Kelly Sue DeConnick

Kelly Sue DeConnick is a writer whose best-known work includes Captain Marvel and the recent Pretty Deadly. She’s very outspoken about the role of women in comics and stated in an interview that “if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft. They have to be protagonists, not devices.” On the subject of women of color, she said in a panel at Geek Girl Con ’13 that she nearly made one of the pilots in her Banshee Squad African American but decided not to, because there were no black women pilots in WWII. Then she said (paraphrasing), “You know what else there weren’t any of? Aliens.” She apologized for not taking that inclusive step, stating baldly, “I fucked up.” (This led to an African American woman taking to a mic in the audience and thanking her for admitting a lost opportunity.)