Women in Comics: Trina Robbins
by Jaqueline Cunha on June 27th
Comic book authorship and illustration have been predominantly male driven since their creation. Contrary to popular belief, women’s participation in comic book production and consumption go back to their established commercial origins (1895). That is to say, in spite of the influence exerted by men in the comic industry, women have been a part of the comic world since its inception. For this reason, shedding light on this reality is fundamental for overcoming narratives that make women invisible.
Uncovering the history of women in comics is not an easy task. The difficulty in doing so is mainly due to the “disposability” of comics in their early history. Apparently, in the infancy of comics, Publishers were not concerned with keeping records on the artists involved in the publications. As a result, much information on the history of women in comics has been lost or forgotten.
The Authority on uncovering the history of women in comic book production is Trina Robbins. Throughout her life, she has been dedicated to the production of comics, research on comics by female authors, and the promotion of works developed by female comic artists.
At the age of 80, Trina Robbins has been in the business for more than 40 years. She is the co-author of about 30 comic series, 13 non-fiction books, and she collected and facilitated the reintroduction of 4 pioneering comic books to the market. There is no question that Trina Robbins helped to shape the development of comics and the way women are depicted in them, especially in the American landscape. But how did “the last girl standing” come to be?
Trina Robbins: Comics from the Female Point of View
Trina Perlson was born to Jewish Parents in Queens, New York on August 17th, 1938. Her mother Bessie was a teacher and her father Max was a Tailor. She had one sister named Harriet. She learned to read at age 4 and grew up devouring all the books she could get her hands on, including comic books. In these, Trina always looked for female protagonists. Some of her favorite comic books were Patsy Walker (1944), Millie the Model (1945–1965), Katy Keene (1945–1960?), Junior Miss (1946) and Miss America (1943).
In the 1960s, Trina decided to leave Queens College and become a bohemian. She moved to Los Angeles, and during the time she lived there she made decisions she is not very fond of today, such as the fact that she posed nude for men’s magazines. She married businessman Paul Jay Robbins in 1962. Even after her divorce (1966), Trina chose to keep the name of her ex-husband. According to her book The Last Girl Standing, she hated the Perlson surname that had been arbitrarily assigned to her family when they arrived at Ellis Island, United States.
“[…] the Family name had been Perechudnik, which means something like “little carpenter”. Naturally official on Ellis island decided Perechudnik wasn’t “American” enough, so they changed it (ROBBINS, 2017).”
The beginning of Trina Robbins’ career
The start of her career as a comic book artist began with the publication of what she called “proto-comics,” a panel that featured the character Suzy Slumgoddess, a hippie teenager, with a heavily laden speech bubble. The panel had been produced, according to Trina, as a way of thanking Allen Katzman, a member of the underground newspaper East Village Other (EVO), for his support during a few bad acid trips.
Before earning her living as a comic book artist, Trina also posed as a nude model for men’s magazines and for artistic photos shot by photographers such as Ruth Bernhard. As a seamstress/stylist/businesswoman, she owned a boutique named “Broccoli”. At that time, Trina even sewed for famous people like Cass Eliot of the Mamas and Papas. In exchange for producing clothes for the EVO team, Trina was given the opportunity to place advertisements for her boutique in the EVO newspaper. The advertisements were produced in the form of strips called “Broccolistrip”. In 1968, Trina even had a column on alternative fashion in the newspaper (ROBBINS, 2017, p.106).
It was from these kinds of experiences that Trina Robbins began to gradually delve into the world of underground comics. Her connection to the EVO team helped bring her closer to the famous comic book artist Robert Crumb (1943), considered the father of underground comics.
“They handed me a copy of Zap #1. My mind was blown! Somehow it had never occurred to me — never occurred to any of us! — that we could produce entire comics, real comic books like Marvel and DC, but with our stories in them” (ROBBINS, 2017, p.109).”
The contact with Crumb helped Trina broaden her artistic horizons. At first, by introducing her to comics that regularly broke with what was mainstream, as happened with the underground comic Zap #1. Eventually, due to her discontent with the misogynistic and violent content that Crumb was creating, she became inspired to create comics that broke both with the mainstream and with the violent and misogynistic underground.
Dissatisfied with the fact that underground comic artists, who despite spurning the mainstream comic world, were still not open to the participation of female comic authors and artists, she joined other women in order to create entirely female authored publications.
The first feminist comic book anthology was inspired and named after the first underground feminist newspaper Ain’t me Baby. The contribution of women comic artists in the underground scene, which was mainly populated by men, led Trina down a path that marked the history of the female comic book artists forever.
In 1971, Trina Robbins edited and collaborated on All Girl Thrills. The success of All Girl Thrills contributed to the birth of yet another, larger comic anthology Wimmen’s Comix, that circulated for twenty years (1972–1992).
In Wimmen’s Comix #1 we find what is considered to be the first female comic book to convey a lesbian narrative: Sandy comes out. This story is based on the coming out of Sandy Crumb, Trina’s roommate and Robert Crumb’s sister.
In addition to publishing the first female written lesbian narrative in comics, Wimmen’s Comix gave visibility to famous comic book artists such as Phoebe Gloeckner, author of A Child’s Life and Other Stories, and Carol Tyler, author of Soldier’s Heart.
In 1972, at the same time that Wimmen’s Comix was being created, Trina Robbins produced and published the underground comic Girl Fight Comics published by Print Mint. It was a publication entirely produced by Trina Robbins that had its second volume published in 1974.
In 1976, Trina Robbins received an invitation to contribute in the French magazine Ah! Nana!. After two years (1976–1978), the magazine was prohibited from circulating on account of the contents involving homosexuality and incest. The magazine published nine issues entirely produced by women. In addition to Trina Robbins, Chantal Montellier, Florencia Cestac and Nicole Claveloux also published in Ah! Nana!
In the 1980s, Trina Robbins reintroduced the world to Wonder Woman. She was the first woman who was officially credited with designing and writing Wonder Woman comics. According to the artist, her intention was to pay homage to the original super heroine illustrator, Harry G. Peter (ROBBINS, 2017, p.175). She also produced Misty for Marvel. The series Misty was intended to reproduce the success of a series of comics directed towards women in the 1950’s and 1960’s titled Millie, the Model (via Mania de Gibi).
In the 1990s, she worked for Marvel in the production of Barbie Comics. About her involvement with the production of Barbie Comics, she said:
“The doll, God help us, really is a blond bimbo, and I have to say I do not own a Barbie doll — I’m proud to say that. But the comics really . . . I’m one of three writers, and all three writers are feminists, we’re all women, and we do the best we can”.
Trina Robbins: Rewriting the History of Comic Books
Starting in the 1990s, Trina Robbins began playing the role of comic book researcher. Decades of research have culminated in five publications that have rewritten comic book history to include the long forgotten contributions of female authors and illustrators: Women and the Comics (1983), A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), From Girls to Grrlz : A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines (1999), The Great Women Cartoonists (2001) and Pretty in Ink (2013).
In addition to the necessary historical rewrite, the artist also began to reintroduce productions that were relegated to oblivion, such as Nell Brinkley and the New Woman in the Early 20th Century (2001), The Brinkley Girls: The Best of “Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons from 1913–1940 (2009), Miss Fury Sensational Sundays: 1941–1944 (2011/2013), and Lily Renée, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer (2013).
Among Trina’s most recent productions are Babes in Arms: Women in Comics During the Second World War (2017), the autobiography The Last Girl Standing (2017), the reintroduction of Gladys Parker: A Life in Comics, A Passion for Fashion which is expected by 2020.
From the beginning, Trina Robbins’ rich journey represents the possibility of breaking with the male dominated mainstream, and creating comic books that are written for women, by women. The imprint of women on the history of comic books deserves our attention, contrary to what certain “masculine nerdism” currently suggests.
Trina Robbins and women like her have provided us with a rich cultural experience through the medium of comic books. These works reveal plots and challenges experienced by creative women who were dissatisfied with a cultural and social order that did not include them and did not give them enough voice or space in the entertainment culture. To dwell on their work means to know a little of the struggle of women for professional respect and representation.
Translation of the article originally published in Portuguese in Delirium Nerd, a portal about productions made by women, that analyzes the female representation in art.
