By Natalia Avilez –

Women are coming out and taking the lead in the writing, inking, penciling and coloring of a world that was once considered for and targeted towards the male audience.

You can imagine how exited I was when I found comic artist Pia Guerra. I was not only was I impressed by her work but also by that the fact that she was half Latina. Her dad is from Chile, her mom from Finland and she was born New Jersey.

Pia Guerra

It was hard enough to find women in the field, but a Latina?  Guerra, 37, is best known for her recent work in Vertigo’s graphic novel Y: The Last Man.

Her interest in comics began at an early age, followed her throughout her youth until she self taught her way into her voice – comic book art.

“When I was young it seemed weird to other kids that, as a girl, I liked X-Men and Teen Titans comics but I kind of liked being different that way.  I was a tom boy,” Guerra told me in an interview.

As an adult Guerra continued to work on various independent comic books until she penciled her way into Y: The Last Man, a graphic novel co-created by Guerra and written by Brian K. Vaughn.   Considered as one of the best graphic novels over the past decade, this graphic novel leads you on a cliff- hanging journey that explores the question as to what would happen if there were only one last man, and monkey, and a bunch of angry women left on earth.

Y: The Last Man has won three Eisner awards, a prize given for creative achievement in American comic books, and is considered to be one of the best-selling comic book series of the past decade. On top of all its success, Y: The Last Man will be coming soon to a theater near you.

Guerra’s accomplishments did not come that easy. She endured sleepless nights, harsh criticism, rejection, hard work, and it took 10 years to break in the industry, she told me in an email interview from Canada.

Do you think it was that question of gender or talent that took you so long to break in?

When I was starting to break in, I would present my portfolio to editors and creators for review and the majority of the time the first thing they’d say was “You don’t draw like a girl.”  Again, I looked at it as my thing, what made me different so I wasn’t really intimidated by it.  Over time it got a little more than repetitive and yeah, I began to wonder if this idea that women drew under standard was causing me to be underestimated somehow, that maybe that was why it was taking so long to get any mainstream work. “I figured there were a couple of ways I could tackle the problem. I could focus on gender and use it as an excuse for every rejection and let it eat me up or I could ignore it and focus on making my work stand out to the point that rejecting it would be silly.  I took the latter route, drew my ass off and it worked.

Now that the modern age of comics is upon us have you seen any positive changes or can you add any insight into this?

I’m definitely seeing more girls at cons now, both fans and creators and that’s awesome.  Movies have certainly helped bring people who wouldn’t normally read comics to the medium and society has loosened its rigidity over gender roles so it’s less likely that girls will be singled out negatively for reading them.  Look at how many adults have read the Harry Potter books.  We’re all starting to recognize the value in an entertaining read, regardless of who they’re made for.

How can we get more girls involved in comics?

If you’re a parent, expose your kids to comics.  If you’re a creator, write strong stories that everyone, boys and girls both, would want to read, and do that by not talking down to them.  It’s really that simple.

Are there any words of advice that you can you offer other women that are dealing with this or trying to break in?

Just be stubborn. Don’t be sidetracked by other people’s prejudices or politics or drama; stays focused on the work and ignore the rest.

Lastly, is there anything I can tell fans to look out for in terms of your work?

People looking for more of my stuff can find the odd short story here and there.  I worked on a Doctor Who series written by Tony Lee for IDW called the Forgotten.  There’s a short story written by Leah Moore in the Comic Book Tattoo anthology.  My husband Ian Boothby and I worked on Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #13 which was a hoot.  Right now I’m on vacation.  Tossing some ideas around, experimenting with new techniques and technology but nothing solid yet.   Maybe I’ll have something by the end of the year.

For more information regarding updates, work, and appearances log on to her Web site Guerra currently resides in Vancouver, Canada and is married to comic book author Ian Boothby (Simpsons Comics).