Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Babs Tarr, Brenden Fletcher, dc, Jake Wyatt, Kevin Wada, kris anka, marvel, superheroes, wondercon, Wondercon 2015

WonderCon '15 – Bathing Suits, Tights, And Burnside Fashion In Superhero Comics With Babs Tarr, Jake Wyatt, Brenden Fletcher, Kris Anka, And Kevin Wada

Fashion In Superhero Comics With Babs Tarr (Batgirl), started a little early on Sunday morning following our Saturday nights out at WonderCon, but with everyone caffeinated, we were joined by Jake Wyatt (Ms. Marvel, Edge of Spider-Verse), Brenden Fletcher, Kris Anka (designed Storm), Kevin Wada (She-Hulk, Catwoman).

Brenden Fletcher called the con "Babscon" to applause since her artwork is on the t-shirts, con guides, and banners at the convention. Fletcher set the stage by defining fashion as being "external" in the world and "style" as being one's own approach.

Tarr said that you have to consider how clothes and costumes translate to the comic book page, even if it's realistic. Wyatt explained that not every character in comics can be "fashioned up" based on their character, like Wolverine. Fashion is an "ocean" that shifts, but each individual has "polar stars" for navigating it and that's one's style, Wyatt said. Logan's always going to be wearing jeans, just varying with the decade, Tarr agreed.

Fletcher said these folks are essentially "dressing a cast of actors on the page", and asked how they figure out where to go from their starting point. Kris Anka hasn't really designed for books he also works on himself, but he does a lot of design, which he has to do before seeing a script. He gets a description from the writer or the artist, or perhaps even the editor, months in advance. Then he takes their goal in mind, the character's history, their other costumes, and he tries to make a new costume that fits with goals, but fits with tradition. He doesn't want to create something that "sticks out like a sore thumb" unless that's the intention. Depending on how many "cooks are in the kitchen", that can take a lot of back and forth, as with Spider-Woman which took 3 months.

Wyatt recalls working with Anka and commented that Anka brought back Storm's Mohawk, to applause. Anka said he didn't expect it to be approved, but it was an out of the blue return of the Mohawk. Fletcher asked if their random doodles end up feeding back into stories, picked up by others lately. Tarr said that Fletcher did that on one of their Batgirl issues. She has a piece of "motorcycle babes" and Fletcher rewrote to include "two evil motorcycle cosplay babes", knowing she'd be more excited about it.

Wyatt once drew some "X-kids" as prep school kids rather than "paramilitary" kids and now seems to be identified as the person who gets assignments for drawing school kids, which he's happy with since he gets to draw "cute". Tarr said that Wada needed an "X-Men prom" so he can do more couture gowns and raise a flurry of attention. Likewise, he apparently needs to spend more time on Tumblr and influence others more, the panel agreed.

Tarr has a Pinterest board for each character she draws, which helps her differentiate their characteristics. Sometimes looking at fashion in comics "takes her out of the comic" and disrupts her reading because of "bad choices" she's seeing that fail to differentiate characters. She tries to make characters interesting to her so others will be interested as well. If she's bored? "Cooler outfit", she said. This particular book is "perfect for me", she said, referring to Batgirl, otherwise she might get bored. "It's important to know what people are wearing now if you're doing a modern book", she said.

Wyatt hadn't done anything like this in awhile, he said, until he was criticized by his wife for making a "boring Jubillee", and then she introduced him to Pinterest and got him researching. "How you design your incidentals is a good litmus test for your book", he said. Gerard Way asked him for "80's cyberpunk manga", which is like "doing fan art in your job, and as long as Marvel doesn't notice, it's fine". Laughter ensued.

Fletcher said we are mostly dealing with "modern stuff" with these panelists, but what if they were asked to do a period piece? Would they be interested in that?

Kris Anka doesn't want superheroes to look like "what's outside" and doesn't worry about what kinds of materials their costumes would actually be. The X-Men are wearing "tight uniforms" and if he had to do research, he'd never stop. He's search through comics just to find a particular coffee mug if someone asked him to draw coffee. He spent a huge amount of time going through every X-Men comic he had in the past, and so he doesn't want to do a period piece which would be worse for research and paranoia. He doesn't allow himself to "make stuff up" because he's "terrified someone out there will notice" so he just can't. "That's super-healthy", Wyatt joked.

Fletcher said he wonders how Tarr would handle a "Wild West" take on Batgirl, and she quickly retorted that she used to work on a Wild West video game so "bring it on".

Fletcher brought up another big topic, "Style vs. Function", which drew an "ooooo" from the audience. Tarr defended the function of Batgirl's jacket that works "because she says it does". Her jacket is bulletproof and stretchy somehow. Tarr said you have to "have a little suspended disbelief and have fun and enjoy the ride".

Fletcher asked how much the redesigns the panelists are asked to do are supposed to "pop" or blend in as relevant to the supporting cast. Anka said that characters don't have to look like they "all belong together", and he wants his costumes to be "theatrical". Nothing about Dr. Doom "makes sense", he said, "but he carries it".

Anka said that the X-Men are all fantastic characters who "need to look like they are comfortable in what they are wearing".

It can be a different system, though, Wyatt said, on different comics, since Batgirl is set in a more "realistic" world but the X-Men might "fight aliens". The level of "credibility" a costume has should "match the credibility of your book" in terms of realism. There's room in comics for "every school of design", he said, "but it has to fit the narrative". Wyatt was asked how costumes might work on page vs. screen and he said that he has been asked to design for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the costumes work totally differently between the media. Wyatt has gotten into some issues over his idiosychrasies vs. other artists on the same character, but Anka draws things "exactly" as he's told. Tarr and Wyatt both get paranoid about leaving off the right number of armor plates or accessories between scenes. Anka is definitely the hard case on all this, since even as a kid he noticed if there were differences between costumes between scenes that made him mad and he lets other artists know if there are things that are incongruous in their work.

Kevin Wada was asked if he's conscious of all these details for his covers, and he said "No" to much laughter. He said you'll see on his upcoming Catwoman covers a totally different version from what you'll see inside. He is being sent fashion references though.

Fletcher commented that the level of detail is increasing on costumes, and wondered if the panelists are considering cosplay and their affect on cosplay by doing so. Tarr said she'd definitely start with making a costume the best it can be in the comic and then leave it to cosplayers' ingenuity to figure it out. Wyatt said, "Based on the cosplayers I know, they will find a way and make that work", to laughter. "The cosplay kids can handle it", he concluded.

Fletcher asked about the impact of new comic costumes and design work into real life. Tarr called his "casual cosplay" and agreed. You could wear Batgirl's costume in part and feel like a "mini Batgirl". Wyatt has seen a lot of "casual cosplay" t-shirts and hoodies on kids.

Opening up to Q&A, an audience member said that the New 52 was not that accessible from a "feminist point of view", and she's happy with the redesigns she's seeing. They seem to be moving away from the "male gaze" a bit. She wondered what the panelists thought of Supergirl and whether she'll move away from the "bathing suit". The panelists laughed that they were all talking about this subject together in the hotel last night.

Anka and Tarr commented that it's also "how you draw it". If you draw it with "balloon boobs and strange crotch shots" it ruins it. It's partly about the figure and how she's presented, Wyatt agreed, staying away from "cheesecake poses". Tarr hopes she'll be presented as "sexy but not sexualized". Fletcher commented that he and Tarr are bringing Black Canary back to fishnets and body suits in homage to original designs moving away from other more concealing designs. Tarr says she's a "confident woman" and should wear whatever she wants. She's a "rock star", which makes sense too.

Wyatt said it's case by case. Namor is going to "walk around in a speedo because he loves himself", Wyatt said to laughter. But Scott Summers would cover it up because he "hates himself".

Tarr said in reply to a question that they all put a lot of their own style and personality into the characters, using old reference folders and organic choices. Anka asks himself, "What would it be like to be them? And what would I want to wear?" Accessories are "hints" about personalities, Tarr said, citing the use of a neckerchief for Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings when in his prior-to-Gollum state he appears "normal" but his dandy-ness suggests he's attracted to bright and shiny objects.

Fletcher asked the panelists what they are reading right now that's "fashion-relevant". All the panelists said Saga, Sovereign, manga, which has plenty of "cool, cute clothes". Tarr said that worrying costumes will become dated is not a problem since new ones will come out in time, plus, as many of the panelists agreed, they love looking back at dated costumes and find them "awesome". In the Golden Age, comics reflected fashion more, Tarr said, and the priority slipped after that. "Now we're coming back", Tarr said, to some vocal approval from the audience.

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