MARTHA THOMASES: Superpowers Not Superheroes

Martha Thomases

Martha Thomases brought more comics to the attention of more people than anyone else in the industry. Her work promoting The Death of Superman made an entire nation share in the tragedy of one of our most iconic American heroes. As a freelance journalist, she has been published in the Village Voice, High Times, Spy, the National Lampoon, Metropolitan Home, and more. For Marvel comics she created the series Dakota North. Martha worked as a researcher and assistant for the author Norman Mailer on several of his books, including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Executioner's Song, On Women and Their Elegance, Ancient Evenings, and Harlot's Ghost.

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2 Responses

  1. John Ostrander says:

    martha

    A thought to share. Having a character who wants to avoid conflict is fine as a starting place. You then place them in a situation where they CAN’T avoid conflict. They would still try because that’s what they do but they can’t. In story, the characters reveal themselves because of crisis. We find out who we are as opposed to who we think we are in a crisis — good, bad, indifferent. Does that help or am I telling you what you already know? (I’m really good at that!)

  2. Mindy Newell says:

    Love the column, Martha, and I’m muy simpatico!!! The graphic novel sounds absolutely wonderful!!!!!!!

    Since you mentioned BUFFY (and you know I’m a huge BUFFY geek!), you might want to take a page from Whedon’s book re: conflict. The beauty of BUFFY is that so many of the conflicts weren’t about vampires and demons and monsters–a lot of the conflicts were everyday, real-world conflicts, like Buffy hiding the secret of being a Slayer from her Mom, or Buffy’s conflicting feelings about having a younger sister (Dawn) when the character was introduced. Or Willow having to choose between Tara and Oz–for that matter, Willow having to accept that she is gay.

    Hope that helps. But it sounds like you’ve got it together, girlfriend!

    Mindy