Early work
A former hairdresser who had studied theater in college, Simone first came to fan attention with her Web site Women in Refrigerators, listing many instances in which female comic book characters were the victims of violent attacks because of their gender (rape, miscarriage, murder) or whose attacks were used as a plot device for a male character. The site brought her into contact with many people working in the comics industry. Her column You'll All Be Sorry! appeared weekly on Comic Book Resources. Topics ranged from short, satirical summaries of comic books ("Condensed Comic Classics") to fan fiction parodies.
Simone worked for Bongo Comics, scripting many of their comics based on The Simpsons. Her contributions include stories for Simpsons Comics, an annual Treehouse of Horror special, and regular scripts for Bart Simpson Comics. Simone also penned many Sunday strips for the syndicated Simpsons comic strip.
Mainstream
Following her Simpsons work, Simone entered the comics mainstream with a run on Marvel Comics' Deadpool. When Deadpool was canceled and relaunched as Agent X, Simone continued as writer, but eventually left the series after a conflict with the series' editor. Simone did, however, return to pen the concluding arc to Agent X, some months after the series' initial cancellation.
After the dispute with Marvel, Simone moved on to DC Comics, where she was given the Birds of Prey title (beginning with issue #56) featuring the all-female group consisting of Black Canary, The Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. Though humorous at times, Birds of Prey tends less humorous than her Deadpool work and focuses on the more serious character Black Canary.
Simone took over Action Comics after writer Chuck Austen, with John Byrne penciling. Simone continued her other projects, including the 2005 Villains United limited series - part of the "Infinite Crisis" crossover - in which she revitalized the Catman character. She also wrote a two-issue story arc that focused on the new Hawk & Dove for the third Teen Titans series, with Rob Liefeld penciling. While Simone maintained her usual enthusiastic stance, fandom was quick to lambast the promotional art Liefeld produced in tandem with the PR announcement. The controversy lay with Liefeld more than with Simone, a situation Simone acknowledged on the DC Comics message boards soon after the first Simone/Liefeld issue reached stores.
Simone is also the writer of a Villains United limited series spin-off, entitled Secret Six. This turned out to be popular enough that fan demand warranted an ongoing series, which started September 2008. Other work by Simone includes a run on the Superman title Action Comics, a brief stint on The Legion, a Rose and Thorn limited series at DC Comics, and a revitalization of Wildstorm's Genął. For Oni Press, Simone wrote Killer Princesses with co-creator and artist Lea Hernandez, Gus Beezer specials for Marvel Comics.
Simone also wrote an Atom series, based on ideas by Grant Morrison and penciled by her Action Comics artist, John Byrne and later Mike Norton. Other work includes a Genął series and a creator-owned project about a retirement community of super-heroes, Welcome to Tranquility, for Wildstorm. Simone was also a contributor to Tori Amos's Comic Book Tattoo.
On April 12, 2007, DC announced that Simone would be the new regular writer of the third volume of Wonder Woman, first scheduled to start with issue #13 but later changed to #14. Simone is notable for being Wonder Woman's longest-running female writer and has often erroneously been credited as the first woman to write the character, when she was in fact preceded by Mindy Newell, Trina Robbins, and Jodi Picoult. In early 2010 she was named as the writer for Black Canary and the Birds of Prey under the "Brightest Day" banner.
It has been announced that Simone is being replaced on Wonder Woman, right after the book is renumbered to issue 600. She will also work on a new Welcome to Tranquility series.
Other media
Simone penned the Justice League Unlimited episode "Double Date", which features Question, Huntress, Green Arrow and Black Canary in a romantic adventure tinged with revenge and jealousy. Originally, Simone wrote the episode to feature Batgirl Barbara Gordon. After Gordon is injured while working a case, Batman forbids her from continuing. She contacts Black Canary and the Huntress to finish the case. Neither heroine meets Gordon in person. Due to the animation rights for the Batgirl character being tied up at the time, Simone replaced Batgirl with Green Arrow and The Question. Simone stated that she was interested in working on the show again, having in mind a "Queen of Fables" story which she felt would look good animated.
Simone was replaced as the writer of the 2009 Wonder Woman film.
In August 2007, Simone created and wrote an episode of GameTap's Tomb Raider Animated Series, entitled "Pre-Teen Raider".
