My Discussion With Jenette Kahn at the Chicago Humanties Festival

I was the interlocutor for a discussion with Janette Kahn at the 2013 Chicago Humanities Festival this past fall, in one of the auditoriums at the Art Institute of Chicago. She was super gracious, totally charming, and of course extremely articulate. Now she produces movies, but she was only in her late twenties when she took over as publisher for DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman). She was with DC for 27 years! And as a woman in comics, I can appreciate how difficult that must have been, especially because she started there in the 70s. Ms. Kahn was one of the founding forces behind DC's imprint Vertigo (known for cool series like Sandman, V For Vendetta, The Invisibles and others) and was also a real advocate for creators rights. In addition to all this, before she was at DC, she knew all about publishing because she started the magazines Dynamite and Kids, which as a zine publisher and purveyor I can also appreciate.

   

P.S. A good site to read about the struggles of gender in the comics industry, I suggest checking out ladydrawers.wordpress.com.