The Hawkeye Initiative

thisisbrandyalexander: Geoff Johns twitter pic of the upcoming Zatanna’s suit in Justice...

thisisbrandyalexander — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:30:37 -0400

Geoff Johns twitter pic of the upcoming Zatanna’s suit in Justice League 22. Couldn’t resist it.

Hawkward stance in the Age of Apocalypse

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:30:45 -0400

Trak Nar:

Enter now… the age of broken spines and dislocated hips.

Original work: Gambit and the X-Ternals #1

Original artist: Tony Daniels

grodandor94: Red Sonja Annual 4 cover by Jose Malaga Parody by...

grodandor94 — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:30:25 -0400

grodandor94:

Red Sonja Annual 4 cover by Jose Malaga

Parody by Jeffrey Dean

http://grodandor.deviantart.com/

BROSIE Goes Viral

skjaldmeyja — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:20:00 -0400

screenshot from Wired.com

In the wake of yesterday’s Special Guest Edition post about Brosie the Riveter, things here at The Hawkeye Initiative and at Meteor Entertainment/Adhesive Games’ HAWKEN have proverbially blown up…

With over 175,000 hits, the story of Brosie and Ruby Underboob has captured the attention of fans and media alike, becoming the most popular post ever on The Hawkeye Initiative.

•Wired.com: “A Heart Warming Story About Sexy Gender-Swapped Mechanics”

•PC Authority: “Hawken Plays with the Hawkeye Initiative, with Fantastic Results”

•Gameranx: “Hawken Publisher CEO Pranked Into Learning a Lesson About Sexism”

•Gamespot: “Hawken Office Prank Replaces Scantily Clad Female with Male Hunk”

•Joystiq: “Hawken Employees Genderflip CEO’s Sexy Lady Poster, Have a Laugh”

•PC Gamer: “Hawken Developer Levels the Gender Playing Field with Brosie the Riveter”

•Kotaku: “How the Poster of a Sexy Dude Helped One Game Developer Make a Point”

•Eurogamer: “Hawken Art Changes CEO’s Mind About Scantily Clad Women”

•The Escapist: “Hawken Dev Pranks Boss: Brosie the Riveter’s Saga”

•Reddit: “Bro-sie the Riveter, an Awesome Way of Proving a Point About Gender Equality in Gaming”

•Reddit: “Woman Working in Gaming Industry Pulls an Awesome Prank on Her Boss”

•Game Politics: “Hawken Office Prank Has Surprising Result”

prettyjeff: So there’s a blog called The Hawkeye Initiative...

skjaldmeyja — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:30:27 -0400

prettyjeff:

So there’s a blog called The Hawkeye Initiative where people highlight ridiculously-proportioned women in comics by drawing Hawkeye in the same pose. This isn’t exactly a submission, but it was kinda nice to draw a character with no regard for things like spines or internal organs.

Above image is by http://artistmeli.tumblr.com/

I stared at this one for about a full 30 seconds before bursting into really heinous donkey laughter.

Original post here: http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/post/50337971918/artistmeli-sooo-i-know-im-a-little-late-to

Update on "Brosie the Riveter" and a challenge

skjaldmeyja — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:14:00 -0400

Update:

AnonymousFan8675309’s post earlier about the Hawkeye Initiative inspired poster she had designed for her boss as a prank has struck a chord with a lot of people.

Six hours later, and it’s now the 2nd most popular post ever on Hawkeye Initiative!

Along with that comes ~~two~~ three news articles:

“Things We Saw Today” -via themarysue.com

“How the Post of One Sexy Dude Helped a Game Developer Make a Point” -via kotaku.com

“Hawken Developer Levels the Gender Playing Field with Brosie the Riveter” -via pcgamer.com

Challenge:

More than just redrawing Hawkeye in ‘Strong Female Poses’, Brosie goes a step further to challenge the current standard in the comics and gaming industries.

So what is your Brosie moment?

Drawing your own comic that portrays men and women equally?

Cosplaying the Hawkeye Initiative?

Cosplaying as a redesigned fully dressed superheroine?

Standing up at a NYCC panel and asking artists and publishers to stop breaking backs for the sake of showing T&A in the same panel?

Or simply writing a review about a comic that you support.

Find something, make something, do something that asks for a change in the industry, then share it with THI here.

“Hawkeye as Wonderwoman”by Jaime...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:13:00 -0400

“Hawkeye as Wonderwoman”
by Jaime Molina

http://www.jaimemolina.deviantart.com/

Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL!

skjaldmeyja — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:14:00 -0400

05/15/2013 Update:
BROSIE Goes Viral

Original Post:
I recently received an email from an anonymous fan sharing how she pulled a Hawkeye Initiative themed prank on her CEO to illustrate a problem with some artwork.
My personal compliments to her and her accomplice on a mission well done; they perfectly took the concept of The Hawkeye Initiative one step farther, and effected actual change. I hope this gives you as much of a laugh as it did me (the artwork is currently my desktop), and inspires you to be unafraid to stand up and take action in your own awesome way.

Now, excuse me while I go play my new favorite mech game. :)
-Skjaldmeyja

AnonymousFan8675309:

I work with an all-female team of data scientists, in the gaming industry. This makes me the professional equivalent of Amelia Earhart riding the Loch Ness Monster.

I love my job. Our company in particular is great. Firstly, our game (HAWKEN) is beautiful and people love it. Secondly, half of our executive branch is female. Half of them are punk rock, and all of them are badassed. Our gender awareness standards, compared to the industry at large, are top shelf. We are talking Amelia Earhart in Atlantis, at a five star resort, getting a mani-pedi from Jensen Ackles. I have it good.

For the last six months of my tenure at Meteor Entertainment, there has been only one thing I did not love about my job. This
picture:

Our CEO loves this picture. It is to all appearances his favorite piece of comic art for the game. He had it blown up poster-sized, framed, and displayed on the out-facing wall of his office. There, it looms over the front room like a ship’s figurehead. It is the first thing workers and visitors see when they enter the building and the last thing they see when they leave. This little lady’s undermeats have been the open- and close- parens to my work world for the last six months.

I loathe this picture.

Why do I loathe it? How, you ask, can I stay mad at a sweet young belle who has so obviously taken a break from her important welding to offer me a piping hot cup of coffee and/or a vigorous hand job? (And probably, given her apparent safety consciousness, simultaneously?) If you don’t already know the answer, you might want to check out things like #1ReasonWhy, and the Bechdel Test, and also this, and this, and this and this, and all these other things. (And while we’re talking you should check out this other bullshit right here.)

So at our office holiday party, while our CEO was having everyone in the company sign it, I stand there grinding my teeth into tiny shards. Until, suddenly, it came to me: a vision.

And so it came to be that I approached Sam Kirk, a wickedly funny co-worker who shared my sentiment. Sam, turns out, is a very talented artist who can be bribed-slash-inspired using a medley of feminist indignation, hysterical giggling, and two $90 bottles of añejo tequila.

A month-and-a-half later, our vision was a reality. I give you:
Bro-sie The Riveter.

I want to make it completely clear that everything in this prank that required actual talent was done by Sam. Find this, and more of Sam’s art, at TheRealSamKirk.com.

We blew (ahem) Brosie up poster sized. We framed him. And then, at 7:30 on Monday, April 1st, we snuck into our CEO’s office and switched them.

I stood in the entryway, dizzy with joy. It was glorious. There Brosie stood, proud, nipples testing the air like young gophers in springtime, the post-apocalyptic breeze gently swaying his banana hammock. Brosie said, loud and proud: “Get ready, world! I am here to lubricate your joints and tighten your socket.”

I basically spend the next few hours having a joy-induced neurological episode.

As the morning progressed, Brosie (ahem) revealed himself to our co-workers. The air resounded with startled, suppressed gargles of mingled joy and horror. Some take pictures. Some instantly turn and flee. Several men blush and grin in vindicated solidarity. Several women ask us for prints. At this point I am in total rapture. This is the moment I have been dreaming about for six months.

Yet somehow everyone in the office manages to keep quiet about it. Until, finally, our CEO arrives.

We hear a loud: “What the hell is this?!” And then all goes quiet. Ten minutes pass. We panic.

We are both suddenly and painfully aware that we have, in fact, just punked the CEO of our company. He is by all accounts an awesome dude. He is also a late-50s ex-army guy who happens to determine our employment futures in an at-will state. Meep.

Twenty more minutes pass. And then our CEO comes up to my desk, taps me on the shoulder, and says this:

“That was a brilliant prank. You called me on exactly the bullshit I need to be called on. I put up pictures of half-naked girls around the office all the time and I never think about it. I’m taking you and Sam to lunch. And after that, we’re going to hang both prints, side by side.”

Ruby Underboob and Brosie the Riveter, together at last

Yeah. That happened.

This wonderful experience has taught me two things that I hope to carry with me for the rest of my career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and in gaming. It taught me this:

Lots of men (like Sam) are already sympathetic to the stupid, constant crap women put up with in gaming/STEM, and they are ready and willing to call that crap onto the carpet.
And, most importantly, many of the guys who are behind that stupid, constant crap are totally decent, open-minded human beings who just don’t realize they’re doing it. You know how sometimes you don’t realize how much you and your girlfriend are talking about shoes or menstruation until some dude walks into the room? Well sometimes guys don’t realize how much they’re talking about titties.

We just haven’t been around enough for them to notice.

There is only one solution to that, ladies. Bust out your baby-Gap tee and your protective welding goggles, and let’s turn this damn industry into the environment we want it to be. It’s hard work, and yes, there are a couple genuine assholes along the way. But if Ruby Underboob can brave the occasional droplet of molten metal, so can we.

Speaking from experience, it’s worth it.

—K2

About our CEO, Mark Long:

Mark has a long and storied history with, among other things, research, games and comic art. He’s a partner in the RoqlaRue gallery in Seattle, representing “chick art.” Mark considers himself a feminist activist. He is proud to have created a graphic novel trilogy with Nick Sagan (Carl’s son) that features a female hero so strong, Hillary Swank is attached to star as her.

Mark and I are now in an open dialogue about gender in comics and gaming.

artistmeli: Sooo, I know I’m a little late to the party with...

skjaldmeyja — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:30:51 -0400

artistmeli:

Sooo, I know I’m a little late to the party with this, but I finally did one. Original is by Rob Liefeld from “Badrock.” I mean, how could I not do a Liefeld parody for my first Hawkeye Initiative? I seriously could not force myself to make his anatomy as wonky as the original, though, I just couldn’t, it was too painful. I think it still gets the point across, though.

I hope I get to do a lot more of these, because they’re fun *and* make a statement I can really get behind.

1,000,000

skjaldmeyja — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:28:00 -0400

1,000,000

Anna Kreider This is Rogue from Marvel’s X-Men. (Not sure...

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:30:45 -0400

Anna Kreider

This is Rogue from Marvel’s X-Men. (Not sure who the artist is.)

The more I worked on this, the more I got disturbed at just how broken Rogue was.

geekedmagazine: Cover artist: Jeff Scott Campbell Publication: The Amazing Spider-Man presents...

geekedmagazine — Sat, 11 May 2013 08:30:33 -0400

geekedmagazine:

Cover artist: Jeff Scott Campbell

Publication: The Amazing Spider-Man presents Black Cat (2010) #1

Artists: Rosa Middleton, for GEEKED magazine Issue 3

www.geekedmagazine.com

yupyupyupitsagun asked: The D is silent? It’s not exactly silent… more of a vague...

skjaldmeyja — Sat, 11 May 2013 01:57:00 -0400

yupyupyupitsagun asked:

The D is silent?

It’s not exactly silent… more of a vague implication of a hard consonant…

illustratedjai said:

My poor memory of my linguistics classes tells me it’s called a ‘stop’. You stop the sound coming out, usually with the tongue to the roof of the mouth, which can be interpreted as a consonantal sound, but which is actually a lack of sound.

Exactly. A much better explanation that I could give— thanks!

How does one pronounce Skjaldmeyja? I'm afraid I'm butchering it ;___;

skjaldmeyja — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:26:00 -0400

Sk-yawl-may-uh
It’s tricky old Norse meaning “Shield Maiden”. :)

Iron Blade

danielledastis — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:30:26 -0400

danielledastis:

My attempt at a Hawkeye Initiative submission - Iron Man based off Marc Silvestri’s Witchblade cover. If Witchblade and Lady Death have taught us anything it’s that clothes (butt covering in particular) hinder one from capturing and/or fighting evil doers. #ironman #witchblade

Hawkeye She-Hulk

thesearethethingsiknow — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:30:32 -0400

thesearethethingsiknow:

Savage She-Hulk, cover by Alex Garner and J. Scott Campbell.

I’m fairly proud of this. The Hawkeye Initiative had single handedly been the reason I’ve learned how to draw digitally.

Am I missing something? Where is the "tip of the hat" in that hawkeye option?

skjaldmeyja — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:27:00 -0400

The way I see it, by naming Barton’s new upgrade “Hawkeye’s Initiative”, they’re recognizing the existence of THI. And it’s a tip of the hat, a casual recognition, that (to me) doesn’t imply approval or disapproval. Simply a, “Hey, we see you there.”

And maybe being acknowledged means that all of this is more than just a meme, but another step towards The Powers That Be™ recognizing the problems in comics and moving to remedy them.
That’s just my optimistic angle. :)
-Skjaldmeyja

They've found us....

skjaldmeyja — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:55:00 -0400

I’m frequently asked if Marvel knows about The Hawkeye Initiative, and if so what is their opinion?

While their opinion is yet undetermined, it’s safe to say that the archer is out of the bag. In the recent update of the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance, our favorite Hawkguy got a new upgrade:

An anonymous emailer writes:

Mostly I’m sad that it doesn’t make the Hawkeye character adopt some of the silly poses his female counterparts have in the game.

While @lilith210 adds:

Unfortunately, this ability is not the ability to fight crime in an outfit that no person should ever fight crime in. Still, I thought it was cool and it does seem pretty intentional.

All-in-all it’s pretty damn awesome and appreciated tip of the hat from Marvel. Not very often do major publishers and creators recognize “the little guy”— particularly little guys who can be rather critical of the big guy’s work.

Thanks goes to Marvel, the person who created “Hawkeye’s Initiative”, and whoever at Avenger’s Alliance approved Hawkeye’s new upgrade.

Also, thanks to all the THI fans who emailed and messaged info about this. Y’all are the best, and without your contributions there would be no THI. Literally.
Thanks for making all this happen. :-D

-Skjaldmeyja

Edited to add:
“Am I missing something? Where is the “tip of the hat” in that Hawkeye option?”
(Link: http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/post/49963755733/am-i-missing-something-where-is-the-tip-of-the-hat)

Geekcentric Interview with The Hawkeye Initiative and Skjaldmeyja

skjaldmeyja — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:01:29 -0400

Females in Fanart: The Hawkeye Initiative Fights Back

http://www.geekeccentric.com/the-hawkeye-initiative/

AJ O’Connell goes in depth with not only THI, but it’s founder Skjaldmeyja.

Hawkeye does Bettie Page (not like that) by Trak Nar

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:34:02 -0400

Original image artist: Dave Stevens

Original work: Rocketeer (1989), First Comics reprint