Women in Aotearoa NZ comics - the stats. - No opinions about comics

02 Dec

02Dec

Aotearoa NZ comic anthologies/events/publishers and the number of included women comic-makers. Presented without comment. Heh:

Aotearoa New Zealand comics event/anthology	Women artists
Aotearoa New Zealand comics event/anthology	Actual	Percentage
(2012) Aotearoa: Clouds from New Zealand, Treviso Comic Book Festival	1/11	9%
(2012) Frankfurt Book Fair: New Zealand as Guest of Honour (Comics Zone)	0/4	0%
(2012) New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels, Hicksville Press	10/65	15%
(2013) Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics, St Paul Street Gallery	3/32	9%
(2013) From Earth’s End: The Best of New Zealand Comics, Random House	4/31	12%
(2014) Faction Anthology 3, Faction	2/9	22%
(2015) Hamiltron, City of the Future, grant funded	5/14	35%
(2015) High Water, Faction	2/11	18%
(2016) Three Words, Beatnik Publishing	64/64	100%
(2017) Sonic Comic, self funded	15/35	42%
(2019) ComicFest, Wellington Libraries	6/9	66%
(2019/20) The Dawn of Comic Planet, Mapura Studios includes 2 nonbinary artists	3/13 ^{all genders} 3/9 ^{female & mal}^e	23% ^{all genders} 33% ^{female & male}
(2020) Lockdown, Christchurch Art Gallery includes 1 queer artist and 1 with they/them pronouns	9/19 ^{all genders} 9/17 ^{female & male}	47% ^{all genders} 52% ^{female & male}
(2020) Pandemic, Funtime	3/22	13%
(2020) Two Sketches, the Spinoff 8 various artists, 6 comic artists, 1 queer comic artist	1/6 ^{all genders} 1/5 ^{female & male}	16% ^{all genders} 20% ^{female & male}
(2020) Trump, Mapura Studios includes 2 nonbinary artists	2/8 ^{all genders} 2/4 ^{female & male}	25% ^{all genders} 50% ^{female & male}
(2021) Bristle, Bristle Corp	3/10	30%
(2021) Comic of the Month, the Spinoff also 1 queer artist	2/6 ^{all genders} 2/5 ^{female & male}	33% ^{all genders} 40% ^{female & male}
(2022) Stay Trashy, self funded	7/12	58%

Aotearoa New Zealand comics publishers	Books by women
Aotearoa New Zealand comics publishers	Actual	Percentage
Beatnik Press	1/2	50%
Beyond Reality	0/17	0%
Earths End	0/4	0%
Square Planet Comics includes 1 book by a trans man	7/13 ^{all books} 7/12 ^{female & male}	53% ^{all books} 58% ^{female & male}
Victoria University Press	3/6	50%

A few things to note:

I am not a statistician and this analysis has not been made under lab conditions. I am happy to correct any mistakes that might be found.

I have tried to include different comic communities but am sure I have missed some. If you wanna be on the list, send me the figures and I'll include you.

I acknowledge words related to gender are complex and problematic. I have used female and male / woman and man in the obvious, traditional way. Nonbinary, queer, trans and them/they are as I found the artists referred to.

Nonbinary & queer comics need and deserve a way more in-depth analysis than I have been able to provide here.

With the on-going anthologies - Faction, Funtime and Bristle - I have used the most recent issue.

ComicFest 2021 was cancelled due to Covid hence I'm using 2019.

Stay Trashy is not strictly a comic but it includes comicy things and artists and is from the punk comics community, so I say totally legit.

The comic publishers are not necessarily dedicated comic publishers, and they are listed in alphabetical order.

I nearly included editors and organisers because these are interesting numbers, but in the end I couldn't be arsed.

I am not interested in good intention, only the current status of things as shown by the numbers. But obviously I'd encourage anyone to sort their gender shit out.

Figures up until 2013/From Earth's End originally appeared in the essay Competent Boy Comics.

NZ comics comics books feminism nerd competent boys

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