'The Devil Wears Prada' Meets 'The Avengers' in the New Comic Series 'Heroine Chic'
The heroines shop for a new cape. Photo courtesy of WebToons
“Both superheroes and fashion are aspirational,” says comic-book writer David Tischman. “We want to live on the same moral plane as superheroes. But when we put on clothes, we’re also aspiring to be that ultimate version of that woman in the perfect little black dress, or to look like Jon Hamm at a wedding.”
That’s why Tischman, a comic-writer veteran who’s scribed the comic version of True Blood as well as Bite Club, a series about a vampiric Miami Beach crime family, decided to mix superheroes and fashion in his new series, Heroine Chic, whose first three chapters are now available for free on Webtoons. (The series will debut a new chapter every Monday through March 2016.)
“I was walking down Broadway in New York City,” says Tischman, “and I passed a woman in leggings, a sports bra and a yoga mat on her shoulder, and I thought she looked like a superhero,” he says. In recent years, he notes, comic books have been toning down the traditional over-sexualization of female characters, putting them in clothes that feel more contemporary and athletic. He points to the evolution of the DC comics character Black Canary, who started out in fishnets and a bustier—in the recent CW show Arrow, her unissex look was much more athleisure than sex bomb.
The heroines sport pleated mini skirts and chic bomber jackets. Photo courtesy of WebToons
Heroine Chic concerns one Zoe Porter, an ambitious young Brooklyn designer wannabe who lands her dream job working for the Miranda Priestley-like Dyna Cuff, super designer to the superheroes, who says things like, “Start pulling looks for Paragon. Boots, capes, masks. I want options.” Heroine Chic takes place in a world where household-name superheroes show up at Cuff’s sleek atelier for fittings the same way that Gaga shows up for consultations with Nicola Formichetti. But it’s just a matter of time before Zoe—while aiming to please her notoriously exacting boss—finds herself having to employ her own decidedly non–superhero skills to vanquish super villains…not to mention juggling a love triangle between Valiant, a dashing superhero who comes to her aid, and Daniel, the cute hipster who owns her favorite restaurant in Brooklyn.
Tischman, who himself lives in Brooklyn, says that he and his illustrator, the Hong Kong-based Audrey Mok, looked to the classic mod creations of Mary Quant and Courrèges, whose works influenced superhero looks in the sixties TV show Batman as well as the film Barbarella. But he says that ultimately the point of Heroine Chic is to show that, for superheroes as well as mere mortals, everyone wants to dress to impress. “In Chapter 2,” he says, “we meet the super-heroine, Avalon, who’s short and pear-shaped, with hips wider than her shoulders. So Dyna puts her in a long skirt-like thing, high boots and shoulder accents, so she comes out looking 5'8” with an hourglass figure. That’s what good fashion can do—bring out the real you and make you feel better about yourself so you can go out and kick ass in the world.“
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