Abstract
Since 1990, creators and readers of U.S. comic books have become more diverse as women and
people of color take an increasingly active role in the industry. These changes have been
supported and facilitated by independent websites, which make the work of independent comic
creators available, bypassing corporate publishers and retailers, and which operate as
independent fora for the reporting and review of comic book culture. One of these, a resistant
webzine entitled Sequential Tart, has created a space for women readers, and has worked to
change industry perceptions of women as both readers and creators of comics. Founded in 1998
and now entering it's tenth year, the webzine has always depended on substantial voluntary labor
from its staff. Tart's longevity can be in part attributed to characteristics of the fan culture from
which it sprang, in part to the structure of the community deliberately created by participants, but
the webzine's survival has also been enabled by the way participation has been designed into the
user interfaces for both contributors and readers which facilitate and leverage heterogenous
participation.
Though in the early days of Internet research many scholars posited the web as both a tool and a
locale that would allow disenfranchised groups to form stronger communities and speak with
stronger voices (Turkle, 1995; Jenkins 2001), this utopian view has given way to a more complex
understanding. In the late 90's more attention was focused on groups that were marginal in terms
or race, gender, or sexual orientation (Bell), and subsequent work suggests that attention should
be focused not just on discourse and human behavior, but also on technical design (Bruns 2008,
Schaefer 2009). Most recently, Schaefer has convincingly argued for considering participation as
a dispositif that includes both human actors and technical elements as well, in order to better
understand the complex relations between them. He writes of cases in which companies leverage
unpaid user participation for their own profit and he further offers the useful concept of
"heterogenous participation" for examining individual cases. I employ this concept to explore the
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webzine, Sequential Tart, which is devoted to comic books and popular culture and published
through volunteer labor by fans. These users, bent on resisting a dominant corporate discourse,
have designed their own platform to leverage their own unpaid labor in order to sustain
participation (Scholz 2007). In doing this they took into account the heterogenous nature of
participation enacted by the members of their own group, each of whom has different skills to
offer, and differing amounts of time available. Further, the comic book industry has always been
far more entangled in fan culture than other culture industries and these historical connections
carry over into online fan activities, comic book creators' use of the web, and in the way larger
producers of comic books and related items (fan magazines, action figures, costumes and of
course films) try to sell their products via the internet. Thus we also see an example of
Schaefer's "extended culture industry" which rather than growing out of Web 2.0 applications has
been an innate feature of comic books at least since their golden age in the 1940s.
However, the members of Sequential Tart, did not set out to resist or alter corporate structures on
principle. Rather, they aimed to overturn gender stereotypes of women characters in and readers
of comic books and to provide a different perspective on comic books that better represented the
views of women readers. In order to create a space for this alternate discourse they created a
webzine, and email list for contributors, and a bulletin board system for readers. In all of these
activities they essentially re-imagined the identities of both female fans and characters. Because
comic book publishers and companies producing related merchandise were reinforcing gender
stereotypes, they were the natural targets when explicit targets were used, but in fact merely by
refusing the dominant discourse and creating their own, the Tarts also implicitly resist corporate
discourse as well.
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The Internet has often served to provide a space in which members of a marginal group might
resist stereotypes and (re)construct their identities without being constrained by the dominant
culture (Nakamura 2002, Bell 2001, Turkle 1995). This identity work is shaped not just by the
already existing structures participants seek to escape or subvert, or by the dynamics of online
communities, groups and networks, but also by the technology itself. Though a wide range of
online groups have been studied in terms of their social structure, discursive behavior, or
political activity, comparatively little attention has been paid to how technology itself interacts
with the structure of an online community and channels participant behavior in certain directions
rather than others. In cases where this dynamic has been explored, the focus has been almost
exclusively on how corporations have tried to channel the behavior of individual users (Bruns
2008, Schaefer 2009). Looking at the way Sequential Tart is designing for participation can
reveal to what extent users can leverage their own participation and even channel the behavior of
corporations in response to their resistant activities. Further, this research examines the way
2008) . Tart has defined itself as stated below in an epigraph that appears at the top of every
issue, and which makes clear their resistant position and their own recognition of differences
among participants:
sequential tart (si-kwen'shel tart) n. -- 1. a Web Zine about the comics industry
exclusive interviews, in-depth articles and news, while working towards raising
the awareness of women's influence in the comics industry and other realms.1
1 Also a pun on the description of comic books as 'sequential art' and on 'tart' as a
derogatory term for women who are too forward
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(www.sequentialtart.com)
In fact, the topics covered are now far broader than comic books, including film, television,
music, books, events, and a variety of cultural phenomena ranging from Olympic scandals to a
grandmother's feelings about her first computer. But, to understand participation in this webzine,
Comic book culture has long been recognized as the province of fanboys, who almost by
definition are hostile towards women (Jenkins 2001) and their domination of an already marginal
social group (comic book fans) has become ever more vexing to women as their position with
regard to gender equality improved in other areas. Faced with a stubborn adherence to gender
stereotypes, many women disengage from comic book culture, but the founders of Tart chose
instead to create an alternate space in which other voices could be heard. Feminist scholar Teresa
I believe that to envision gender (men and women) otherwise, and to (re)construct it in terms
other than those dictated by the patriarchal contract, we must walk out of the male-centered
frame of reference in which gender and sexuality are (re)produced by the discourse of male
sexuality...(de Lauretis, 1987, 17).
Sequential Tart was founded in 1997 by a group of women who all belonged to another comic
book-centered email list who "didn't like their [Wizard magazine's] extremely limited coverage of
the [comic book] medium" and how "we just couldn't find a magazine about comics that we liked
to read, one that talked about the kinds of comics we were reading, in the way we wanted to see
them discussed" (Keller, 2002). These women agreed that stereotypes about the comic books
women were or ought to be reading largely accounted for this lack; the male-dominated industry
assumed women preferred cute and fluffy comics, while at the same time some voices railed
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against violence and sexual content, which was largely blamed on male tastes and industry
catering to their perceived primary consumers (Simone 2008). From the start, Sequential Tart
criticized not only the industry, but anyone, including women, who tried to pigeonhole the
female comic-book readership. According to founding member Katherine Keller, they were:
sick and tired of being told (as it were) what kind of comics women liked or
would/should like. We weren't reading a damn one of them. We were sick of hearing
about SIP and Bone. Fuck that. We were reading Preacher, and Hellblazer, and
Invisibles, and Starman, and we knew a lot of other women who were reading (and
loving) the same comics. We liked violence, blood and gore. We didn't like "nice"
The embryonic Tarts recognized that merely rejecting a male dominated genre was not the
answer, as this would not provide the perspective the sought but would merely deprive women of
the enjoyment many experienced through comic books while also confirming that most comic
books were read only by men. Film theorist Rey Chow has commented on the effect of
constructively critiquing visual media rather than merely rejecting the it, and she has argued that
because the idea 'image-as-feminized-space,' breaks down when we acknowledge that women
enjoy 'stereotypical' and male-defined images as well, we must shift our focus from the 'moment
of production to the moment of reception' (Chow, 1991). Because in the comic book industry
male domination is often paralleled by corporate domination, we can also shift theoretical
frames, and say that as the founders of Sequential Tart were resisting male domination, they were
at the same time resisting "overflow" from big comics publishers and the surrounding media
convergence of magazines, tv shows, websites and movie tie-ins, and at the same time using
these materials to create their new space (Jenkins, 2001, 2006; Brooker, 2001). Whichever frame
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is applied, from the first participants in Sequential Tart exhibited a passionate commitment to
changing perceptions of women comic book characters and creators through publication of
commentaries, reviews and interviews. In generating this original material while engaging with
corporate artifacts, the Tarts represent a clear example of convergence, in which corporate
producers use every possible medium to attract and hold an audience, while members of the
audience appropriate material from all kinds of sources and media to create new content (Jenkins
2001). Sequential Tart represents a pioneering effort in the latter category that continues to this
day in its work to reclaim popular media by reinterpreting it and re-inscribing its meaning to suit
their own interests and ends, rather than those of corporate producers.
Firm resistance is required of any fan who disagrees with the practices of major comic book
publishers.2 In the comic book industry, some of the most aggressive marketing strategies can be
observed, particularly now that so many film adaptations of superhero comics have been
produced. Will Brooker further elaborated the dynamics of fan responses to convergence in his
discussion of 'overflow,' the process through which a media corporation tries to control fan
experiences of product that primarily exists in one medium, by flooding other media with
associated content. For example, in conjunction with the broadcast of a new Doctor Who Series
in 2005, the BBC launched extensive webpages associated with the series, along with novels
based on the show, guides to monsters of the show, action figures, and so forth. By flooding all
media channels with corporate products, the BBC hopes to cash in on any possible interest fans
might have in buying products related to a program they enjoy. More importantly, they may
preclude fan production of competing products and interpretations. This strategy is especially
2 The two largest US comic book publishers are DC and Marvel; the former is a subsidiary of Time-Warner while
the latter is a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, self-described as a "mini-Disney." (Raviv 2002)
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evident in the way fans are invited on the website to vote for favorite episodes or characters,
suggest new monsters and otherwise participate. Not incidentally, fans of the show at the same
time provide demographic information and useful feedback to the shows producers. In comics,
this kind of strategy has often been enacted based on very narrow assumptions about the gender
of readers or what might interest women readers3. So in fact, women feel excluded even from
this corporately controlled manner of participation. When women encounter overflow in the
comic book industry, the ways in which it does not suit them are usually blatant, often offensive,
and may lead to open rebellion, as in the case of Sequential Tart. As will be discussed, the
activities that have been spawned in this rebellion place Tart's user activities mainly within the
categories of accumulation and construction, and later technical developments allow an element
However, Sequential Tart did not begin in order to explicitly resist media overflow and they did
not merely reject the way women were represented. Instead they focused on the responses of
women readers and opened a dialogue in which problematic representations of women could be
discussed without denying or outlawing the enjoyment women take in comic books. Thus rather
than rejecting comic books themselves, they reclaim and redefine the medium. In addition to
creating their own space apart from, yet intersecting the world of 'fanboys,' the Tarts also
promote women taking control of the way others respond to and interpret real women as icons or
objects.
Or as founding Tart Katherine Keller succinctly put it, 'instead of just bitching and pissing about
3 A recent example would be some of the merchandise produced for the last Spiderman movie, including one
statue of a scantily clad Mary Jane washing Peter Parker's spider suit by hand.
http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=68181#
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how much we were dissatisfied with the current state of comics journalism we decided, WTF,
let's do something.' But tackling this reclamation is easier said that done, and plenty of groups
and websites devoted to empowering a subaltern group have come and gone over the years, as
have numerous magazines and websites devoted to comic book culture. Sequential Tart's unusual
longevity was recognized as early as 2001 at the San Diego ComicCon, at which the Tarts were
invited to present a panel on how they had survived for 4 years already—at that time an eternity
This history may suggest that from the start, members have been unified in their motivations and
in their goals, but this is far from true. Among the core of the staff, most resent gender (and
other) stereotyping in comic books, but many of them still love superhero comics which have
often been the worst in this way. Some want to make sure women and other under-represented
groups are more able to participate in the industry itself as creators, editors, journalists and what
have you. A few of the more casual participants have these goals and motives as well, but many
simply wanted a space where they can voice opinions that had previously been ignored because
they did not match what the industry wanted to project or the sexist opinions typical in the wider
comic book fan culture. The most unifying motivation and goal are a love of the comic book
medium and a desire to promote greater appreciation of comic books in mainstream culture.
Tart's continued survival and growth in the face of continued gender stereotyping, increasing
efforts of media conglomerates to cash in on comics, and the varying goals members hold and
levels of participation they can offer depends on Sequential Tart's roots in both fan culture and
feminist practice, how Tart manages its relationship to the 'real' world, and how it has designed
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participation into the platform on which the webzine is published. Examining in more detail the
kinds of activities carried out by the Tarts, and the way they have designed their publishing
platform, further suggests that groups like Sequential Tart may endure not in spite of
heterogenous participation from users and an ambiguous relation with the industry, but because
of them.
As the magazine developed, the Tarts have made several choices that distinguish their
community from other similar sites. Most of these choices boil down to emphasizing
accessibility (for writers and readers) both in "policy" and in technical design. Along with their
determination to combat gender stereotypes, an important and explicit goal for all Tarts is
encouraging other people to read and enjoy comic books, and promoting this agenda is behind
most policy decisions. For example, from the beginning Sequential Tart portrayed itself as
professional site, including a masthead listing credits and contact information for the staff and all
writers. In addition to making individual contacts easy, the Tarts invite readers to participate by
providing a link in every article for readers to click if the reader wishes to respond, or if they
wish to open a new thread in the associated bulletin board system (BBS), Tartsville. Those who
choose to respond directly to the article are then asked if they would like their response printed
in the next issue. Not only does Sequential Tart print every response in the "Going Postal"
section, but authors of of the article in question always write back. Readers may even be invited
to write an article themselves after this kind of interchange. In this way readers may make a very
small and easy contribution and are assured a response that often then prompts further
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participation.
Along with encouraging participation, this willingness to hear and respond to all voices gives
Tart the credibility to make quite pointed critiques of both the comic book industry and of
individual creators. Consider Figure 1, which pokes fun at the hyper-developed breasts women
now sport in many mainstream comics. In this illustration the realistic proportions of Wonder
Woman4 are contrasted with the oddly proportioned figures in the center,5 which also appear in a
real comic book. A future heroine is following this line of evolution has been supplied by the
article's author, Lisa Jonté. It is humorous, but also makes a real argument about the illusionary,
or perhaps delusionary proportions many artists assign to female characters. Jonté frames her
critique as the findings of a committee charged with studying the mutagenic effects of
environmental disaster on super heroines. The dry humor of her report is capped by the stinging
While some heroine's breasts are merely abnormally large, some are so distorted
that they appear to have become separate entities from their host bodies, with an
all-round cleavage that suggests that said breasts are in fact completely
breasts as they broke free of their minimal restraint and wafted gently
heavenward. After several moments of frustrated calling, (in which the breasts did
not return) the owner, one Vengeancia, was forced into pursuit of the truant ta-tas
Note that in the footnotes mentioning 'Vengeancia,' Jonté, herself a professional illustrator, takes
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aim at Scott Clark, creator of 'Avengelyne,' for being so poor an artist. Rather than commenting
directly on the inherent sexism of Clark's illustration, Jonté makes the argument that the
proportions he represents are not only unreal, but can only be the product of an environmental
disaster, which makes the world of his comic series dystopian in a way Clark probably didn't
intend. Thus we see an example of how Sequential Tart revises the response to representation of
women in comic books. Establishing credibility and maintaining authority are important
activities in fan culture, but as will be addressed later, they also lead to a visible influence on
Identity Correction
Tactical Media are what happens when the cheap ‘do it yourself’ media, made possible by
the revolution in consumer electronics and expanded forms of distribution (from public
access cable to the internet) are exploited by groups and individuals who feel aggrieved
by or excluded from the wider culture. Tactical media do not just report events, as they
are never impartial they always participate and it is this that more than anything separates
By definition, Sequential Tart is a tactical media group, and like others, they practice "identity
correction," changing the public performance and reception of established and well known
identities, such as those of large corporations. Some tactical media groups like the Yes Men are
famed for their hijacking of corporate identities and performing outrageous stunts in that guise.
However, members of the Tart staff practice another kind of correction in the way they represent
their own identities. Rather than co-opting an existing identity or creating and presenting new
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identities, the Tarts rewrite the interpretations made of their own original identities. The staff
biographies allow the Tarts to transform their real selves into superheroines, lest readers have any
doubt. These actions are supported by technology; the webzine's extranet has an easy user
interface for creating these revised identities, which then are automatically linked from the
masthead. Transforming interpretations rather than identities allows the Sequential Tart
community to change perceptions through exemplary and often humorous behavior. Though not
as highly publicized, these corrections have helped to empower individual Tarts to become more
Sometimes however the critique is more serious and direct than identity correction; In the
excerpt below, Rebecca Salek makes her criticism explicit when she comments on Wizard
Magazine's list of ten greatest comic book heroines, arguing against their interpretation of what
But — why only mainstream characters? Why only spandex-or kevlar-clad super
heroines? Why only current characters? And why are they all white (with the
***
There are other kinds of heroines besides super heroines. Police officers, for
instance. Comic books are filled with strong female police detectives — not to
Elves. Goddesses. Angsty teenagers. And ordinary women who struggle through
In the above passages Salek addresses the basic and obvious problem of racial exclusion, but
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perhaps more importantly, she points out a lack that may not be so obvious to casual comic book
readers, and that is the poverty of storylines built around women. By focusing only on busty
white super heroines, Wizard sends the message that no other women are at all interesting. In
fact, by this measure, no real women are interesting or worth our admiration. By this standard,
nothing that real women might actually do deserves to be chronicled; strong admirable women
exist only in fantasies. Salek goes on to consider how this contemporary Top 10 List does not
even reflect the minimal progress made by the mainstream comic book publishers in representing
There are other heroines besides white heroines, even at the mainstream
publishing houses; the presence of Cassandra Cain on the list attests to that fact.
The answer seems to be an unfortunate yes. Historically, the protagonists were all
white men, while white women filled the role of sidekick/Girl Friday/ girlfriend-
in-peril. The industry was slow to respond to the critiques of the Civil Rights and
[And now] Nine over-bosomed super powered white women, and one Asian
teenager.
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***
So, I'll end the article this way, instead. I want you all to do something for me.
Everyone who reads this article — draw up your own list. Send it in to Tart. Send
it to Wizard. Send it to every comic or pop culture or art list to which you
subscribe. Share it with all your friends. Get a conversation going. Talk about
these characters, these women — what you like about them, what you admire,
why they are important to you. The more conversation, the more debate, the
better. The louder the conversation, the more attention it will attract, and The
Powers That Be will take notice. They'll notice just how important these
characters are to us — and treat them with more respect and dignity. Give
languishing characters a second chance. Maybe even invent a few new role
This article was published on 1 April, 2002. By 10 April, 68 responses had been posted on the
Tartsville BBS offering a wide array of admired heroines, and sharing what individual posters
liked most about them. This public BBS serves to strengthen the community around Sequential
Tart by helping readers to connect with each other and with the Tarts themselves. Further, the
BBS is another way to recruit new writers for the webzine and to communicate the feelings of
the Tarts and there readers into the larger comic book industry. The line between the Tarts, their
readers, and members of the industry is often quite blurry, and interactions among them are
generally characterized by a far friendlier tone than is typical between users and corporate
producers.
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In creating such an atmosphere the Tarts give power to others just as they want power given to
them, and in doing so, create a community that is far more attractive to other fans than those
communities based on competition over who has been there longest, or is most knowledgeable in
comic book trivia, or what have you. In other words, alternate viewpoints and identities are
Lunenfeld, which he proposes as a way to understand digital cultures: "the communal sensibility
that develops as individuals struggle to form groups with others with whom they share a deep
culture" (8). Lunenfeld argues that digital culture generally has been characterized by a gift
economy in which prestige is the most valued commodity; prestige is acquired through the
websites , lists, and other forms of community services are provided through the volunteer work
of members, and money rarely enters the equation (7). Sequential Tart fits the definition in so far
as all the Tarts volunteer their time and expertise, whether they are writing, doing illustrations
and graphics, programming, or administration. But as Lunenfeld points out, any community can
attitude in some online communities. In this scenario, members often perform their prestige
inexperienced, apparently having to defend their status constantly. Because the Tarts wanted
their own heterogenous views, motivations, and contributions to be recognized, acceptance and
even encouragement of heterogeneity shaped both social and technical practices and is now
deeply embedded in both the community and the online platform. This in turn attracts more
participants.
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In the Sequential Tart community, each member does not have to maintain her own prestige,
rather the community offers positive reinforcement for all its members, based on appreciation for
good writing, editing, drawing, and programming, but also on behaving in a reliable, courteous,
and supportive way. Because the boundaries of this community are so fluid, the practices of the
community mayn expand into the larger comic book culture. Perhaps more importantly when it
comes to catching corporate attention, because Sequential Tart is know to be a safe zone for
participants, comic book creators are very willing to be interviewed and to contribute original art,
which substantially increases Tart's authority in the eyes of fans and comic book publishers alike.
So, while Sequential Tart was not founded to explicitly resist a hegemonic industry, it has
facilitated resistance by creating a space in which other views are welcomed and given voice,
and allowing the views to be heard outside that space. In creating this space and strengthening
these voices, the Tarts act to subvert the dominant narrative of the comic book industry. In
Writing a Woman's Life, Carolyn Heilbrun defines women's writing as subversive whenever they
privilege it over interactions with men (44). More broadly, we can define the writing of any
group as subversive when members privilege their own words and stories over that of the
dominant group. So whether that Tarts are writing against a corporate worldview or not, they are
choosing to privilege their own responses to comic books and culture generally, over any
stereotypical views that others might try to assign. Because it has lasted so long and has been
growing steadily, Tart has caught the attention of the mainstream comic book industry itself and
has demonstrated to publishers focused on the bottom line that other readers beyond young white
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The Growing Influence of Sharp-Tongued Women
Evidence of this growing influence can be seen in the reprinting of reviews and interviews from
Sequential Tart on the websites of comic book publishers and creators. For example, the Elfquest
website posted a two-part interview with well-known creators Wendy and Richard Pini originally
published in Sequential Tart. Elfquest is a venerable comic that has been around since 1977,
perhaps the first series to really take off independently of comic book publishing giants DC and
Marvel. The Elfquest website has now reprinted the interview; allowing a lengthy interview by
Tart Dani Fletcher and then posting it on their own website illustrates the high regard Sequential
Tart now enjoys. Dani's interview with the Pinis also demonstrates another reason creators are so
cooperative with and supportive of Sequential Tart; when Tart assigns an interview, they send
someone who knows the comic, and they solicit questions from anyone else on the staff who has
an interest, so that unlike the elementary and dull questions that typify interviews in popular
magazines, creators enjoy a conversation with interviewers who are already familiar with their
work and often with other interviews they have given. The positive response of individual
Many publishers displayed their respect for and trust of Sequential Tart during MegaCon 2002
(A national comic book convention in the southern US). For the first time, Sequential Tart
experimented with running a booth, and focused their efforts (as always) on outreach. The Tart
staff gathered and compiled nineteen recommended reading lists divided by genre, each with
about 5 titles listed with a brief description and a 'if you like X, try Y' tagline. When they
contacted the creators of the series to let them know they had been selected, the response was
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was gratifying; many creators and publishers contributed comic books and graphic novels to be
given out as free samples. Editor Lee Atcheson reported afterward that:
Paradise), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), and Alex Robinson (Box Office Poison) and
(Meridian), CPM Manga (Aquarium, Dark Angel), Oni Press (Whiteout, Hopeless
Savages) and Fantagraphics (The Evil Eye, Safe Area Gorazde) were just a few of the
many people and publishers who contributed comics to our booth (Atcheson, Sequential
An even greater show of support was enjoyed at the 2003 San Diego ComicCon (an international
comic book and pop culture convention) when to celebrate its five year anniversary, Sequential
Tart ran an even more elaborate booth than at MegaCon. In addition to publishers donating many
comics and graphic novels, many comic book creators volunteered their time for signings and
their autographed works for a free raffle. The booth also received rave reviews from members of
the BBS community, who relished the chance to meet the Tarts in person.
The positive response from publishers is not so surprising; Sequential Tart provided them with
some great free publicity as well as valuable stamp of approval. This kind of exchange takes
place less explicitly as well in the steady stream of free items (including comic books, dvds, free
movie tickets, press passes, and so on) sent to staff members in the hopes of garnering a good
review, and article, or an interview. This might create a conflict of interest, except that since
most of this material is entirely unsolicited, the staff feels no obligations to respond unless they
really enjoy the material, or unless they find it so egregious that a response is required.
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Since 2003, when Tart gained higher visibility, several staff members have moved into paid
editorial positions with other comics magazines, or have been hired comic publishers (as
creators). Further, one founder, Katherine Keller, was invited to sit on the panel judging
nominees for the Eisner Awards, the highest given in the comics industry. Thus we see that the
Tarts have moved beyond “poaching” from comic publishers and big media to sometimes taking
official roles in those industries, and in any case changing the industry perception of women.
They have helped the industry entertain the notion that audiences beyond the youthful male, and
creators beyond the generally white male, deserve attention and more importantly, respect.
The interdependent relationship that has evolved between Sequential Tart and the industry differs
markedly from the often adversarial dynamic seen in the music or film industry. Two factors
explain this: the Tarts never infringe on copyright and they quite clearly are always trying to
promote comic books as a medium, a goal they have in common with any comic book publisher
or creator.
Unlike many other forms of entertainment or publishing, the comic book industry has always
been characterized by highly permeable borders between fans, creators and publishers; a do-it-
yourself approach; and a complicated, ambivalent relationship with copyright laws. Since the
1950s at least, fans of and participants in this industry have long been grappling with issues
often assumed to have been made prominent by the expansion of the web.
Comic book creators have never needed institutional credentials to get started. Even
the major American publishers, Marvel and DC, still find new talent by trawling conventions
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and now websites for talented writers, illustrators, inkers, etc. Because fans become creators
with relative ease, they feel a far greater sense of ownership over the media and tend to be
more active in related organizations or communities. At the same time, because comic book
publishers have a long record of abusing the rights of individual creators, and comic book
history has been peppered by many bitter and highly publicized lawsuits, both fans and creators
are far more aware of intellectual property issues. In fact, legal disputes over rights are such a
problem for individual writers and artists that many well known creators and publications,
including Sequential Tart, have commented publicly on the problem in an effort to educate
others and prevent novice creators from losing control of their characters and series.6
But even though an adversarial relationship exists between publishers and creators, because
many members of the industry started as fans or creators or both, they share many unspoken
but shared beliefs. Chief among these is the sense that comic books occupy a permanently
precarious position in American culture. Ever since the creation of the comics code in 195? in
order to protect children whom is was argued were the primary audience7, comic books and
their creators have lived under the constant threat of censorship and struggled to reclaim their
Though the code was finally repealed in 198?, mainstream perceptions seemed fixed on the
idea that comic books are for kids. Though most creators, editors, and fans agree this is a
problem, corporate executives have realized that children have significant buying power, and
6 For example, Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman, filed a lawsuit against Marvel
Entertainment in 2007 over his rights when the characters are licensed for use in other
media.
7 Frederick Wertham made this case most in his inflammatory and influential book,
Seduction of the Innocent, which led directly to creation of the code.
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so they pitch even adult series and movie adaptations towards younger audiences, perpetuating
both misconceptions about the audience for comic books and feeding the fears of those who
Creator rights to characters or series are also recognized by publishers, creators, and fans as a
crucial issue, but the nature of those rights is hotly debated. In cases where a single person has
been responsible for creating a series, such as Neil Gaiman was for Sandman, the vast majority
of fans agree that the stores and characters belong to Gaiman and his versions of both are
"canon," that is to say they are definitive, even if fans would have preferred something
different. Further, fans will often not share illegal digital copies of these works, or will share
them in addition to purchasing print copies because they don't wish to deprive the creator of
royalties or sales numbers. Again, because comics are always preceived as precarious, most
However, characters and series that are own by a publisher and are created by a revolving set of
writers and artists are regarded quite differently. These are considered fair game for parody,
slash versions, and other appropriations, not to mention extensive file-sharing. Members of
Sequential Tart have a complicated view on this latter situation. While many of the Tarts
privately might engage in any or all of these, only parody occurs with any regularity and
occasionally slash versions are mentioned in the webzine itself, while file-sharing is not
mentioned at all. In fact there have been heated but private debates about piracy in the staff
email list, but none of these have yet been made public because agreement has not even been
8 The most recent Batman film, the Dark Knight, is a case in point.
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reached on whether even publicly debating the matter is acceptable enough to everyone
involved. Because some participants do have positions of responsibility in the industry, they
face a serious conflict of interest should they even enter a debate which admits the possibility of
In spite of these tensions, fans, creators, and publishers are bound together by the industry's
need to draw new talent from the fan-base, creators' needs for support from fans and jobs from
the industry, and of course fans' desire for comics to continue being published.
comic book industry has always not just been characterized by significant intertwining with fan
The Tarts' resistance to the sexist stereotypes prevalent in the comic book industry subverts a
genre that is itself often a site of resistance to mainstream culture. As noted earlier, even the acts
of turning away from a dominant discourse and shifting the focus from production to reception is
subversive in feminist terms. Because women and people of color are still often perceived as
only a very small fraction of comic book readers, their concerns and interests have often been
ignored by the industry. Some creators have turned to the Internet as way to breach industry
barriers, but face the stiff challenge of attracting readers. Their efforts have been supported and
facilitated by Sequential Tart through reviews, interviews, the BBS, and even through hosting
some online comics at the Tart site itself. All of these avenues of communication help to make
the work of independent comic creators more widely available, bypassing corporate publishers
22
and retailers, or organizing readers to influence those entities. But all of this positive activity
would be short-lived if Tart was not designed to make participation easy for its own staff.
Any online community is bound to affected by issues of access, and Sequential Tart is no
exception. Barriers to participation can be both social and technological and the Tarts are always
working to help potential readers overcome these hurdles. The e-zine and the BBS are relatively
low tech on the front end, not requiring special plug-ins or software for viewing, which makes
them easier for readers to access. Far more importantly, access is also eased for contributors.
Tart has always been a work of love, depending on the volunteer efforts of women who can
write, or code, or create graphics, or otherwise contribute needed labor. In its early days, each
monthly edition was jointly authored via several mailing lists, one for discussion among all
members, one for monthly staff, one for submissions, and one just for editrices. The editrices
then coded the html pages by hand, which was enormously time-consuming, even after they
taught even the least technically inclined Tarts to use the webzine's standard tags. An even
greater burden fell on Lee Atcheson, who has been webmistress from the start. She created the
entire Tart website from scratch, hosted it on her server, which she also administered. This
continued until 2002 when she created (again from scratch) a web-based system for submitting
The addition of online submission forms for reviews (and later for articles) ensures that all
pertinent information is supplied, saves contributors from having to worry about formatting, and
23
relieves editors from having to hand-code the elements common to every page. When a
contributor wishes to submit a review, she logs into the extranet and proceeds through a series of
pages in which she enters extensive information about the subject of the review, including items
like author, illustrator, publisher, and so on. Eventually the reviewer reaches a page with a text
box in which she enters (or pastes) the actual review. In order to enable the review's publication
in the standard Sequential Tart "wrapper," the text page also has a drop-down menu offering a
choice of Tart's standard html tags, thus freeing the reviewer from any need to code them
manually or even know the code. The system for creating articles is similar, except in addition to
saving trouble for the writers, it saves work for the editors as well. Rather than the bibliographic
data entered for reviews, users who are composing articles instead choose which section of the
webzine in which their piece should appear (Columns, Interviews, etc.), fill in headlines, taglines
and relevant links. As with the reviews, standard tags can be selected from a drop down menu. At
any point the review or article can be saved and completed later, but once it is complete editors
approve it and assign a publication date. When that day arrives, the review or article will
automatically appear on the website along with all of the other content for that issue. Besides
making the coding easier for both writers and editors, the review system in particular functions to
leverage user participation. Every piece of metadata entered with a review is then added to a
database on the back end. Subsequently, any Tart will be able to select information about comic
book series, film studios, and so on from drop down menus, rather than having to enter
information manually.
The Tarts' activities clearly represent construction in Schaefer's categories, but by creating a
database of comic book metadata, Sequential Tart goes beyond being a simple community of
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fans because with every month of reviews and articles they add to a growing archive of data
about comic books and popular culture. This growing archive of reviews not only aids other
reviewers as described above, but also benefits Sequential Tart's readers. New reviews are
published each week, but readers may also go to the Reviews Section where they can filter the
archive by genre (movie, comic book, manga, website, and numerous others), and then sort the
results by reviewer, grade, title, or again genre. Being able to access the reviews this way is
useful not only for casual readers or fans, but also for those who wish to carry out more serious
research. Comic books are not catalogued the way books or periodicals are, and many publishers
don't maintain very accessible records of publication data. Thus being able to find any records
at all, let alone records that can be accessed online, is a great benefit. The reviews and articles are
Perhaps as importantly, the Tarts do not scold people who are inexperienced with computers or
with writing. While many of them are by their own admission rather geeky, the Tarts recognize
that not everyone has the interest or the money to get very involved with computers. So when
people make mistakes in contributions they post, someone typically will explain via email the
correct way of contributing an article or formatting the text, if the issue exceeds what is covered
by the submission system. Further, extensive documentation on how to write various kinds of
articles is available in the extranet, and contributors can get help via the list with the content of
their article, not just the technical aspects. The Tarts allow any women who is interested to write
for them, regardless of whether that woman's preferences in comic books matches anyone else's
or not, and regardless of technical expertise. This openness might lead to the magazine becoming
25
huge and unwieldy if not for effective guidelines developed by the editorial staff about article
length, number of articles in each section per publication cycle, and the frequency of contribution
required of staff writers. As Schaefer has pointed out, in file-sharing groups, open-source
projects, or other groups that appropriate cultural material there are core participants who make
most of the contributions and then a range of other users who participate in a heterogenous way.
But in many communities only the core users garner much respect while "newbies" are
disparaged. Because at Tart a variety of skills and contributions may give participants high
Further, staff members generally participate in ongoing discussions via the email list about what
articles are in the pipeline and what kind might be needed or wanted, encouraging less
experienced members to contribute, and allowing the different contributions to be managed more
easily. Because there are no printing costs and storage space is abundant, any and all women
reading comic-books may be invited to contribute. By designing a system that lowers technical
barriers as well, Sequential Tart avoids the pigeon-holing they originally complained of, and as
more women participate, more women begin to evolve more thoughtful responses to comic
books as a medium.
However, In spite of designing the web platform to enable easy participation, increasing
professional and personal demands on core members create continue to pose a challenge. In
order to accommodate the changing lives of the senior members of the community another kind
of heterogeneity has been accepted. Many of the founders were just finishing college or graduate
school when they organized Tart and so had relatively few personal commitments. Now they
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have full-time jobs and greater responsibilities there, along with long-term relationships and
sometimes children. In order to avoid participants burning out and to accommodate these
changes, some senior Tarts have traded roles , have trained assistants, or have even stepped down
to become occasional contributors, for short or long periods. In a social sense as well,
In the already marginal world of comic books, women have used the web to create sites like
Sequential Tart to subvert the stereotypes and overcome technical barriers that prevent women's
greater participation. Rather than trying to regularize participation, they have instead created a
technical platform that supports heterogenous efforts from staff members, and also explicitly
encourages participants to participate at whatever level they can offer. Sequential Tart illustrates
how users can harness their own free labor by designing a system to support heterogenous
participation. But this case also shows how an ambiguous relationship between users and
produces may be not only a natural consequence of user participation in a culture industry, but in
fact a crucial ingredient ensuring the survival of industry and fans alike.
27
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