Janelle Asselin is an American former comic book editor and writer, known for creating the now-defunct publishing company Rosy Press. As of 2017, Asselin works as a claims adjuster and resides in Omaha, Nebraska. [1]
Asselin was born on April 10, 1983, and grew up in Malvern, Iowa, where she attended Malvern Community Junior Senior High School. She later attended Southern New Hampshire University, where she graduated in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in English, and went on to receive a master's degree in Publishing in 2011 from Pace University.
Asselin was married to a man she met while at DC Comics. [2] [3] Subsequent to their divorce, she identified herself as lesbian. [4]
Asselin has suffered from health issues such as depression and fibromyalgia. [5] [6]
Asselin began working for Newsarama as a pop culture reviewer and eventually[ specify ] moved to Fangoria Graphix , where she performed various tasks such as proofreading and designing layout. [7] After leaving Fangoria Graphix Asselin worked as a line editor and briefly returned to Newsarama before gaining employment with DC Comics in 2008. While at DC Comics Asselin worked on titles such as Batman, Batgirl , and Birds of Prey before leaving to work for Disney Publishing in 2011. [8] Asselin later stated in 2017 that she left DC due to sexual harassment from a fellow employee, Eddie Berganza, and the company's response to complaints filed by her and other female employees. [1] [9]
Asselin was laid off from Disney Publishing in 2013, after which she began investigating the possibility of creating her own publishing company, Rosy Press. [10] Asselin also worked as a senior editor part-time at ComicsAlliance. [11]
Janelle Asselin created "Hire This Woman" while writing for ComicsAlliance. "Hire This Woman" features a female comic artist or writer in order to help promote talented woman in the comic industry. "Hire This Woman" includes women that are up-and-coming newcomers along with more experienced women in the comic industry. [12] Asselin hoped by creating this feature on ComicsAlliance she would be able to help women find more jobs in the comic book industry. [12] Women featured in these articles include Marguerite Sauvage, [13] Janine Frederick, [14] and Aubrey Aiese. [15] Women interviewed by Janelle Asselin were comic book writers, artists, letterers, colorists, cartoonists, and many more careers in the industry. [16]
In 2014 Asselin published an editorial piece on comic book and pop culture website CBR, criticizing the cover artwork of the first issue of DC's The New 52 Teen Titans relaunch, specifically highlighting the artwork for Wonder Girl. [17] Asselin criticized the work for what she saw as an unrealistic portrayal of a teenage female body and that Wonder Girl's was drawn inappropriately and disproportionally. [17] After the piece was published, Asselin received multiple threats of rape and other bodily harm as well as derogatory sexual remarks questioning her professionalism and experience in the comic book industry. [18] In response to these threats as well as content that site founder Jonah Weiland described as "a negativity and nastiness that has existed on the CBR forums for too long", the site's forums were closed in favor of a new forum that he hoped would be "inclusive, diverse, accepting and compassionate". [19] [20]
Asselin launched Rosy Press with the hope that she would be able to revive the genre of romance comics. The company and its flagship anthology series, Fresh Romance, was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign. Asselin recruited several of her colleagues to work on the series, including Kate Leth, Arielle Jovellanos, and Sarah Winifred Searle. [21] The first volume of Fresh Romance was released in May 2015 as digital content and was followed up with a print release by Oni Press in 2016. [21] Prior to her announcement in 2016 that she was shuttering Rosy Press due to personal health issues and financial reasons, the Fresh Romance anthology series received nominations for a Dwayne McDuffie Diversity Award and a Harvey Award for Best Anthology. [21] [22]
In November 2016 the Fresh Romance series was picked up by Emet Comics, which also purchased Rosy Press. [21]
Mark Waid is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles The Flash, Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright as well as his work on Captain America, Fantastic Four and Daredevil for Marvel. Other comics publishers he has done work for include Fantagraphics, Event, Top Cow, Dynamite, and Archie Comics.
Girlamatic was a webcomic subscription service launched by Joey Manley and Lea Hernandez in March 2003. It was the third online magazine Manley established as part of his Modern Tales family of websites. Girlamatic was created as a place where both female artists and readers could feel comfortable and featured a diverse mix of genres. When the site launched, the most recent webcomic pages and strips were free, and the website's archives were available by subscription. The editorial role was held by Hernandez from 2003 until 2006, when it was taken over by Arcana Jayne-creator Lisa Jonté, one of the site's original artists. In 2009, Girlamatic was relaunched as a free digital magazine, this time edited by Spades-creator Diana McQueen. The archives of the webcomics that ran on Girlamatic remained freely available until the website was discontinued in 2013.
Eddie Berganza is an American comics writer and editor, known for his editorial tenure at DC Comics from the early 1990s to the late 2010s, rising at one point to the position of Executive Editor. He was demoted, then terminated in 2017, following sexual harassment allegations.
CBR, formerly Comic Book Resources, is a news website covering movies, television, anime, video games and comic book–related news and discussion. It is owned by Valnet Inc., parent of publications including Screenrant, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers.
Valerie D'Orazio is an American comic book writer and editor. She is known as a vocal advocate for women in the comics industry, and for sharing stories of her own struggles with being bullied and harassed.
Professor Pyg is a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Pyg was created by Grant Morrison, Andy Kubert, and Frank Quitely and debuted as a corpse in the alternate reality story Batman #666 before being introduced as a recurring character in the mainstream DC Universe two years later in Batman and Robin #1. Professor Pyg was re-introduced following DC's The New 52 comics relaunch in 2011, appearing throughout the continuity and the subsequent DC Rebirth relaunch that began in 2016.
Bleeding Cool is an Internet news site, focusing on comics, television, film, board games, and video games. Owned by Avatar Press, it was launched by Rich Johnston on March 27, 2009. Avatar Press also publishes an associated magazine, also called Bleeding Cool.
Charlie Spike Trotman, also known as C. Spike Trotman, is an American cartoonist and publisher known for creating the long-running web comic Templar, Arizona, and for publishing the Smut Peddler anthologies of what she describes as "lady centric porn". She is the founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics, an indie comics publisher which Forbes described as "a powerhouse of the indy landscape."
Eric Michael Esquivel is a Latino American comic book writer and journalist, known for the 2018 series Border Town, which was cancelled following allegations that he had sexually and emotionally abused a female friend.
Historically, the English-language comic-book field has been male-dominated. This has led to rampant sexism and the harassment of female fans and creators in the comics industry.
Erica Schultz is an American comic book writer, letterer, and editor. She is the first woman to write a Spawn comic, and is best known for her writing work at Marvel on titles like Daredevil, X-23, and Hallows' Eve.
Giant Days is a comedic comic book written by John Allison, with art by Max Sarin and Lissa Treiman. The series follows three young women – Esther de Groot, Susan Ptolemy and Daisy Wooton – who share a hall of residence at university. Originally created as a webcomic spin-off from his previous series Scary Go Round, and then self-published as a series of small press comics, Giant Days was subsequently picked up by Boom! Studios first as a six-issue miniseries and then as a monthly ongoing series. In 2016 Giant Days was nominated for two Eisner Awards and four Harvey Awards. In 2019, it won two Eisner awards, for Best Continuing Series and Best Humor Publication.
Joan Hilty is an American cartoonist, educator, and comic book editor. She was a Senior Editor for mainstream publisher DC Comics and currently works for Nickelodeon as Editorial Director for graphic novels, comics, and legacy properties. Hilty works independently as both a writer-artist and editor.
Joëlle Jones is an American comic book artist and writer, best known for her work on Lady Killer, a series published in 2015–2017 by Dark Horse Comics, for her cover work on various Marvel Comics series, and for her work writing and illustrating DC Comics series including Batman and Catwoman.
Irene Koh is a comics artist from Seoul, South Korea. She has previously worked with large comics publishers like Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics. She was the main artist for Turf Wars trilogy of The Legend of Korra comics.
Marguerite Sauvage is a French illustrator and scriptwriter. She has provided illustrations in press, publishing and advertising.
Comicsgate is an alt-right campaign in opposition to diversity and progressivism in the North American superhero comic book industry. Its proponents target the creators hired, the characters depicted, and the stories told, and argue that these elements have led to a decline in both quality and sales. The name is derived from Gamergate, a similar movement related to video games. Its members present it as a consumer protest, primarily advocating their views on social media; some have produced books intended to reflect the group's values. It is part of the alt-right movement, and has been described by commentators as a harassment campaign which "targets women, people of color, and LGBT folk in the comic book industry". Threats of violence and the vandalism of one store have been attributed to the campaign.
Jen Lee is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and author. Her works include Thunderpaw: In the Ashes of Fire Mountain, Vacancy,Garbage Night, and At the Edge of the Stream at Dusk.
Jody Houser is an American professional comics writer known for her work on adaptations and licensed properties. She was nominated for the Eisner Award in 2017 for her writing in the comic series Faith (2016). Additionally, she was the writer on the second volume of Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins, which became a New York Times best-seller in September 2020.
Elsa Charretier is a French comic book artist and writer. She has worked with Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics and IDW Publishing.