A comic book about the Rose City Rollers is one of those ideas
that’s so obvious, once you’ve heard about it, that it seems strange
such a thing hasn’t been hit on before—like a Flowbee, or those
IKEA ice trays that make heart-shaped ice cubes. When I asked Lisa
Titan (AKA “Titania”) how she got the idea for True Tales of
Rollerderby, she just grinned and shrugged. “The universe fed it to
me.”
There’s already something cartoonish about the Rose City
Rollers—tough, tattooed ladies with stage names like “Taunt-ya
Harding” and “Dora Doom,” and a devoted fanbase who fully embrace
grudge matches and girl-gang rivalries. “It’s a sport, but everyone in
it is larger than life,” explains Titan. That larger-than-life quality
translates perfectly to the goofy, high-energy True Tales of
Rollerderby.
The 32-page comic’s pulpy cover blares, “Hi-stakes gambling!”
“Vampires!” “Icy villains!” “Burning rubber!” Each of the four stories
inside are sensationalized little romps focusing on a different Rose
City Rollers team, each one written and drawn by a different artist
(including colors by roller girl Pamela Rambo, who has worked on titles
like Y: The Last Man). Look for Portland settings, too: the
Breakneck Betties drag race across the Broadway Bridge in
“Full-Throttle Roll Models,” while the Guns N Rollers get Shanghaied at
the Tunnel in “Attack of the Butt-Rock Blood-Suckers.”
It’s easy to imagine kids who have never read a comic before picking
True Tales up at a bout—artist/dialogue coach Ryan
Alexander-Tanner told me that at a recent derby match he “saw little
kids reading it, young girls. [We’re] all about reaching new audiences.
It’s not that different from a superhero comic.” It is different,
though, in one crucial respect: Mainstream superhero comics are a boys’
club, and True Tales is all about the ladies.
Throw in some cheerfully brazen advertising plugs (“Why don’t we go
get some tacos at ¿Por Qué No?, proud sponsor of the Rose
City Rollers?”), obligatory meta-fictional references (“Wow! A comic
about the Rose City Rollers? Whoever came up with that idea is a total
genius!”), and an open ending that’s just begging for a sequel, and the
Rose City Rollers comic seems like an idea whose time has come.
