Trina Robbins's Blog, page 3

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Finally: WordPress is so wierd! Every time I try to put up my blog another strange thing

happens. (And there’s no way to contact a live human being to help you figure out what’s

going wrong!) Last time, the only way I could put up a picture was to post it as a picture,

and put the rest of the blog up as a CAPTION (!!!), and that’s why my blogs looks so

wierd. The result was that I was unable to include a pic of the cover of my latest

Chicagoland book, “The Bark in Space”. (And that’s why I call this “Fear of Blogging!”)

I love this book and I want you to see the cover, so here it is.

Still more…

Next week: on to Gainesville, Florida, for “A Comic of Her Own,” a feminist conference at the University of Florida.  Here’s how the website describes it:

This conference hopes to foster the scholarly exploration of intersections between women’s writing in comics, women represented in comics, and the women who read them. To accommodate this goal, the conference will feature a mixture of formats: keynote lectures, workshops and Q & A sessions with guest artists, a round table discussion, and traditional academic conference presentations. Guest speakers: Jeffrey A. Brown, Leela Corman, Megan Kelso, Trina Robbins.

Finally, I’ll be home for two days before flying off to Lucerne, Switzerland, for Fumetto 2013, which promises to be a fascinating comics convention at which I seem to be the only American! I’m there for the part of the convention called “Robert Crumb and the Underground,” and I’ll be speaking on March 23rd at noon.  The convention goes on forever, from March 16 to March 24, so I’ll only be there for part of it.  The English language website is http://www.fumetto.ch/, and I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Then: home, and lots of sleep!

More…

Next, on to chilly Chicago for Limmud, an international Jewish cultural festival, where I

presented a talk on my graphic novel, “Lily Renee, Escape Artist,” and taught a

comics-writing workshop to teens. The only trouble with Limmud is that it’s a one-day

festival and entirely too many good things were crammed into that day, forcing me to

make some tough decisions about which presentations to take in. I decided on one about

secular Jewish music, and one about Jewish demonology, and I wasn’t disappointed –

fascinating stuff that I want to look into much further. And here I am with a talented

young man I met there: Darren Kwiatkowski has illustrated a charming book for younger

readers called “The Book of Roots,” and I predict we’ll be seeing more from him in the

future.

FEAR OF BLOGGING CONTINUES TO GO EVERYWHERE!

First, to Victoria, where I discovered a new (to me) woman artist. The Victoria film

festival put me up at the elegant Empress Hotel, one of the oldest and most famous hotels

in Victoria, and the classiest place I have ever stayed. But right in front of the hotel is a

statue of a middle aged woman in sensible walking shoes, with a monkey perched on her

back. Who was she, I wanted to know. Oh, silly, provincial me! She was Emily Carr

(1871-1945), merely the most famous woman artist in Canada, and now I know about her.

There’s a lovely graphic novel called “Four Pictures by EMILY CARR,” by Nicolas

Debon, and it’s a very nice introduction to her life and work. Then, at my booksigning at

Legends comics, a very kind man named Jon Blair gave me a copy of Emily Carr’s

journals, called “Hundreds and Thousands: the Journals of an Artist.” You can find out

much more and see her paintings here: http://bcheritage.ca/emilycarrhomework/main.htm.

On to the Victoria film festival for a showing of “Wonder Women: the Untold Story of

American Superheroines,” where the lovely volunteers had dressed like superheroines

just for the showing, and here I am with them.

Hey, San Franciscans and Bay Area people: The Womnder Women film will be showing

at the main branch of the San Francisco public library at 5:45 pm on March 19th, and I’ll

be there along with the film maker, Kristi Guevara-Flanagan, to talk about the film

afterwards. Come see it, you won’t be sorry! And it’s free, as are all films at the SF

public library.

FEAR OF BLOGGING GOES EVERYWHERE!

What I did:

Last December I went to the International Women’s History Museum for a screening of

Kristy Guevara-Flannigen’s documentary, Wonder Women! The Untold Story of

American Superheroines.” Yes, it’s about Wonder Woman, but it’s also about the

depiction of women heroes in the media and pop culture, and the empowering of real life

women. And I have the honor of being one of the people in the movie, alongside Lynda

Carter and Gloria Steinem!

Among the many attendees (It was a full house!) was a great group of teenage girls who

belong to a truly empowering club called Girls Inc., and here I am with them, all taller

than me and all superheroine material.

What I’m Doing:

And in less than a week, I’ll be seeing that film again, and discussing it afterwards, in

Victoria, British Columbia, at the Victoria Film Festival. The date is February 6th, at 7

p.m.,and the place is the Vic theater. Here’s a link to the festival website:

http://victoriafilmfestival.com/

And here’s a link to the film website so you can read all about it, and even see a trailer:

http://wonderwomendoc.com/

Earlier that day you can find me signing books at :

LEGENDS COMICS & BOOKS

633 Johnson Street

Victoria BC V8W 1M7

(250) 388 – 3696

And less than a week after that, I’ll be a speaker at the San Francisco Writers Conference,

on February 15th, talking about research, which I have done tons of in the course of

writing my histories of women cartoonists and my hitory of the Golden Age of Chinese

nightclubs in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Forbidden City. Contrary to what they always

say, you don’t have to write about what you know all the time — that can get pretty

boring. But if you want to write about what you don’t know, you gotta research it, and I

know how!

The conference is at the Mark Hopkins hotel, on Mason and California streets, from

February 14th to the 17th, and here’s a link: http://sfwriters.org/

THE NEXT DAY…

I’m off to Chicago, for Limmud Chicago, 2013. Limmud is a Jewish cultural organizatin

that describes itself thusly:

Limmud is an independent, pan-denominational, all-volunteer organization dedicated to

the creation of engaging opportunities to experience and celebrate Jewish learning and

culture.

I couldn’t have said it better! I’ll be giving a talk on Lily Renee, subject of my graphic

novel, “Lily Renee, Escape Artist,” and also teaching a workshop for tweens and teens

on writing comics and graphic novels. The date is February 16th (evening) and February

17th, all day, and the website is: http://limmudchicago.org/

SOOOO…If you’re in Victoria, San Francisco, or Chicago this month, come on by and

say hello.

FEAR OF BLOGGING IS HAPPY…

Because my latest Chicagoland graphic novel, #5 in the series, “The Bark in Space” is

now out, and I hold a copy in my hands. Tyler Page, the illustrator, has outdone himself,

and the book looks better than ever! I’ll be signing copies in Victoria.

And in March: Florida and Swizerland! But I’ll tell you all about that later…

Fear of Blogging Joins the Fashion Police

On Thanksgiving night Steve and I went to see the last Twilight movie after gorging on turkey (it’s either sleep or go to the movies, right?) and while watching a long fight scene (Don’t worry, I won’t give anything away) where the vampires, good and bad, use their special powers, I thought: This is like a superhero movie, except I really like it, and I HATE superheroes. So how come? I decided two reasons: one, the men and women in Twilight, while of course impossibly gorgeous (Because they’re supposed to be vampires, and also because, let’s face it, they’re actors) have great bodies, NOT impossibly overly muscled in the case of the men, nor do the women have enormous breasts. The other reason is, I love their clothes! Apparently when you become a vampire you develope great taste in clothes and you start dressing in velvets and soft suedes, exquisitely fluffy furs (and of course, the werewolves ARE exquisitely fluffy furs!), long fringe, soft boots, as opposed to the superheroes who wear hideously colored (poison green, royal blue!) stretch outfits that look like leisure clothing from Walmart’s, or in the case of the women, hooker outfits. How come in comics, when women get superpowers, they immediately want to dress like sluts?

If there really were a Fashion Police, I would be Commissioner.

And speaking of fashion, this wonderful handbag is designed and made by Carl Linich.  Carl designs comic book clothing and furniture, all of which you MUST check out on his ETSY shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ToonedUp  When you see me at conventions, I’ll be carrying that handbag. 

I’m thrilled to get an advance peek at the gorgeous cover of my soon-to-be-published graphic novel, “A Match Made in Heaven,” #8 in the series, “My Boyfriend is a Monster.”  The graphic novel series, each written and drawn by different writers and artists, covers vampire boyfriends, zombie boyfriends, Frankenstein monster boyfriends – you get the picture – and as you can see from the cover (so I’m not giving anything away!), my heroine’s boyfriend is an angel.  I love this book, it’s the most romantic story I’ve ever written, and it’s gorgeously illustrated by two young women in Spain, who collectively call themselves Xian Nu Studio.  Look for it in 2013! 

And speaking of collectives, 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the Wimmen’s Comix Collective.  In 1972 ten San Francisco Bay Area women cartoonists met at the home of Patti Moodian to create the first (and still the longest-lived) ongoing anthology of comics by women.  At the time, you could count the women drawing comics on one hand and still have lots of fingers left over.  Wimmen’s Comix lasted twenty years and by the time of their last issue, in 1992, there were more women in America drawing comics then ever before, and it was Wimmen’s Comix that started it all.  I’m proud to have been one of the original founding mothers!  We had our reunion on November 10th, at the opening of the Wimmen’s Comix exhibit at the main branch of the San Francisco public library.

Here’s a photo taken in 1975, of the Wimmen at a gallery showing of our work. 

And here’s the photo of us at the November 10 opening, taken by Paul Mavrides (Thank you, Paul!). 

Here’s where I’ll be VERY SOON:

WONDER WOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF SUPERHEROINES by acclaimed Bay Area filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flannagan.

From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, WONDERWOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN SUPERHEROINES looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation. Going behind the scenes with Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, comic writers and artists (including a bit of yours truly!), and real-life superheroines such as Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna and others, WONDER WOMEN! offers an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male-dominated superhero genre. Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan lives in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood and teaches at DiabloValleyCollege.

Saturday December 1; silent auction and pre-screening reception with the filmmaker starting at 5pm; screening at 7pm.

$25 Benefit for the Women’s Building in SF / $15 Student/Seniors and Disabled

WonderWomen will be shown at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco’s FortMason, and here’s the link: http://www.celebrationofcraftswomen.org/

Then, on December 5, I’ll be on a panel at the International Museum of Women along with film maker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, talking about her fabulous film.    Here are the details:

Event Details: Wednesday, December 5. Check-in and wine reception at 5:30pm. Program begins at 6:00pm. RussBuilding, 235 Montgomery Street, 12th floor, San Francisco. Tickets are $5 for IMOW and partner organization members, $10 for non-members. Seating is limited. Please RSVP by December 2, 2012.

And here is the link: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/imow/even...

 

Finally, my only comment on these panels, from a 1971 Batman comic by Frank Robbins (no relation!) is – Bummer!  

 

FEAR OF BLOGGING JOINS A FLASH MOB…

 But more about that later.

It’s been so long (it is ALWAYS so long!) between blogs, that I have to start back in August. That month, I went to New York to meet with and interview, Fran Hopper, who drew a whole bunch of great comics for Fiction House comics back in the 1940s. Fran is 90 years old, and I had not known she was still alive, but I found her due to some Nancy Drew-level detective work on the part of Alexa Dickman (I am forever grateful, Alexa!).

Fran has trouble with her eyes, but otherwise she’s just fine, and, comparing her to the self-portrait she painted in about 1947, she still looks like the old Fran Hopper, just with some years added. And, looking at early photos of Fran, I couldn’t help but notice how much she resembled the character she drew, Mysta of the Moon, the most intelligent person in the universe. Isn’t it nice to have a superhero whose super power is smarts?

I also visited the wonderful and talented Ramona Fradon, who in the 1950s and 60s was one of only two women drawing for mainstream comics, because only she and Marie Severin could draw superheroes. I have said this before: women tend to not be interested in drawing overly muscled, thick necked guys with big chins beating each other to a pulp. So bravo for Marie and Ramona, who could do it (ever though they didn’t really like it)!

Ramona took me to Hyde Park, the home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and here we are, sitting with them. Oh, Franklin, where are you now that your country needs you more than ever?

Books! I have more books and comics out! (Yes, the rumors are true: I never sleep) Part 2 of my Honey West story, “Murder, Forsooth,” is out and Silvestre Szilayi is almost finished with the inking of my next Honey West two-parter, “Death in the Desert,” which takes my favorite TV heroine to old Vegas.   And the 5th in my Chicagoland Detective Agency series is out: “The Big Flush” is the best yet of the series, and I’m delighted with the job that Tyler Page did with it — his best yet. Look for ghosts from the Titanic, a haunted toilet, a mysterious locket (Isn’t there always a mysterious locket?).

Recent news: starting in September, I’ve been volunteering at Obama headquarters here in the Castro district, twice a week. I made myself an Obama dress to wear when volunteering, and here it is, in this photo of me and Steve, and our cardboard pal. I found the fabric at a thrift shop! (It is not for nothing that I am called the thrift shop queen of San Francisco) It’s made in Tanzania, from 2008.

What else I did for Obama: I joined a flash mob that danced for Obama at the Ferry building here in San Francisco on October 3rd. Here’s the lnk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGZ-jw...

The reason for my magical change of clothing from a grey Obama tee and black pants to a long striped dress is that after we danced the first time, I changed clothes, only to discover that everybody had so much fun (me too!), we did it all over again.

FEAR OF BLOGGIN…

FEAR OF BLOGGING IS HAPPY…

Because part 1 of my next two-part Honey West comic is finally out, with two beautiful alternate covers and beautiful interior art by Silvestre Szilagyi, who draws in a very European style. First time any of my scripts have been illustrated in that style, and I love it! Look for part 2 soon…

LAST NIGHT…We…

LAST NIGHT…

We had a No Straight Lines event at Books Inc., in the Castro, and here’s the group photo. Again, I’m easy to find, being not only the shortest, but the only woman in the group! That’s my old pal Robert Triptow that I’m hugging, ex-editor of Gay Comix and co-editor with me and Bill Sienkiewicz of StripAIDS USA, a graphic collection we produced in 1988, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, with the proceeds going to the Shanti project.

NEXT WEEK! FEAR…

NEXT WEEK! FEAR OF BLOGGING GOES TO CONNECTICUT…

on August 10th – 12th, to take part in People of the (Comic) Book, a 3-day workshop on Jews and comics at the Isabella Freedman Jewish retreat Center. Here is all the information you’ll need: Isabellafreedman.org/comicbooks

I hope to see you there!