HERoes: Sarah Gaydos

We get a chance to have a no pressure 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.

sarahgaydosFrom her days at DC Comics working on Injustice: Gods Among Us and Batman Li’l Gotham then on to Powerpuff Girls, Indestructible and Star Trek, IDW editor Sarah Gaydos has been involved with hundreds of comics over the last eight years. Now we get the chance to talk to her about the impact social media has on selling a book, the unique point of view of what an editor sees and how women might need to push themselves in the comics industry.

Jessica Boyd:What is your favorite aspect of comics?

Sarah Gaydos: The experience of looking at a comic issue by issue, page by page, panel by panel…just absorbing the story through this fantastic, unique medium. There’s so many ways to tell stories, from a dense superhero morality tale, to a sparse, experimental mini comic about science or dancing or nothing at all. I truly believe there are comics out there for every single reader, and I want to read them ALL. Somehow. Ok, as many as I can.

JB: What is your favorite part of creating comics?

SG: I like using both my creative and organizational sides to help guide comics into the world. My absolute favorite part is when I can see the artist and the writer and the colorist and the letterer just all on the same page (pun intended!), everything coming together even better than expected. Oh, and having that be on time, too. Another absolute joy is to discover someone’s work and just strike up a conversation with them to see if there’s a way we could work together.

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

slg_actiongirl14SG: I’m not sure I can say as an editor that a book has had an influence on my work, but I can say that books like SLG’s Action Girl brought me into comics. It really was as simple as reading an article about alternative comics and seeing a book with “Girl” in the title and a girl on the cover. I had zero idea that there was anything outside superhero comics or say, Calvin and Hobbes. This was before the internet, so I had zero exposure.

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

SG: For me, we work 9-6 every work day, and then monitor emails over the weekend. We start our workday with a short meeting with production and all of editorial, to go over what the priorities are for the day for our production artists. Then, it is diving into the world of emails and chats and calls, and my desk full of post-it notes, which I use to keep track of hot items.

JB: Musical inspirations? Or do you need quiet to work on a story?

SG: I do need some background noise when I’m working. Especially for reading and proofing, I need either white noise or rain noise, which I get from: http://rain.simplynoise.com.

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

SG: Oh god, impossible to pick one. One of the first ones that really spoke to me was the Hernandez depiction of women in Love and Rockets. They were women in those pages that it seems like I’d know, or want to be. Insanely real, nuanced, flawed, beautiful.

powerpuffgirls8JB: What is one of your favorite story or cover you have ever been part of creating?

SG: I cannot pick among my books! That’d be like picking a favorite child!

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

SG: From an editorial standpoint, having women in senior, decision-making roles is the most important thing. Those of us in editorial are gatekeepers, and I take that very seriously.

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

SG: It has changed a ton in the past 8 or so years that I’ve been in comics. Like it or not, it plays a massive role in getting the word out about your books. A solid social media presence at the start of a series can absolutely keep a book from falling into obscurity. I also think it is important to engage the readers, and there’s nothing better than behind the scenes tidbits. The internet is also a massive artist’s alley at my fingertips, filled with great people from all over the world.

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

SG: The internet, for sure. It has allowed for the dissemination of information about women creators and stories, as well as community building on a massive scale.

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

SG: I think this applies to a lot of women in all sorts of jobs, but assertiveness training. There’s so much internalized bullshit that we’ve been taught about being polite, demure, etc. and you really have to unpack it and learn how to not let it be a limiting factor. From not speaking up in meetings, to how to negotiate, you have to just get through that fear that holds so many of us back. And I’m not saying to “Lean In,” as so much of that book is just for already privileged women, but just to take a look at how your own internalized stereotypes of how women “should” act are so harmful to not just you, but everyone in society. We need all those women voices at the table, even if it is scary to speak up at first. It really does get easier.

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

SG: Hm, a lot of words spring to mind: Fun, inspiration, humor, drama…but also professionalism and care.

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

SG: That everyone in the world can find a story that speaks to them, in the medium of comics. And maybe they might go make their own, too!

You can find Sarah on Twitter at @sarahgaydos 

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