Women in Comics Month: Kristy Valenti

PREVIEWSworld: Please introduce yourself! Tell us where you currently work and what you do in the industry.

Kristy Valenti: I'm Kristy Valenti. I'm an editor at Fantagraphics, and I've also edited (and written for) The Comics Journal (TCJ) and tcj.com.

PREVIEWSworld: How long have you been working with sequential art? What titles, companies, and creators have you worked with over your time in comics?

Kristy Valenti: I started working for Fantagraphics in 2004. Also, I wrote a column, mostly about self-published and small press comics, for comiXology, from 2007–2012.

Given that my background is in comics history, criticism, and archiving, I’ve worked with writers like Trina Robbins, Patrick Rosenkranz, Bob Levin, Marc Sobel, and Bill Schelly. Thanks to the The Love and Rockets Companion (NOV121179), I was able to help put together Volume 10 of the Love and Rockets Library, Luba and Her Family (MAY141405), by Gilbert Hernandez.

PREVIEWSworld: How did you get interested in comics? How did you find your way into working with larger companies?

Kristy Valenti: As a teenager, I was able to read newspaper strip collections, manga, slightly-left-of-center Marvel and DC graphic novels, and alternative comics all at the same time, thanks to the library. In high school, I had a rep as “that girl who likes comics,” and people would loan or give me their copies outright. In college, I decided I wanted to edit comic books, so I went through my bookcase and applied for internships at the companies that I found there.

PREVIEWSworld: What's your current project? What're you reading right now?

Kristy Valenti: I just finished working on the retrospective / comics collection / bio Pirates in the Heartland: the Mythology of S. Clay Wilson Volume 1 (APR141202), Shimura Takako’s Wandering Son Volume 7, and a one-shot comic book we’re putting out, DKW Ditko Kirby Wood (MAY141402), which is a fantasy about Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Wallace Wood.

My non “work'” reading is pretty random. I love Hot Dog Beach, by Lale Westvind, which won an Ignatz award; seems like a throwback to underground comics to me, and Westvind does a great job of conveying action. I just got it this weekend at a convention, so I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but Judge Dredd: Mega City Two (APR140385) looks really fun.

PREVIEWSworld: In your opinion, how has the comic book industry evolved in terms of gender?

Kristy Valenti: I think that manga, webcomics, pop culture fandom, the “alternative” comics movement, expansion into various genres, and getting into bookstores and libraries has highlighted how diverse comics readers are, and has helped attract new ones.

PREVIEWSworld: What stereotypes do you see surrounding women in comics? How could people of all genders go about breaking those stereotypes?

Kristy Valenti: For comiXology, I did write a piece about how differently boys and girls are socialized to read, and how that affects comics. I am particularly sensitive to color coding—some men in their thirties and older, in particular, seem really put off by colors and images they consider feminized. I think this has caused some younger men to embrace those very things.

I do notice that—not only in some comics—there will be sexism and racism and homophobia shoehorned into a movie or videogame or whatnot, presumably to appeal to a stereotypical 14-year-old boy demographic that no longer exists (or exists elsewhere). Not only is it silly, it’s throwing away money.

PREVIEWSworld: Have you noticed a trend in the type of comic books women buy? How do you want to see women represented in comic books 10 years from now?

Kristy Valenti: I think it’s dangerous to be reductive about what “women” or “men” like. It’s a pat answer, but I’d like to see “women in comics” represented by aesthetically successful, creator-owned projects; diverse, well-written and well-drawn characters; and as well-paid comics professionals, with healthcare, a retirement plan, the whole thing.

PREVIEWSworld: What do you feel the benefits are for the larger industry by having a better mix of genders at all levels of comics production? Did you have a mentor or a hero in the industry?

Kristy Valenti: Again, the pat answer is to say just hire the most qualified people (Fantagraphics has gotten bigger since I started working here, so I work with a lot more women, like our publicist Jacq Cohen, our marketing manager Jen Vaughn, and designers like Keeli McCarthy.)

Karen Berger and Diana Schutz were very influential. Chynna Clugston used to do little comics about her editor at the time, Jamie S. Rich, in the backs of Blue Mondays. It made being an editor seem like an attainable goal.

PREVIEWSworld: If you could give advice to any aspiring editors, executives, writers, or artists, what two things would you tell them?

Kristy Valenti: 1. Work on your craft, whatever that may be. 2. Be professional. Treat it like a job and treat the people you interact with professionally. 3. Read everything you can.