Fat comics anybody?
I asked you all a few days ago what movies featured great fat women characters, and there was a flood of people suggesting movies I’d a) never thought of as fat-pos or b) never heard of, period. In light of how successful that was, I thought I’d toss this out and see what comes back.
I’m a big comic reader (more web than print), and I’m curious what strong, fat female characters exist in comics (whether they self-define as fat or just appear fat in relation to their peers). I’ve read a few great comics where there were “curvy” or “voluptuous” women - Amy Chilton in Scary Go Round has been described as curvy, as has Faye Whitaker in Questionable Content, but neither of them are the kind of curvy that has easily discernible chub, and I don’t recall anyone ever referring to either of them as fat (other than perhaps jokingly).
Enter Jamie McJack, one of the main characters at Girls With Slingshots. Although the comic has been around for several years now, I only just discovered it a couple of weeks ago, but already I’m in love. Besides being authored by a woman (there are woefully few female comic artists/authors), the art is beautiful, the writing is funny, and - oh yeah - it has a fat character who has a successful career (and is brilliant at what she does), is funny and outgoing, and (gaps!) has an active sex life (although she self-identifies as a virgin… that’s a whole other post).
So why am I posting about it now? Well, although it won’t benefit me much, she’s currently selling a drawing of Jamie on eBay. The bidding is a bit out of my price range at the moment, but if any of you out there are fans of the series, or just want to support someone creating positive representations of fat women, this is a great opportunity to have an original drawing of the character.
And, while we’re on the subject… I’m guessing I’m not the only comic reader here. Are there any other fat women in comics that I’m missing out on?
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The criticisms of my students would serve as a good warning to visitors of Seeworthy: she talks too fast, she's too hard on us, she assigns too much work, and you have to be a dyke to get a good grade.
In other words, I'm a big, fat, queer, feminist meanie, and I am totally out to get you. Graaagh!
I don’t know how to classify the main character of this comic, but she’s extremely strong, extremely intelligent, has a very commanding presence (which is part of the point of the plot) and I love her because she’s dorky and…well I’d say fat. Not like big roly poly fat, but she’s far from skinny. And there are a lot of very strong women in the comic, it’s very feminist “friendly”. Very fantastic read, wonderful art.
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com
-Gert from the Marvel comic Runways was drawn (most of the time) as overweight and refered to as such
-Lalia from Craving Control http://www.drunkduck.com/Craving_Control/ has some pudge on her
-Reagan from Templar, Arizona http://www.templaraz.com/ she is full fledged BBW
-Aurora, from Aurora of the High Seas http://www.drunkduck.com/Aurora_of_the_High_Seas/
Um, I meant to mention that your link to Questionable Content goes to a bunch of links to breast-enhancement sites…
Definitely questionable content!
Cathy! “Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Aaack!”
Just joking, obviously. I just wanted an excuse to use that 30 Rock quote.
The correct link to QC is http://www.questionablecontent.net
It’s print finished in 2007, but back in the day there was “Strangers In Paradise”.
sandra k fuhr’s “Friendly Hostility” has a *gorgeous* and *sexy* character who is unquestionably fat. the comic is also great on shape diversity/acceptance as a whole.
friendlyhostility.com (it’s a keenspot comic)
There was a fat Promethea (An Alan Moore comic), but strangely, every Promethea except her is mentioned in the Wikipedia entry. She was the one just before Sophie Bangs, and still alive.
Dee - you mean, Barbara Shelley? She rocked.
I think of Hazel McNamara in the Sandman story ‘A Game of You’. She was sort of chunky, compared to her partner Foxglove, who was thin. (Hazel was pregnant at the time, but not enough to show.) I seem to recall she lost a bunch of weight, though, in the spin-off ‘Death: The Time of Your Life’ - she was feeling insecure about the relationship between her and Fox being strained (which probably had more to do with Fox getting famous and being away on tour a lot).
There is also Despair in Sandman, of course, but being the embodiment of, well, despair, she’s not exactly a positive fat character. Trying to think of any others…
Francine from Strangers in Paradise (before she got all skinny in the later issues). I don’t know that I would call her fat but she was definately above the ideal (and had a cute little muffin top). Not so sure that she was happy about her weight, though.
Delurking to chime in with one of my favorite comic book characters of all time - Maggie from Love and Rockets (written by the Hernandez brothers in the 80s and put out by Fantagrapics Books). I highly recommend the entire series for the richness of characters and the gorgeous artwork.
Ydnic, yikes! Thanks for the heads-up; link should be fixed now. Thanks to everyone else for the great suggestions - keep ‘em comin!
Lydia from Striptease owns a music shop and is dating a goth boy, according to my geek fiance (who is my source for all things comic). She’s only a minor character, but this early appearance where she messes with a customer’s head is really funny. And she’s really cute!
The thing about Francine though is that she’s portrayed as an emotional eater and she takes crap for her weight and eating habits. A positive character but not a positive portrayal of fat.
Regan’s a great one, and Alex Robinson’s spectacular Box Office Poison has several fat characters, male and female, who have happy relationships (or are even love interests), realistic levels of body neurosis (i.e. between zero and typical, but not played for laughs), realistic eating habits, personalities that go way beyond fat, etc. It helps that Alex Robinson himself is a big guy.
The bookstore owner in Dykes to Watch Out For springs to mind. I forget her name, sorry.
There is a Fat Psychic in one of Jhonen Vasquez’s color comics, I Feel Sick (the creator of JTHM, Squee, and Invader Zim) Unfortunately it is an extremely negative portrayal of a fat person, and it turns out that she isn’t psychic, her fat is. Kinda weird.
My favorite cartoonist of all time is Alison Bechdel, who has created the inimitable Dykes to Watch Out For for the past 25 years. She has had many fat characters (Harriet, Jezzana, Audrey, Miko come to mind), as well as thin characters, short characters, tall characters; in other words, her characters all have very real bodies of all types.
She posts the episodes once every two weeks on her blog/homepage. The earliest online archive is held at PlanetOut, though the quality of their images leaves a lot to be desired.
But the best way to experience the glory of Bechdel’s work is to read the books–collections of the episodes plus bonus material. She is incredibly literate, and the meticulous detail in her drawing is boggling.
/fangirl
gws is now my new favorite comic. thanks so much for the link!
Alright, now I’m addicted to GWS, too!
Seconding the recommendation of Runaways. Gertrude Yorkes is (usually) drawn as a zaftig teenage girl. She gets some flak for it, but also totally gets the guy.
i responded to this post with a post on my site =) let me know what u think!
Hmm, Francine’s an interesting one. She does have eating issues and low self esteem issues, but she’s awesome anyway. And she’s still seen as a fantastic character. She’s 168 pounds though, so it’s not as though they picked an obese character, just mildly overweight.