The Queer Women Crime Story From A Texas Comic Legend
Hellcats follows a small group of queer women living and working near the High Street in 1920s London. It’s loosely based on the long-running gang known as the Forty Elephants, a group of women who were expert shoplifters thanks to their custom-made clothes.
For most people, the Roaring 20s brings up images of flappers, jazz, and the Charleston. For Texas comic icon Janet Harvey, that image should also include queer women punching cops and taking all they can grab.
High Street Hellcats is the latest indie comic from a Texas writer currently being crowdsourced on Kickstarter, which has become the de facto pre-order release platform for comic passion projects in the state. Previously, we’ve covered Milton Lawson’s Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds and the many weird and wonderful works of Paul Hanley, both of which found their audiences by directly engaging with crowdfunding.
Hellcats follows a small group of queer women living and working near the High Street in 1920s London. It’s loosely based on the long-running gang known as the Forty Elephants, a group of women who were expert shoplifters thanks to their custom-made clothes. The gang lasted from 1873 to the 1950’s thanks to their high level of organization and toughness.
“Nobody would stop them,” Harvey said in a Zoom interview. “They would tell cops, ‘how dare you ask to look under a lady’s coat,’ then get away.”
Harvey is a well-known name in mainstream comics. She wrote Batman #569, which introduced the Cassandra Cain version of Batgirl, as well as working on Wonder Woman and the game DC Universe Online.
The Austin native fell in love with the story of the Elephants and started sketching out her own gang. Mags, the tough but reckless leader who is ready for any fight; Violet, Mags’s girlfriend and a party girl slumming it with the crooks for fun; and Darcy, a seamstress from Britain’s island colonies who sees the gang as a ticket to open her own dress shop.
A queer period crime story seemed like it would be a slam dunk for any comic publisher, but Harvey soon found that no one was willing to take a chance on it.
“They all said the same thing,” she said. “I love it! I can’t wait to read it! But we can’t publish it!”
It’s becoming a regular story for comic pitches that fall outside the mainstream. While superhero comics are more diverse and innovative than ever and graphic novels have never been bigger, there is a certain something that publishers are looking for that often sends comics like Hellcats to the bin.
Megan Levens, the artist on the book, has her own opinion on why Hellcats and stories like it are being passed on.
“They’re all looking for the next Walking Dead, something that can be optioned to television or a movie for millions,” she said from Kansas City in our interview. “Fewer people are looking to comics as an end in and of themselves. They want something that’s going to be bought by Netflix.”
Levens, who has worked as an artist on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars Adventures, and Star Trek comics, plans to spend the next two years bringing Hellcats to life. The story is largely finished, with the Kickstarter primarily a means to fund Levens as she works on it.
For both Harvey and Levens, the queerness of Hellcats was a top priority. Not only is the gang itself queer, Mags has another lover on the side who is a transgender nightclub singer. The underworld they inhabit is reminiscent of Weimar Germany, which saw a surge in LGBT art and representation before the fascist takeover by the Nazis.
Living in Texas, Harvey has witnessed similar oppressions being instituted against LGBTQ people.
“With Trump in the White House, I feel like this is maybe the right time for this story,” she said. “We’ve got queer characters, a trans character, they’re going around punching cops. The more things get repressed, the more I want to be in everyone’s face.”
Levens, dealing with her own red state woes, concurs.
“People are trying to erase this part of the population and pretend they haven’t always been here,” Leven said. “They’ve always existed, no matter what time period. Showing them throughout history and having the story be about something other than being queer is important to reiterate.”
Hellcats is yet another reminder that Texas, and Austin in particular, is a place where offbeat comics get made. Moore and more indie creators are finding ways to succeed. For Harvey, it’s part of Austin’s heritage.
“There’s a strong tradition of weirdo outsider artists here,” she says. “It’s a place where you can do your weird stuff in the woods and have a community that supports you. Austin stays weird, hopefully, despite the techbros and scooters.”
