We get a chance to have a pressure free conversation about comics with female creators in the community. Their creativity is inspiring to people throughout the comic fandom who enjoy their work.

They are our HERoes.

From journalist to award winning novelist, Genevieve Valentine is now channeling her inner crime boss. She is providing a new voice to a suited up Selina Kyle, starting with this month’s issue of Catwoman. She tells Comicosity about switching the role of female characters in comics and the importance of reader perspective while consuming.

Jessica Boyd: What is your favorite aspect of comics?

Genevieve Valentine: I guess it’s an obvious one, but for me it’s the marrying of the cinematic visual and the possibilities of prose – one of them really immediate and the other one sort of sneaking up on you – so that when done well you get the maximum emotional impact.

JB: What is your favorite part of creating comics?

GV: So far, it’s been the collaborative aspect; this is my first time doing something that’s so collaborative right from the beginning, and it’s been amazing to have everyone on a team working together to brainstorm, sketch everything out, and make the story happen one step at a time.

JB: What issue or series has had the biggest influence on your work? Who is your favorite protagonist/antagonist?

GV: I’m always struck by issues that sort of gather up the pieces after a big breathless arc. The decompression is so important in a long-term series, and those issues can do so much work examining character and giving an almost behind-the-scenes feel in how they approach knowing the characters better.

My favorite protagonists have also often fulfilled the role of antagonist, which is probably not a coincidence: Rogue and Catwoman (how lucky!).

JB: What is a typical creative working day for you?

GV: Last year I quit my day job to write full time at a number of places (AV Club, Philly Weekly, and io9, among others). It’s been amazing, but it’s required a serious restructuring of time and energy, as well. Right now I tend to do nonfiction, research, and administrative things during business hours, for obvious reasons. Most of the creative stuff gets done at terrible times of the night, fueled by deadlines and tea.

JB: Musical inspirations? Or do you need quiet to create?

GV: Both, depending! Occasionally I’ll be caught up in momentum and forget to turn any music on at all, but in general I’m that person who puts a song on repeat and, when the song has begun to sound like the deepest screeches of an oncoming hell, realizes it’s time for a break.

JB: What is your favorite representation of women in comics (floppies, webcomics, any medium?)

GV: On the bylines.

JB: What is one of your favorite story or cover you have ever been part of creating?

GV: I think it’s going to be hard to top the cover for my very first issue. Firstly, because I’ll always have a special attachment to it, because pretty much nothing is cooler than seeing the final version of your first-ever comic book cover. But also because the image is so striking: she’s in the tux I chose for her non-Catwoman “uniform” and continue to love to pieces for how powerful it makes her look, she’s staring you down, and she looks slightly dangerous. Sold.

JB: What do you think is the biggest impact of female voices in the creation process?

GV: I think the biggest shift has been one from women as objects to women as subjects; they’re the psychological center of their stories, or they’re minor characters who aren’t victimized simply to prove the situation is serious, or they’re treated with respect in the text. The more of those there are in comics, the better the stories will be for everyone.

JB: What role do you think social media plays in comics or the comics industry? How has that changed since you began?

GV: I began so recently I’m not sure I can speak to change, but I’d say just in general the impact of social media has been incalculable. You can follow artists on Instagram, writers on Twitter, read editors’ blogs, and take Vines of actor jokes at Comic-Con panels. It’s made the process more transparent, and given readers and creators more opportunities to connect.

JB: What do you feel is the biggest impact of the growing number of female fans or the acknowledgement of female fans in comics?

GV: Well, we’re getting to be a powerful group both in terms of buying power and in the ways we want to be regarded within the industry, which I think is important to keep up so that the people in charge begin to recognize women as an audience and not just a nuisance, which it can feel like sometimes when you hear, for example, movie studios expressing surprise that a woman-led movie has done well, and then pretending a string of them is a fluke and not an opportunity.

JB: What is some advice you wish someone had given you before you began working in the comic medium?

GV: There’s an art to teasing things and keeping readers clued in on new developments without becoming either impossibly coy or dangerously quiet; I do not have any idea how to do this yet, and I hope to learn as I go.

JB: What message(s) do you hope people get when experiencing your work?

GV: I’m not sure anyone can determine a particular thing people should take away from their stuff; every reader brings different experiences that will change what the story – any story – means to them. What I was interested in exploring, though, was the fact that for someone as staunchly independent as Catwoman, to be in the position where she’s head of a crime syndicate is more power than she’s ever dreamed of, but comes with more dirty-work responsibilities than her morality may allow.

It was definitely important to me that she be perfectly capable of leading – which I do think you see – and that the question is one of how far she’s willing to go to keep this power, rather than some lack of leadership skills. Her identity issues are only heightened by the fact that when she looks into the night sky and longs for Catwoman again, there’s already a Catwoman looking back at her. That means a whole host of other complications, from someone whose experience with Catwoman is very different; there’s no clean way out of something like that, which is another thing I hope to explore.

JB: When it comes to comics, “all I want or dream is …”

GV: Great stories that come from unusual perspectives, stories with the breathing spaces I love so much, feminism as a given rather than a battlefield, greater inclusion of POC both on the page and behind the scenes, and enough time to read them all.

You can learn more about Genevieve Valentine and her work by visiting:

www.genevievevalentine.com

Catwoman #35 comes out October 22, 2014