Delilah Dirk from the Delilah Dirk webcomics/graphic novels
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that graphic novels for young readers are a great place to find amazing female characters. Cleopatra in Space, Oona in 5 Worlds, Aster, Hilda, Nimona, Zita the Space Girl, the Lumberjanes, Emily from Amulet... even The Babysitter’s Club is enjoying renewed attention as they’re adapted for the pages of various comic books.
Delilah Dirk has a place among them, the main character of Tony Cliff’s webcomic (check it out here) and subsequent graphic novel series. Though I hate to reduce her (or any female character) to a Distaff Counterpart, she’s best described as a gender-flipped Indiana Jones: adventurer, explorer, swashbuckler and treasure-hunter. Though unlike Indiana Jones, she’s also the occasional mercenary.
She’s introduced to us through the eyes of one Lieutenant Erdemoglu Selim, a young soldier whose life she saves and who tags along after her as she travels across the Mediterranean in the early 1800s – half out of curiosity, and half out of the debt he feels he owes her.
There’s a lot to be impressed by: she’s athletic, brash and headstrong, she’s the daughter of an Englishwoman and a Greek ambassador, and she captains a flying sailboat (very little is done to justify this thing’s existence; it seems to operate on Rule of Cool). In her knee-high boots she towers above most men, and she’s a veritable Amazon when it comes to her sword-fighting prowess.
Delilah Dirk is wish-fulfilment, pure and simple. Though not without a few foibles (a tendency to act before thinking, for example) there’s something oddly soothing about getting to enjoy a female character who is written as unabashedly awesome. Plenty of male characters are permitted to swagger their way into palaces, defy the laws of gravity, discover ancient artefacts, deliver witty one-liners, and save the day – and my contribution to the endless “is she a Mary Sue?” discourse is that if a writer strikes the right balance, there’s nothing wrong with that.
As soon as lockdown in New Zealand is over, I’m looking forward to introducing Deliliah to several young library patrons...
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