Dean Trippe’s pitch for a Lois Lane Young Adult Series

Comic Writer and illustrator Dean Trippe who heads up Project Rooftoop, has posted on his blog the pitch he made to DC for a series of illustrated Young Adult novels featuring a young Lois Lane. The books would have focused on younger female readers.

Trippe’s interest in the series stemming from sharing superhero stories with his young sisters,”Too often these spandex-clad heroines have been marketed towards post-adolescent men rather than to their own gender. There’s room for this in the spectrum of superhero fiction, of course, but without a positive female role model for me to share with my sisters, that they could see themselves in, they both grew up with only a portion of my comics fandom. (Don’t get me wrong, they both still dig Batman!)”

The books, which seem to be targeted towards the 12 and under crowd, as described by Trippe:

Lois Lane, Girl Reporterfollows the adventures of young Lois Lane. At eleven years old, Lois has discovered her calling: investigative journalism. She sets out to right wrongs and help out her friends. This series explores Lois’s character, reveals her surprising early influence on the future Man of Steel, and introduces fun new elements into this enduring character’s back story.

In each book, Lois will tackle a problem or mystery affecting the members of the community she finds herself in as she travels around the country. The investigations in this series will not be mystical or supernatural (though some characters may suspect such sources), but real world problems that Lois works to set right.

In addition to Lois, a young Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne would have been characters.

The reception from DC? Trippe says, “it doesn’t look like the current leadership of DC is remotely interested in this kinda thing.”

Hmm, that sounds like another pitch where a popular DC Comics female character was re imagined for a young female reader.

Go read the entire pitch as it is very detailed. The art for the series is lovely, of course. And the books would have included back-up comics by two female artists, Jenna Salume and Ming Doyle. The stories are cute and seem to be age appropriate.

DC and Warner Bros. know their business much better than I, but when I see pitches like this and Ben Caldwell’s passed over, I wonder whether that business really does think about getting young girls into comics. Here’s an idea— building on one I suggested last year — partner with Girl Scouts and do a exclusive online content to build brand and awareness for DC. I have some ideas for other ways to partner with the 2.3M young females who are part of Scouting. If only 1% of those readers went on to become a comic reader, that would equal the amount of readers that currently read the Batgirl comic.

The fierce female following that Smallville and Lois and Clark have had on television would also seem to speak to a potential audience of women who would want to pass their love of Lois on to their daughters.

Expanding readership into new demographics with beloved characters in new mediums. You’d think that would be a mandate when you business is shrinking. You’d think.