Trina Robbins, a groundbreaking cartoonist who expanded the visibility of women in comics through her art, writing, scholarship and advocacy over a career that spanned more than six decades, died today at age 85 following a stroke that left her hospitalized earlier this year.
Robbins, who was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2013, was originally active in comics and science fiction fandom, then became one of the first women in the underground comix movement in the 1960s. Her unapologetically feminist take on politics and pop culture stood out among peers like Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, and the experience left her a lifelong critic of the “boys club” misogyny she perceived in such work.
Prior to her work in comics, Robbins achieved early success as a boutique owner in New York’s East Village in the 1960s, helping to codify the counterculture aesthetic with designs for figures like Donovan, Mama Cass and David Crosby. In 1969, she designed the iconic costume for the horror-fantasy heroine Vampirella.
Relocating from New York to the Bay Area in 1970, she spearheaded the first all-women comic book, It Ain’t Me, Babe with collaborator Willy Mendes, and later produced the first explicitly lesbian-themed comic story, “Sandy Comes Out,” in Wimmen’s Comix #1. She also became a fixture in the West Coast cultural scene of the time, and is name-checked in the Joni Mitchell song “Ladies of the Canyon.”
“Trina was a very supportive colleague and friend, ever since my work first appeared in Wimmen’s Comix in the mid-1970s,” said cartoonist Roberta Gregory. “I couldn’t help but be inspired by her artistry, drive and energy, and her tireless passion to bring visibility to deserving women, past and present. Although she leaves an enormous legacy of work, personally she will be missed by so many; no convention nor trip to her San Francisco hometown was complete without a visit and pep talk from Trina!”
Robbins continued to work as an artist and writer of comics, producing a stylish adaptation of Sax Rohmer’s Dope among other projects, and worked with publishers like DC, Marvel and Eclipse to create work that would appeal to girls and young women. In 1986, she became the first woman artist to draw Wonder Woman in her own comic book.
In 2017, Robbins collaborated with an assortment of contemporary cartoonists on A Minyen Yidn: A Bunch of Jewish Stuff, adapting some of the old folk tales told to her by her father, Max Perlman. She also found time to write books for children, translate romance manga, and contribute to various projects and fundraisers aligned with her interests, most recently Won’t Back Down, an anthology to benefit Planned Parenthood.
Along with her creative career, Robbins began to branch out as a scholar and historian of the medium, producing a series of books shedding light on the underreported history of women in comics. Her work includes Women and the Comics, A Century of Women Cartoonists, The Great Women Superheroes, From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines, and more recent works focusing on the female cartoonists of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
One of her most consequential legacies is her impact on the rising generation of scholars influenced by her feminist approach to comics studies. “Everyone knows Trina changed comics in big ways,” said Sydney Heifler, a comic book historian and doctoral candidate at Ohio State University who worked with and befriended Robbins in recent years. “She also made sure to put women cartoonists and comics artists and women’s comics in the history books, which I’m forever grateful for. As a historian, her herstory work has been invaluable to me. She was always an incredible friend and mentor to me in comics and I have many opportunities thanks to her. She changed my life. I know she’s done the same for others.”