Rachel Hoover is a librarian and aspiring writer living in the Chicago area. She runs the blog Librarian of the Dead, where she blogs about the sorts of things you’d expect from such a title. She writes frequently about the horror genre–whether it’s books, comics, movies or games– as well as gravestone art, cementeries, and other items or topics that are dark, spine-chilling or have something interesting to say about our relationship with fear or death. Rachel is an official participant in Women in Horror Month this year, and is spotlighting women in horror comics this month.

With comics and graphic novels such a big topic in libraries right now, we wondered how you discover horror comics created by women, and Rachel offered to share her research strategies. It takes some work, but there are some interesting surprises. Until Rachel wrote about it, I had no idea Nancy A. Collins, who won the Bram Stoker Award for Sunglasses After Dark, also wrote for comics, including Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing! Want to introduce women in horror comics to both comics and horror readers? Read Rachel’s suggestions below.

On Researching Women in Horror Comics

Rachel Hoover

In honor of Women in Horror Month , an annual event put on by the Viscera Organization each February, I’ve been writing about Women in Horror Comics for a weekly series on my blog, Librarian of the Dead.

The goal of WiHM is to provide exposure, support and education about the typically underrepresented women working in the horror genre. So each Monday, I’m featuring a specific female writer or artist that works on horror comics, discussing their work, and asking them a few questions about the industry, what influences them and what advice they have for aspiring comic creators.

I came up with this project was because I couldn’t think of that many women working on horror series that I read or was aware of. It’s not always easy to stumble upon the names of all the artists, colorists, pencillers, letterers that make up one issue of a comic, one graphic novel, let alone the many people that could contribute to work on a trade paperback that collects multiple comic issues. It’s even harder when you’re only looking for women in one genre.

Since I am an actual librarian (that blog title isn’t just for fun!) I was up to the challenge. I used a couple of different strategies. No one had already created the kind of resource I was looking for, so I went with the next best thing: a list of women working in comics in general, and I found a nice long one on Wikipedia.

Part of my work was looking through lists like this and trying to either identify horror titles, or watch for publishers that I knew did horror series (Dark Horse, for example). I also worked the other way around sometimes, looking up a specific comic series or a graphic novel and checking if they had any women working for them. The main websites that I used to explore names and titles were things like Comic Book DB, Comic Vine, and  DeviantART, as well as the publisher and convention websites.

Librarians looking to stock female comic creators on their shelves should dig deep into the comics or graphic novels they already read and seek out the names of all of the writers and artists who have contributed to it. Research their careers and you’ll find new titles to check out. But be open to seeking out independent comics, there are a lot of wonderful unknown writers and artists that self-publish or work with indie publishers. They may not have easily-available trade paperbacks, and most libraries don’t stock individual issues of comics, but what about buying digital issues and loading them onto a tablet? Slap a barcode on that device and you still get circulation stats!

I would also recommend going to comic conventions and visiting with the female comic creators and artists that are there, talk to them about what they’re working on right now, what they’re reading and other women in the field who do work they enjoy. Once you start learning their names you’ll see them everywhere and realize what you and your library users were missing out on before. Maybe you can inspire them to become a fan of something they wouldn’t have picked up on their own. Maybe the girls and women in your community will even try their hand and writing or drawing their own comics when they see the possibilities. It’s a win-win: you and your library benefit, and so do the women out there already creating comics.

If you’d like to learn more about the women I’m featuring in my blog, I have a few up already. My first feature is on writer Rachel Deering and her epic werewolf comic ANATHEMA and my second is on cover artist Jenny Frison, who works on titles like HACK/SLASH, REVIVAL and ANGEL . I have two more to go, plus bonus posts of more women I discovered, but couldn’t fit in February. I’m excited and passionate about my project, because I believe these ladies are doing amazing work and deserve the exposure.

If you don’t want to miss the next features in my series you can subscribe to my blog, follow me on Twitter @rachelsstorm or keep an eye on all of the Women in Horror Month events through their website, Twitter @WiHmonth or Facebook page.