4. The Artist Of Rat Queens Gets Fired (For Good Reason)
Rat Queens is one of those aforementioned great strides forwards in terms of providing new, interesting and diverse female characters in a comic book landscape that's mostly dominated by either subservient, one-dimensional girlfriends or else equally shallow badasses, both of which are expected to wear ludicrously revealing outfits and contort their bodies into anatomically impossible poses on a regular basis. Compared to all of that, Rat Queens is positively progressive. An Image series about an all-female group of adventurers in a Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy world who drink, shag and murder to the point that all the males in their town are scared of them (not to mention a few of the women too), the Rat Queens are a more boorish, flawed and funny group than is used to gracing comic books. The fact that the creators are a couple of dudes isn't ideal, but it's a step in the right direction. As has been the immediate reaction to the news that co-creator and artist Roc Upchurch had been arrested for beating his wife. Writer Kurtis J Wiebe, in a refreshing zero tolerance policy, swiftly replaced Upchurch with new artist Stjepan Šeji for the foreseeable future. See? That's how you deal with unacceptable behaviour in comic books.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
