Timeline of Women in Comics Fandom

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

1941

• October: First appearance of the character Wonder Woman in All Star Comics #8

1971

• December: Gloria Steinem puts Diana Prince on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine

1972

• Marvel’s first major female creator push.
• "Facing the challenge to stay relevant in an era when underground comix were seizing readers' imaginations with their uncensored content, Stan and Roy embraced story elements that reflected the spirit of the era: a line of female heroines created in light of the Women's Movement."
• The Legion Outpost, a Legion of Superheroes zine popular with female fans, begins publication. LOSH fandom was particularly woman-friendly and attracted lots of shippers at the time.

1974

• The debut of The Heroine Addict, a gen zine focusing on female characters in comics. It later became The Heroines Showcase.

1977

• Princessions, a Wonder Woman newsletter is first published.

1978

• Hola!, a Wonder Woman zine edited by Carol Strickland begins publication.

1990

• Jill Thompson becomes one of the first female artists for DC Comics' Wonder Woman series.

1994

• Alexandra DeWitt, Kyle Rayner's civilian girlfriend, is gruesomely killed in Green Lantern #54 to be used as fodder for manpain and motivation. This event would later inspire the name for the Women in Refrigerators site and the "fridging" tropename.
• Lori's X-Men Archive, the first of the Big Three comics fanfic archives, is founded by Lori McDonald and operates until 1999.

1995

• Hawk's Archive, collecting all fanfic posted to ACFF, is founded by Hawk and operates until 1996.

1996

• CFAN is founded by KIelle to pick up where Hawk's Archive left off.
• Alara's Happy Happy Text Only Site (later Alara.net) is founded by Alara Rogers.
• Darqstar posts "Unexpected Arrival", the first story of The X-S Series to ACFF on October 28, 1996.

1997

• Fonts of Wisdom, one of the Big Three comics fanfic archives, is founded by Luba Kmetyk.
• Shifting Sands, another of the Big Three comics fanfic archives, is founded by Darqstar.

1998

• Outside The Lines is founded by Susan Crites as an alternative to Untold-L.
• The first Comic Book Fan-Fiction Awards are held by Kielle.
• The Itty Bitty Archives (initially The itty bitty cyke and logan archive) is founded by Kaylee.

1999

• Women in Refrigerators is coined by Gail Simone.
• Offpanel.net, an important fanfiction site run by female fans (Kerithwyn Jade and Smittywing being the founders and main archivists) is created.
• Alara Rogers becomes the archivist for Shifting Sands.
• Ro becomes the archivist for Lori's X-Men Archive, which is renamed Ro's X-Men Fanfiction Archive (later Ro's Treasury of Fanfiction).
• Alternate Timelines is founded as an X-Force archive by Jen Morrioghan (later becomes a hubsite for a number of archives).
• Kielle creates the Mary Sue Society Avatar Appreciation Site which hosts positive essays and meta about Mary Sue and self-inserts.

2000

• Women of Gotham is made by Laura Hysert.
• queenB becomes the archivist for The Itty Bitty Archives and expands them.

2001

• Lise becomes the archivist for The Itty Bitty Archives.
• Alternate Timelines relocates and merges with Alicia McKenzie's various archives (The Dayspring Archive and others) to become a central hub similar to Alara.net.

2002

• Kielle closes CFAN to updates, but leaves the site up.

2003

• Scans Daily, a slash-friendly Livejournal community populated mainly by female comics fans is created. At its peak, it had 8,900+ followers.

2004

• A storyline involving the death by torture of Stephanie Brown prompts Mary Borsellino to create activism site Girl-Wonder.org protesting the treatment of female characters.
• Comicfic.net is founded by Alicia McKenzie and Lise, combining the contents of The Itty Bitty Archives, Alternate Timelines and Felicitas!.

2005

• Kielle passes away from cancer in September.

2006

• Last known update of the Superwomen website.
• Zamaron, a feminist Green Lantern site is launched.
• When Fangirls Attack, a blog "on gender in comics and comics fandom" is launched.

2007

• May: The Mary Jane Watson laundry statue controversy. The Gonna wash that man right outta... response/parody generates 1575 comments on Livejournal.

2009

• February: Scans Daily is suspended.
• September: Marvel Divas controversy, ^{Archived version}

2010

• January 29th: wanna make a bet/we'll be neck and neck/takin' off the gloves, ^{Archived version}, a meta essay on women in comics, comics fandom and the comics industry is published.
• April 25th: The DC Women Kicking Ass blog is created.
• November 2nd: The Ladies Making Comics blog is created.

2011

• March 3rd: The Mary Sue goes online - that "sits at the nexus of pop culture and the uncharted universe. We love and live geek culture, comic book movies, genre television, space exploration, emerging technologies, the coolest video games, and the weirdest finds on the internet."
• April: comicbookgrrrl starts publishing her Women in Comics essays that focus on the history of women in comics, both as creators and characters.
• June: Womanthology is brought to life to "showcase the works of female creators of every age and experience levels."
• September 11st: The Escher Girls blog is launched to ridicule the sexist and anatomically challenged way female characters are often depicted in comics.
• The Batgirl of San Diego protesting against the decline of female creators in DC Comics' "New 52" at San Diego Comic Con.
• December 21st: The first article on Women Write About Comics is published, revisiting the Women in Refrigerators phenomenon.

2012

• June 10th: Batgirl Inc, a fancomic created as a reaction to the New 52 and its treatment of various Batgirl characters. "The goal of the comic is to show all three girls could eventually share the Batgirl mantle at the same time. We additionally will keep Barbara’s disability."
• September 14th: ...But Not Black Widow, a Tumblr blog created in order to follow "the symbolic annihilation of women through merchandise."
• December 2nd: The Hawkeye Initiative was born and gained momentum as a fun way to criticize the sexist way superheroines were often posed in comics.
• Carol Corps
• Organized backlash against the Fake Geek Girl/Idiot Nerd Girl meme.

2013

• August 1st: Marvelous Marvel Ladies Month
• October 1st: Dazzling DC Ladies Month
• Kamala Korps

2014

• March 22nd: The dcwomenofcolor blog is created.
• April 30th: CBR Community is rebooted following a harassment campaign (including doxing, assault and rape threats) against Janelle Asselin for her feminist critique of the cover to DC Comics’ “Teen Titans” #1.
• August 7th: The Except for Gamora Tumblr blog is created.
• August 23rd: FemComicsEvent, a project to bring together female artists and writers to create fancomics featuring female characters from Marvel Comics.
• December: Bitch Planet, a "feminist exploitation comic" by Kelly Sue DeConnick is published at Image Comics.
• December 15th: I Deserve Better Project, a project to "produce a 21-page complete story celebrating a female character from Marvel Comics and showing how she should be treated."

2015

• April 6th: The Fangirl Initiative blog is created (covers comic, video game and media fandom): "a blog for those who are a fan of nerd culture. Also known as nerds"

2016

• October: Controversy over Chelsea Cain's Mockingbird cover where Bobbi Morse wears a T-shirt that says "Ask me about my feminist agenda". The cover enraged certain male fans, delighted some female fans, while a different group of female fans expressed concern over the "questionably feminist" way the comic addressed Bobbi's previously established rape storyline.

2017

• The Wonder Woman (2017) movie becomes the DCEU's first critically successful hit and the first feature film starring a female superhero in the 2010s, good word of mouth propelling it to financial success as well.