The extraordinary thing about comic books and graphic novels is that they cannot exist without the art. If my words disappeared tomorrow, well, whatever. This is a visual medium in which the eye and the mind work together to bear witness to story, to lives.

Marjorie M. Liu

Categorized in : Art Book Eye

All of us change. Everyone in this world, from birth to death, becomes someone new. Again and again, we are remade.

Marjorie M. Liu

birth this-world world

Miracles pass and I see. Great wonders speak and I listen.

Marjorie M. Liu

miracle speak wonder

Expect the unexpected, my mother once said. Because the unexpected most certainly will be expecting you.

Marjorie M. Liu

expecting unexpected mother

I've been going to San Diego's Comic-Con every year since 2007 or 2008. The first time I went it was an overwhelming experience because I wasn't expecting all the people; I wasn't even expecting all the joy. I came from a background where, when I was about eighteen or nineteen, I found comic-book fandom. But it was the fandom of online communities. And within those communities there was a tremendous amount of excitement and joy, but I'd never been around people in such a large group setting where this joy was pouring out of them. It was a revelation.

Marjorie M. Liu

community joy people

I am vulnerable, starved for kindness. And when I receive it, I lose my mind.

Marjorie M. Liu

vulnerable mind kindness

Being alone was easier. No risk, just loneliness. No one ever died from that.

Marjorie M. Liu

easier risk loneliness

Moscow was, as some said, the most beautiful mistress a man could ever want, but never cross her: like any good woman, she might just cut off your balls for the hell of it.

Marjorie M. Liu

cutting beautiful men

The important thing about doing art and writing is that we are using our voices and using them really, really loudly. And to any girls or young women who want to write comics, I tell them, "You have to use your voice. You have to take up space." We have to fight to be heard. No one else is going to fight for us.

Marjorie M. Liu

girl writing art

Religion was no cure for dysfunction.

Marjorie M. Liu

cures dysfunction

I listened to the wind bury winter; and when I tasted his grace, his grace had no name; only, night became something else in his presence, as though darkness had a soul, here, swaying to heartbeats roaring.

Marjorie M. Liu

winter wind night

How's his appendix?""Like crap. They almost didn't catch it in time, and he's still doing the ass-plant in a hospital bed, beingdoted on by an army of hot nurses. Makes me sick.""Maybeyou should rupture something.""Any more of these stories out of you and I just might.

Marjorie M. Liu

army sick nurse

I have a great deal of hope. I think that change is here, it's happening. But I know that if we think it's just going to happen on its own, that's not the way it works. We need people to keep talking about women of color writing comics and living the charge. Not just talking but doing. Making art, putting it out there.

Marjorie M. Liu

writing art thinking

He was a hot, hot former priest and she wanted to pull a Thorn Birds on his ass.

Marjorie M. Liu

ass hot bird

I've got a black-belt in crazy, and I know where you live.

Marjorie M. Liu

where-you-live black crazy

I believe that the mainstream publishers, DC and Marvel, need to catch up as well. Out of the fifty-odd books that are published each month, just a handful are written by women, and even less of those are written by women of color. It's not right, and it's not good for the companies in the long-term. It's also not good for fans, for readers.

Marjorie M. Liu

i-believe believe book

When I first started out in comics they would put me on these Women of Marvel panels, and these young women would come up to me and say, "I really want to write comics but I don't know if I can because I'm told that it's just for guys." I would say, "That's bullshit. That's absolute bullshit. Look at me!" But the one area where we still need to work on is that we need more women of color. That's not common thing yet.

Marjorie M. Liu

bullshit guy writing

I've seen a tremendous shift especially in indie comics. I see all these young women who are out there creating. They're making these great web comics. Their graphic novels are getting published. They're making all this wonderful art. They're powerful. There's this vital energy about it that's really, really beautiful that years ago I knew existed but I didn't see so clearly.

Marjorie M. Liu

powerful beautiful art

In real life, I knew that fandom was made up of women, and women of color, and women of all ages. But on the publishing side of comics, it was a lot of white, straight men. It was often jarring to me to be the only women at a meeting or at a panel at a comic-con. Fortunately I had mentors who were not blinded by my gender and who said, "Yes, we know you can write these books." That hasn't been the case for everyone. What gives me great hope is that in the eight to nine years since I've started, I've seen tremendous growth.

Marjorie M. Liu

real writing book

I started out writing romance novels, and that's a side of publishing that's very female oriented. 99.9% of the writers are women, most of the editors are women, and these are books written for the female gaze. And so my point of view - the way I looked at fandom and publishing and writing - was all about women. So for me that's what was natural, that's what was comfortable. And then I moved over to comics. And all of a sudden it was... Pardon the expression, it was a sausage fest.

Marjorie M. Liu

romance writing book

Nice characters are boring! I like writing upbeat characters - that's my natural tendency.

Marjorie M. Liu

nice writing character