Writing comics with Leah Moore

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I had the undeniable pleasure of chatting to UK comics writer Leah Moore. From growing up with comics royalty to a career spanning two decades, Leah has written for existing franchises, adapted novels to comics, and created original new properties. And perhaps most importantly, Leah has written many well-rounded, interesting female characters, something we need to see more of in comics!

I spoke to Leah about the process of writing comics – how it differs when writing for an existing property to writing something from scratch, as well as how she and her writing partner (and husband!) manage to keep things civil.

While these days British comics writers are seemingly all the rage, the medium was borne of a very particular US sensibility. How do British writers bring their own identity to the medium?

Leah is infectiously passionate about seeing increasing diversity in comics, including body diversity. ‘Being an angry old feminist in comics makes me want to write angry old feminist comics where I just rant incoherently about the patriarchy,’ she says, but acknowledges that might not be the most accessible approach to take. Instead, she loves seeing new writers are artists exploring whatever niche takes their fancy, so that the new generation of comics fans can learn that ‘It’s ok to be you!’

Leah’s latest comic, Conspiracy of Ravens, is out now.

Texts and creators mentioned in this episode include:

Witchblade
The Darkness
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
Hellblazer by Alan Moore
Judge Dredd
Hamlet (Manga Shakespeare) by Emma Vieceli
Gail Simone
Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Captain Marvel
Ms Marvel
Girls with Slingshots
Wild West Wendy by Vicky Stonebridge
Faith by Joe Kelly
Black Magick by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
The Wicked and the Divine
Saga
Neal Stephenson
Twisted Romance by Alex De Campi

LEAH MOORE is a comics writer, author, and columnist, born in Northampton, England in 1978.

Leah’s comic writing career began in 2002 with stories for America’s Best Comics. Since 2003 the majority of her comics work has been co-written with her husband, John Reppion, as Moore & Reppion.

Between 2013 and 2016 Leah was the Project Manager of the digital comics publishing and reading platform Electricomics. She was also the contributing editor of Electricomics flagship release, co-writing the sci-fi story Sway, with art by Nicola Scott.

Leah’s solo comics work includes scripts for Dynamite Entertainment (Gail Simone’s Swords of Sorrow, Red Sonja), Heavy Metal Magazine, 2000 AD (Summer Special2018), and Shelly Bond’s Black Crown Publishing (Femme Magnifique, Black Crown Quarterly).

Leah has written columns and articles for The Big Issue, Lifetime TV online, and Comic Heroes Magazine.