Gail Simone is an American
writer of comic
books. Best known for penning
DC's Birds
of Prey, her other notable works include
Secret Six,
Welcome to Tranquility,
The All-New Atom, and
Deadpool. In 2007, she took over
Wonder Woman. Simone has a
distinctive writing style that mixes action, drama, and
humor.
Biography
Early work
A former
hairdresser who had studied
theater in college, Simone first came to fan
attention with her Web site
Women in Refrigerators, listing
many instances in which female comic book characters were the
victims of violent attacks because of their gender (rape,
miscarriage, murder) or whose attacks were used as a plot device
for a male character. The site brought her into contact with many
people working in the comics industry. Her popular humor column
You'll All Be Sorry! appeared weekly on
Comic Book Resources. Topics ranged
from short,
satirical summaries of comic
books ("Condensed Comic Classics") to
fan
fiction parodies.
Simone worked for
Bongo Comics,
scripting many of their comics based on
The Simpsons. Her contributions include
stories for
Simpsons
Comics, an annual
Treehouse of Horror special, and
regular scripts for
Bart Simpson
Comics. Simone also penned many
Sunday strips for the syndicated
Simpsons comic strip.
Mainstream
Following her
Simpsons work, Simone entered the comics
mainstream with a run on
Marvel
Comics'
Deadpool.
When
Deadpool was canceled and relaunched as
Agent X, Simone continued as writer, but
eventually left the series after a conflict with the series'
editor. Simone did, however, return to pen the concluding arc to
Agent X, some months after the series' initial
cancellation.
After the dispute with Marvel, Simone moved on to
DC Comics, where she was given the
Birds of
Prey title (beginning with issue #56) featuring the all-female
group consisting of
Oracle,
Black Canary,
The Huntress and
Lady Blackhawk. Though humorous at times,
Birds of Prey tends more to the serious than her
Deadpool work.
Simone took over
Action
Comics after writer
Chuck
Austen, with
John Byrne penciling.
Simone continued her other projects, including the 2005
Villains United limited
series - part of the "
Infinite
Crisis" crossover - in which she revitalized the
Catman character. She also wrote a two-issue
story arc that focused on the new
Hawk & Dove for the third
Teen Titans series, with
Rob Liefeld penciling. While Simone maintained
her usual enthusiastic stance,
fandom was
quick to lambast the promotional art Liefeld produced in tandem
with the PR announcement. The controversy lay with Liefeld more
than with Simone, a situation Simone acknowledged on the DC Comics
message boards soon after the first Simone/Liefeld issue reached
stores.
Simone is also the writer of a
Villains United limited series
spin-off, entitled
Secret Six. This turned out to be
popular enough that fan demand warranted an ongoing series, which
started September 2008. Other work by Simone includes a run on the
Superman title
Action Comics, a brief stint on
The Legion, a
Rose and Thorn limited
series at DC Comics, and a revitalization of
Wildstorm's
Gen¹³.
For
Oni Press, Simone wrote
Killer
Princesses with co-creator and artist
Lea Hernandez,
Gus Beezer specials
for
Marvel Comics.
Simone also wrote an
Atom
series, based on ideas by
Grant
Morrison and penciled by her
Action Comics artist,
John Byrne and later
Mike Norton. Other work includes a
Gen¹³ series and a creator-owned
project about a retirement community of super-heroes,
Welcome to Tranquility, for
Wildstorm. Simone was also a contributor
to
Tori Amos's
Comic Book Tattoo.
On April 12, 2007, DC announced that Simone would be the new
regular writer of the third volume of
Wonder Woman, first scheduled to start
with issue #13 but later changed to #14. Simone is notable for
being
Wonder Woman's longest-running female writer and has
often erroneously been credited as the first woman to write the
character, when she was in fact preceded by
Mindy Newell,
Trina
Robbins, and
Jodi Picoult.
Other media
Simone penned the
Justice
League Unlimited episode "Double Date", which features
Question,
Huntress,
Green Arrow and
Black
Canary in a romantic adventure tinged with revenge and
jealousy. Originally, Simone wrote the episode to feature
Batgirl Barbara
Gordon. After Gordon is injured while working a case,
Batman forbids her from continuing. She reinvents
herself as Oracle and contacts Black Canary and the Huntress to
finish the case. Neither heroine meets Gordon in person. Due to the
Bat Embargo, Simone replaced Batgirl with Green Arrow and The
Question. Simone stated that she was interested in working on the
show again, having in mind a "Queen of Fables" story which she felt
would look good animated.
Simone was one of the two writers of the critically praised 2009
Wonder Woman film.
In August 2007, Simone created and wrote an episode of
GameTap's Re\Visioned: Tomb
Raider Animated Series, entitled "Pre-Teen Raider".
Bibliography
Comics work includes:
- Birds of Prey
(DC Comics, August 2003 - July 2007)
collected as:
- Of Like Minds (with Ed Benes,
collects Birds of Prey #56-61, 144 pages, March 2004, ISBN
1-4012-0192-X)
- Sensei & Student (with Ed
Benes, collects Birds of Prey #62-68, 168 pages,
February 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0434-1)
- Between Dark & Dawn (with Ed
Benes, collects Birds of Prey #69-75, 176 pages, March
2006, ISBN 1-4012-0940-8)
- The Battle Within (with Joe Bennett and Ed Benes, collects Birds of Prey #76-85,
240 pages, October 2006, ISBN 1-4012-1096-1)
- Perfect Pitch (with Joe Bennett and Paulo Siqueira, collects Birds of
Prey #86-90 and #92-95, 224 pages, February 2007, ISBN
1-4012-1191-7)
- Blood and Circuits (with Nicola Scott, Paulo
Siqueira and James Raiz, collects
Birds of Prey #96-103, 208 pages, August 2007, ISBN
1-4012-1371-5)
- Dead of Winter (with Nicola
Scott, collects Birds of Prey #104-108, 128 pages,
February 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1641-2)
- Welcome to
Tranquility (with Neil Googe,
Wildstorm, February 2007 - January 2008)
collected as:
- Volume 1 (collects Welcome to Tranquility
#1-6, 160 pages, December 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1516-5)
- Volume 2 (collects Welcome to Tranquility
#7-12, 144 pages, May 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1773-7)
- Wonder Woman (DC Comics, January 2008 - ongoing):
- The Circle (with
Terry Dodson, collects Wonder
Woman #14-19, January - June 2008, 144 pages, hardcover,
November 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1932-2; trade paperback, September 2009,
ISBN 1-4012-2011-2)
- Ends of the
Earth (with Aaron Lopresti,
collects Wonder Woman #20-25, July - December 2008, 144
pages, hardcover, March 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2136-X)
- Rise of the
Olympian (with Aaron Lopresti, collects Wonder
Woman #26-33, January - August 2009, 208 pages, November 2009,
ISBN 1-4012-2513-6)
- "Birds of Paradise" (with Aaron Lopresti, Wonder Woman
#34-35, September - October 2009.)
- "Warkiller" (with Aaron Lopresti, Wonder Woman #36-39,
November 2009 - February 2010 [ongoing])
- Secret Six (with
Dale Eaglesham, DC Comics, November
2008 - ongoing):
- Six Degrees of Devastation (collects 6-issue limited
series, 144 pages, March 2008, ISBN 140121231X)
- Unhinged (collects Secret Six #1-6, 144
pages, August 2009, ISBN 1401223273
Awards
In 2007, Thomasina Lindo of
Welcome to Tranquility was
named Best Female Character in the
Glyph Comics Awards.
Notes
- The 'You'll All Be Sorry!' archives,
Comic Book Resources
- The Gail Simone Dialogues, Comics Bulletin
- Newsarama
- DC Comics message boards
- Gail Simon Named New Wonder Woman
Writer, Newsarama
- Simon's Wonder Woman Debut Pushed Back a Month,
Newsarama
- Villains United details at DC
- Of Like Minds trade details at DC
- Sensei & Student trade details at
DC
- Between Dark & Dawn trade details
at DC
- The Battle Within trade details at
DC
- Perfect Pitch trade details at DC
- Blood and Circuits trade details at
DC
- Dead of Winter trade details at
DC
- Welcome to Tranquility Volume 1 trade
details at DC
- Welcome to Tranquility Volume 2 trade
details at DC
- The Circle hardcover details at
DC
- The Circle trade details at DC
- End of the Earth hardcover details at
DC
- Rise of the Olympian trade details at DC.
Note: Site incorrectly identifies this volume's contents as issues
#20-27.
References
External links
Interviews
- Gail Simone Interview
- The Simone Files I: Birds of Prey, Newsarama, January 24, 2007
- The Simone Files II: The All-New Atom, Newsarama, January 25, 2007
- The Simone Files III: Welcome to Tranquility,
Newsarama, January 29, 2007
- The Simone Files IV: Gen13, Newsarama, January 31, 2007
- The Simone Files V: Nicola Scott, Newsarama, February 6, 2007
- The Simone Files VI: Readers Axe The Questions,
Newsarama, February 12, 2007
- Wonder Woman Gets a New Voice, and It’s Female
, New York Times, Nomvember
27, 2007