The Great Women Cartoonists by Trina Robbins

In the early 198os, she and fellow artist Catherine Yronwode collaborated on an idea: “I decided we needed to produce a history of women cartoonists,” said Robbins. “I didn’t know about the women who preceded me,” she said. Robbins started in the San Francisco underground comics scene in 1966. Until anyone finds anything earlier, it’s the first published woman comic.” “I have the magazine it appeared in, not the original art. “The first comic I found was by Rose O’Neill from 1896,” said Robbins, whose forthcoming book is called The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age.

It led to the production of Kewpie dolls (she was also active in the suffrage movement), a time before Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse in 1928. Her collection also includes the work of Rose O’Neill, who was an American cartoonist known for her Kewpie cartoons, which were published in Ladies’ Home Journal in the early 1900s. Robbins has single-handedly rediscovered an entire generation of artists, some of whom are only now being recognized.Ĭase in point: the 20th-century cartoonist Nell Brinkley – whose Brinkley Girl comic is part of the exhibition – is one of the inductees of this year’s Will Eisner Hall of Fame award, roughly one century after her artwork was made. Her collection includes cartoons by women in the flapper era, the second world war and 1950s romance comics, among others. The first part of the exhibition looks at roughly 80 artworks from the historic collection of California-based cartoonist and collector Trina Robbins. Though the society is closed to the public during the pandemic, the online version shows a selection of curated artworks, which will be on view until 24 October. The exhibition is divided into two sections: the history of women cartoonists, dating back to the early 1900s, and contemporary comics from the 1970s to present day. “I think there are a great number of voices out there, and people want to hear this diverse range,” said Kim Munson, the exhibition’s co-curator.

The Great Women Cartoonists by Trina Robbins