Gail Simone

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Gail Simone at the 2002 SDCC. Photo copyright 2002-2005 Lea Hernandez

Gail Simone (born 1965) is a popular American writer of comic books. She is the current writer of DC's Birds of Prey series, currently featuring Oracle, Black Canary, The Huntress, and Lady Blackhawk; she is also the writer on DC's Villains United miniseries (which serves as part of the buildup towards Infinite Crisis), as well as Action Comics starring Superman (which, of late, has tied into events in the aforementioned miniseries). Other work includes a brief stint on The Legion, a Rose and Thorn miniseries, Killer Princesses (with co-creator and artist Lea Hernandez) for Oni Press, the Gus Beezer specials for Marvel Comics, and a recently-announced revival of Gen 13 for Wildstorm.

Simone has gained a reputation for being a gifted comedy-action writer, especially showcased in her mainstream work on Deadpool and Birds of Prey. In addition, she is lauded for writing strong female characters. However, critics have remarked that her plots sometimes concentrate too much on bringing in comedy for its own sake.

Early work

Simone first came to fan attention with her humour column, "You'll All Be Sorry!", which was a weekly feature on Comic Book Resources. Topics ranged from short, satirical summaries of comic book series old and new (which came to be known as 'Condensed Comic Classics'), to parodies of fan fiction that were accurate to the point that many suspected that Simone had simply stumbled across the fanfic elsewhere on the 'net, and opted to repost it wholesale. Simone, in her typically lighthearted manner, stated that this was not the case.

Simone soon began working for Bongo Comics, scripting many of their comics based on The Simpsons; contributions included stories for Simpsons Comics proper, one of the annual Treehouse of Horror specials, as well as regular scripts for Bart Simpson's own solo series. Simone also penned many Sunday strips for the syndicated Simpsons comic strip.

Simone entered the comics mainstream with a run on Marvel Comics' Deadpool, which metamorphosed into Agent X. So popular was Simone's work on both titles, she was asked back to pen a concluding arc to Agent X, some months after the series' cancellation.

Controversy

When it was announced that Simone would be taking over Action Comics from writer Chuck Austen - with John Byrne stepping up to provide pencils - many expected the focus to be on Byrne's art, which had become outmoded in the eyes of current fans. However, a scene in Simone's first issue - which witnessed Superman protecting an African tribe from militants - elicited criticism for being seen as cliche and condescending. Simone, though, rebutted such claims; she defended the scene as being a representation of Superman's status as a citizen of the world, not just America, and that she was also picking up on plot threads introduced by Mark Waid in his miniseries Superman: Birthright.

Also, Simone was recently tapped to pen a two-issue arc for the current Teen Titans series, with the artist for those two issues being Rob Liefeld (co-creator of Deadpool). The focus of the arc would be on the new Hawk & Dove. While Simone maintained her usual enthusiastic stance, fandom was quick to lambast the promotional art Liefeld produced in tandem with the PR announcement. Of course, here the controversy lies more with Liefeld than it does with Simone, a situation Simone acknowledged on the DC Comics message boards soon after the first Simone/Liefeld issue reached stores.

Trivia

• Simone was responsible for the Women in Refrigerators website, which brought her into contact with many people working in the comics industry.
• Up until recently, Simone owned a hairdressing salon.

External links

• The Action Comics controversy (scroll to Tuesday, June 14, 2005)
• Interview with Silver Bullet Comicbooks
• The 'You'll All Be Sorry!' archives