently Shade: The Changing Woman was part of the initial offering from the DC Comics’ Young Animal imprint that was curated by creative whirlwind Gerard Way.
Shade ran for a total of eighteen issues plus some appearances in the Milk Wars crossover event. The writer/artist team was intact all the way through as well as the colorist, letterer, and main cover artist. The comic is a true evolution of what has come before with the character that was created by Steve Ditko in the seventies and revamped in the eighties by Peter Milligan and Chis Bachalo. It is a story about what it means to be a human.
We were able to bring four of those women together last night and talk to them about their remembrances of their time on the book as well as their careers in comics. The result was a truly joyful celebration of an excellent comic book. The admiration and respect for each other as well as what they produced came through in the interaction that these women had with each other.
Our Guests
Cecil Castellucci
Cecil is a writer and musician. She has written comics, novels, operas, and rock songs. Her comics work includes The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, Female Furies, Batgirl, Star Wars, Shifting Earth, her autobiographical graphic novel Girl on Film, and tonight’s subject Shade: The Changing Girl among others. If anyone is looking to travel the world vicariously, Cecil is the person to follow on social media.
Marley Zarcone
Marley is a comic artist who is best known for her work on Effigy and Shade: The Changing Girl which were for imprints of DC Comics. She has also done work for Image, Dark Horse, and IDW.
Kelly Fitzpatrick
Kelly is an artist and colorist. She has worked for DC, Image, Archie and others. She has colored some of my favorite books over the past decade including Rockstars, Bad Luck Chuck, Plastic Man, and Shade: The Changing Girl.
Becky Cloonan
Becky is a cartoonist, writer, and artist. She did the covers for all the issues of Shade: The Changing Girl/Woman. She is a true rock star in the industry. Among her many accolades, she is credited as being the first woman to draw the Batman title. Her work on the Veritgo books American Virgin and DEMO launched her to stardom. She has written for Marvel and DC as well as her creator owned work for Image. Currently she has been writing both Wonder Woman and Batgirls with Michael W. Conrad.
You can follow along with all the fantastic reminiscing and behind the scenes secrets in the imbedded video below or watch the replay on our YouTube or Facebook channels.
For those who checked out the talk. Here are the six covers to Shade: The Changing Woman all connected.