Image's Rat Queens Are Coming to Television

[harpere]

Image's Rat Queens Are Coming to Television

Pukeko Pictures and Heavy Metal want to take Rat Queens from the comics and to your television screen.

Rat Queens is a relatively new entry in comics pantheon: the series launched in September 2013 and its 7th issue is due out this month. However, it's already garnered its fair share of attention for its twist on conventional fantasy - creator Kurtis Wiebe described the concept as Lord of the Rings meets Bridesmaids - and female-driven cast (the titular Rat Queens) who turn traditional gender roles on their heads. It's a fun read and a refreshing take on the classic genre. The series has already picked up an Eisner nomination and plenty of praise from critics, but is this freshman series ready for (literally) prime time?

Pukeko Pictures and Heavy Metal say yes, with plans to adapt the title into an animated series [http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/heavy-metal-weta-workshops-pukeko-pictures-to-adapt-rat-queens-exclusive-1201220135/]. The project is still at an early stage - no network has picked it up yet - so what we might actually see on-screen in up in the air. However, Pukeko and Heavy Metal plan to adapt the series into a 30-minute show to pitch to TV networks. Will it take off? We definitely hope so.

Source: Variety [http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/heavy-metal-weta-workshops-pukeko-pictures-to-adapt-rat-queens-exclusive-1201220135/]

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[BX3]

Oh, of course a comic with an all-female cast of protagonists needs lesbians.
Imagine if that same rule applied whenever it was an all-MALE cast of protagonists. Hot KenshiroXRei beefcake action! Goku snuggling Vegeta in bed, at morning!

Oh, so you read those fanfictions too?

Interesting. Though, I'm more Goku/Piccolo guy myself.

 

[DrunkenElfMage]

Premise and art style looked interesting.
Then, I googled the comic and one of the very first image results was this:

Spoiler

Oh, of course a comic with an all-female cast of protagonists needs lesbians.
Imagine if that same rule applied whenever it was an all-MALE cast of protagonists. Hot KenshiroXRei beefcake action! Goku snuggling Vegeta in bed, at morning!

Long story short: personally, I'mma skip it.

TO be fair,that's one of the tamest depictions of Lesbianisn I have ever seen in a comic. There is little to no pandering shots lingering on the girls bodies, most of the page is devotoed to one of the women's faces talking to the camera and when we see them in their underwear, the clothing covers more of their bodies than what even some superheroes wear. Plus the central message of the comic is that sex isn't the best part of having a relationship, its the comfort and closeness of another human being.

Its still a little pandering to be sure, but hell, if most comics treated sex like this, the world would be a happier place.

 

[JonB]

This is great news - Rat Queens is Conan the Barbarian for the Girls generation. It is topical, timely, postmodern fantasy par excellence.

 

[PirateRose]

Premise and art style looked interesting.
Then, I googled the comic and one of the very first image results was this:

Spoiler

Oh, of course a comic with an all-female cast of protagonists needs lesbians.
Imagine if that same rule applied whenever it was an all-MALE cast of protagonists. Hot KenshiroXRei beefcake action! Goku snuggling Vegeta in bed, at morning!

Long story short: personally, I'mma skip it.

Well as a woman that reads and absolutely loves this comic, I have to wonder if you are homophobic.

Betty is the only lesbian character, she is a well developed character, and there isn't a lesbian fetish thing going on in this comic. In fact she's kind of the hopeless romantic type.

Hannah and Violet enjoy sexual relations with men.

Dee is the socially awkward one.

 

[Roganzar]

The comic itself is clever and well written. The characters actually are pretty amusing and fairly well rounded. For all the feminist points it gets, I've never felt that it was trying to beat the reader over the head with the whole "girls-can-do-things-boys-can." In fact the Rat Queens are prone to the same kinds of errors that any character would make.
Now I may be partial to the comic, since most of the D&D games I've run have had mostly female players and they play a lot like the characters in this comic. Which is what drew me to the comic in the first place.

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

I feel like there's only one way I could possibly express my reaction to this wonderful news:

Spoiler

Can't wait to see it - "Rat Queens" is one of the best books Image is putting out at the moment.

 

[Anachronism]

Yes. So on board with this. Rat Queens is pretty much my favourite comic coming out at the moment - it's hilarious, it's heartfelt and the main characters are some of the best women in comics right now. Bring on the animated series.

Premise and art style looked interesting.
Then, I googled the comic and one of the very first image results was this:

Spoiler

Oh, of course a comic with an all-female cast of protagonists needs lesbians.
Imagine if that same rule applied whenever it was an all-MALE cast of protagonists. Hot KenshiroXRei beefcake action! Goku snuggling Vegeta in bed, at morning!

Long story short: personally, I'mma skip it.

Erm... no. There's no pandering and no cheesecake in the book. Betty is a lesbian, to be sure, but that's never been intended to titillate male readers. It's a comic very much aimed at a female audience, and quite rightly, it wants to represent as many different types of women in its characters as possible. Some women are lesbians. That's just a fact. Why shouldn't we have lesbian female characters in comics, especially when Betty is one of the most endearing, almost unbearably adorable characters in recent memory?

TLDR: don't judge the book before you've actually read it, and Betty is awesome.

 

[waj9876]

So uh...what does it bring to the table other than female main characters? What are the hooks of the series that makes people want to read it?

C'mon, it can't just be "female empowerment!" and "non-traditional gender roles!" can it? I am seriously wondering what it's about, and am on the ball about whether or not I should pay money to read it.

So I just googled it, the first other notable thing I noticed was that one of the characters shown in that image is a lesbian, and the reveal is in a "Haha you thought I was with a guy you sexist pigs." kind of way. I'd look up more but I'm lazy and my attention to this topic is dwindling, and I find myself not caring enough to look up anything else.

C'mon, there's gotta me more to this series, is it better than this impression I have of it now?

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

So uh...what does it bring to the table other than female main characters? What are the hooks of the series that makes people want to read it?

A band of foul-mouthed, bar-fighting female mercenaries wreak havoc in Middle Earth. There are also assassins and a murder mystery. It's funny, it's entertaining, it's clever. If you need further justification to read the book, you're probably not going to like it anyway.

EDIT: Also, this is a much better example of what the book's about rather than the page posted up top.

 

[Vault101]

snip

if youre not interested then don't read it? why do we have to drag out the dead "feminism debate" hoarse?

Premise and art style looked interesting.
Then, I googled the comic and one of the very first image results was this:

Spoiler

Oh, of course a comic with an all-female cast of protagonists needs lesbians.
Imagine if that same rule applied whenever it was an all-MALE cast of protagonists. Hot KenshiroXRei beefcake action! Goku snuggling Vegeta in bed, at morning!

Long story short: personally, I'mma skip it.

thats not fair....

why NOT have a lesbian in there? when is there an acceptible time to have a lesbian? only if theres one main female?

you don't have to like the comic but writing it off just because of some arbitrairy standard is stupid

EDIT: in fact if I were a lesbian I'd be a little offended at that..

 

[Vault101]

don't pull this crap...you know how to quote...

Well, please answer me this....
Why is it that "comics aimed at a male audience" do not feature a gay main character snuggling romantically in bed with another man?

because male comics are far less prgressive?

[quote/]To make it clear: I don't care if a comic has lesbians, gays, or whatever in it.

I do care about what I perceive to be a form of sexism.

If you'd make a comic with male characters who are openly homosexuals, you'd get male readers steering away from it no matter if you insist it's "actually a comic for male readers, really, it's not a comic to titillate fangirls! Disregard the man-on-man action!". And nobody would say something against that.
But somehow, when a comic is about lesbians, if a straight woman feels "yep, this comic is made for males or lesbians, not for me" then she's not allowed to do so.[/quote]
unless its the gratotious kind made for men or full on pornographic (and EVEN then everything has its place..as in Black Swan) then I doubt straight women are going to be put off by it

ESPECIALLY if its just a sweet moment shared by two people, I feel like youre assuming women have the same aaprent disgust for homosexual stuff that you think men do, I don't think they do, and youre acting like its normal and ok for guys to be grossed out by homosexual relations

if two people can't spoon without somone throwing a fit thats their problem

in terms of "stuff made to appeal too" Lesbians are not men with Vaginas....theres a reason most lesbians will say most mainstream "lesbian" porn is clearly for guys and does nothing for them and again you'll have to ask some straight girls but I don't think they mind...they may even find it cool

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

We all know that if this comic has a lesbian protagonist, it was NOT done for the actual lesbian demographic. It was done to tell male readers "yep, this comic has an all-female cast, but don't let it scare you off: here's some fanservice".
If you really think there's a lesbian scene to actually appeal to the lesbian demographic, that's cute, and I envy your blissful innocence.

It's true. Nothing gets my rocks off more than two Ferangi spooning in a dingy bedroom.

 

[Vault101]

you know if you click the "quote" button it will give you a break down of the persons text...if you keep the bit with the numbers and their username and partitian it off with [ quote / ] spaced for visuals [ / quote ] then you can break up induvidual parts if you wish, it will alert them you replied to them

We all know that if this comic has a lesbian protagonist, it was NOT done for the actual lesbian demographic. It was done to tell male readers "yep, this comic has an all-female cast, but don't let it scare you off: here's some fanservice".

whoa...back the fuck up.....how do you know that? Image comics are creator owned, that doens't mean theyre free from the usual BS but they are free to be more.."flexile" and this to me seems like one of those cool more or less progressive comics...kind of like Sex Criminals alongside Saga

[quote/]If you really think there's a lesbian scene to actually appeal to the lesbian demographic, that's cute, and I envy your blissful innocence.[/quote]
yes..it was the one you googled, a sweet moment shared by two people,if thats not apealing to lesbians I don't know WHAT is...unless your an expert on what they like

also you havent even read the comic

[quote/]It's undeniably true that it's actually stupid of straight males to often feel "threatened" by homosexuality and therefore avoid comic, films, books etc. that may feature such kind of content.
But please tell me why do women have to be more progressive, while men are excused in being homophobic.[/quote]
not really sure...a lot of it might be cultural

I'm not saying women can't be homophobic to other women (oh lord they can) but there isn't this obsession to constantly reasert ones heterosexuality and disgust for all things gay/lesbian

[quote/]If we lived in a society in which you'd get gay scenes in comics with an all-male cast that advertise themselves as "aimed at males", I would have nothing against this comic.
But we live in a society where us women have to deal with fanservice-for-straight-males being put pretty much everywhere, while the opposite does not happen.[/quote]
it does suck that the oposite doesn't happen good...you have a point there HOEVER...


in a diverse cast of females why should they only represent the straight ones? (and remember...there are straight ones) while I wouldn't call it fan service if you want something nice and hetero from a womans persepctive try Sex Criminals

[quote/]Much more importantly, I don't find it empowering. I find it an example of the trope "if there's an all female cast: obligatory lesbian character". Which is a bad trope since its opposite does not exist.[/quote]

again...what if "I" found it empowering? particually in a world where heterocentric stuff is the norm? or do the lesbian comics need to be walled off in their own little ghetto?

and I'll say it again the fact its not a trope for guys shows that mabye there should be more gay men

 

[Vault101]

Its still a little pandering to be sure, but hell, if most comics treated sex like this, the world would be a happier place.

I'm not against gratuitous sex in comics (see Saga) I am against pointless "let me twist in a way no human being can and wear an outfit that hardly qualifies as an outfit"