Gail Simone

Gail Simone
Born	Unknown July 29 Oregon
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Critic
Notable works	Birds of Prey Welcome to Tranquility Wonder Woman

Gail Simone is an American writer of comic books. Best known for penning DC's Birds of Prey, her other notable works include Secret Six, Welcome to Tranquility, The All-New Atom, and Deadpool. In 2007, she took over Wonder Woman. Simone has a distinctive writing style that mixes action, drama, and humor.

Biography

Early work

A former hairdresser who had studied theater in college, Simone first came to fan attention with her Web site Women in Refrigerators,^[1] listing many instances in which female comic book characters were the victims of violent attacks because of their gender (rape, miscarriage, murder) or whose attacks were used as a plot device for a male character. The site brought her into contact with many people working in the comics industry. Her popular humor column You'll All Be Sorry! appeared weekly on Comic Book Resources.^[2] Topics ranged from short, satirical summaries of comic books ("Condensed Comic Classics") to fan fiction parodies.

Simone worked for Bongo Comics, scripting many of their comics based on The Simpsons. Her contributions include stories for Simpsons Comics, an annual Treehouse of Horror special, and regular scripts for Bart Simpson Comics. Simone also penned many Sunday strips for the syndicated Simpsons comic strip.

Mainstream

Following her Simpsons work, Simone entered the comics mainstream with a run on Marvel Comics' Deadpool. When Deadpool was canceled and relaunched as Agent X, Simone continued as writer, but eventually left the series after a conflict with the series' editor.^[3] Simone did, however, return to pen the concluding arc to Agent X, some months after the series' initial cancellation.

After the dispute with Marvel, Simone moved on to DC Comics, where she was given the Birds of Prey title (beginning with issue #56) featuring the all-female group consisting of Oracle, Black Canary, The Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. Though humorous at times, Birds of Prey tends more to the serious than her Deadpool work.

Simone took over Action Comics after writer Chuck Austen, with John Byrne penciling. Simone continued her other projects, including the 2005 Villains United limited series - part of the "Infinite Crisis" crossover - in which she revitalized the Catman character. She also wrote a two-issue story arc that focused on the new Hawk & Dove for the third Teen Titans series, with Rob Liefeld penciling. While Simone maintained her usual enthusiastic stance, fandom was quick to lambast the promotional art Liefeld produced in tandem with the PR announcement.^[4] The controversy lay with Liefeld more than with Simone, a situation Simone acknowledged on the DC Comics message boards^[5] soon after the first Simone/Liefeld issue reached stores.

Simone is also the writer of a Villains United limited series spin-off, entitled Secret Six. This turned out to be popular enough that fan demand warranted an ongoing series, which started September 2008. Other work by Simone includes a run on the Superman title Action Comics, a brief stint on The Legion, a Rose and Thorn limited series at DC Comics, and a revitalization of Wildstorm's Gen¹³. For Oni Press, Simone wrote Killer Princesses with co-creator and artist Lea Hernandez, Gus Beezer specials for Marvel Comics.

Simone also wrote an Atom series, based on ideas by Grant Morrison and penciled by her Action Comics artist, John Byrne and later Mike Norton. Other work includes a Gen¹³ series and a creator-owned project about a retirement community of super-heroes, Welcome to Tranquility, for Wildstorm. Simone was also a contributor to Tori Amos's Comic Book Tattoo.

On April 12, 2007, DC announced that Simone would be the new regular writer of the third volume of Wonder Woman, first scheduled to start with issue #13 but later changed to #14.^[6][7] Simone is notable for being Wonder Woman's longest-running female writer and has often erroneously been credited as the first woman to write the character, when she was in fact preceded by Mindy Newell, Trina Robbins, and Jodi Picoult.

Other media

Simone penned the Justice League Unlimited episode "Double Date", which features Question, Huntress, Green Arrow and Black Canary in a romantic adventure tinged with revenge and jealousy. Originally, Simone wrote the episode to feature Batgirl Barbara Gordon. After Gordon is injured while working a case, Batman forbids her from continuing. She reinvents herself as Oracle and contacts Black Canary and the Huntress to finish the case. Neither heroine meets Gordon in person. Due to the Bat Embargo, Simone replaced Batgirl with Green Arrow and The Question. Simone stated that she was interested in working on the show again, having in mind a "Queen of Fables" story which she felt would look good animated.^[8]

Simone was one of the two writers of the critically praised 2009 Wonder Woman film.^[9]

In August 2007, Simone created and wrote an episode of GameTap's Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series, entitled "Pre-Teen Raider".^[10]

Bibliography

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Comics work includes:

• Villains United (with Dale Eaglesham, collects Villains United #1-6, July-December, 2005, 144 pages, January 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0838-X)^[11]

• Birds of Prey (DC Comics, August 2003 - July 2007) collected as:
  • Of Like Minds (with Ed Benes, collects Birds of Prey #56-61, 144 pages, March 2004, ISBN 1-4012-0192-X)^[12]
  • Sensei & Student (with Ed Benes, collects Birds of Prey #62-68, 168 pages, February 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0434-1)^[13]
  • Between Dark & Dawn (with Ed Benes, collects Birds of Prey #69-75, 176 pages, March 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0940-8)^[14]
  • The Battle Within (with Joe Bennett and Ed Benes, collects Birds of Prey #76-85, 240 pages, October 2006, ISBN 1-4012-1096-1)^[15]
  • Perfect Pitch (with Joe Bennett and Paulo Siqueira, collects Birds of Prey #86-90 and #92-95, 224 pages, February 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1191-7)^[16]
  • Blood and Circuits (with Nicola Scott, Paulo Siqueira and James Raiz, collects Birds of Prey #96-103, 208 pages, August 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1371-5)^[17]
  • Dead of Winter (with Nicola Scott, collects Birds of Prey #104-108, 128 pages, February 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1641-2)^[18]

• Welcome to Tranquility (with Neil Googe, Wildstorm, February 2007 - January 2008) collected as:
  • Volume 1 (collects Welcome to Tranquility #1-6, 160 pages, December 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1516-5)^[19]
  • Volume 2 (collects Welcome to Tranquility #7-12, 144 pages, May 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1773-7)^[20]

• Wonder Woman (DC Comics, January 2008 - ongoing):
  • The Circle (with Terry Dodson, collects Wonder Woman #14-19, January - June 2008, 144 pages, hardcover, November 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1932-2^[21]; trade paperback, September 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2011-2^[22])
  • Ends of the Earth (with Aaron Lopresti, collects Wonder Woman #20-25, July - December 2008, 144 pages, hardcover, March 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2136-X)^[23]
  • Rise of the Olympian (with Aaron Lopresti, collects Wonder Woman #26-33, January - August 2009, 208 pages, November 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2513-6) ^[24]
  • "Birds of Paradise" (with Aaron Lopresti, Wonder Woman #34-35, September - October 2009.)
  • "Warkiller" (with Aaron Lopresti, Wonder Woman #36-39, November 2009 - February 2010 [ongoing])

• Secret Six (with Dale Eaglesham, DC Comics, November 2008 - ongoing):
  • Six Degrees of Devastation (collects 6-issue limited series, 144 pages, March 2008, ISBN 140121231X)
  • Unhinged (collects Secret Six #1-6, 144 pages, August 2009, ISBN 1401223273

Awards

In 2007, Thomasina Lindo of Welcome to Tranquility was named Best Female Character in the Glyph Comics Awards.

Notes

References

External links

• Bloodstains on the Looking Glass Gail Simone's blog.
• You'll All Be Sorry forum at Comic Book Resources
• Gail Simone at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews

This section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

• Gail Simone Interview^[specify]
• The Simone Files I: Birds of Prey, Newsarama, January 24, 2007
• The Simone Files II: The All-New Atom, Newsarama, January 25, 2007
• The Simone Files III: Welcome to Tranquility, Newsarama, January 29, 2007
• The Simone Files IV: Gen13, Newsarama, January 31, 2007
• The Simone Files V: Nicola Scott, Newsarama, February 6, 2007
• The Simone Files VI: Readers Axe The Questions, Newsarama, February 12, 2007
• Wonder Woman Gets a New Voice, and It’s Female , New York Times, Nomvember 27, 2007