America’s Sweethearts Start Talking Back
Representations of women throughout much of 20th century comics history were largely stereotypical. “Tijuana bibles,” which were illegal pornographic bootlegs popular in the first half of the century, usually featured lusty, under-sexed housewives. Since these poorly-produced publications represent perhaps an all-time low for women in comics, there was fortunately nowhere to go but up! Stereotypes continued, however, for much of the 20th century: the omnipresent damsel-in-distress of superhero comics, teen drama queens like Archie’s Betty and Veronica, busty pin-ups like Sheena, Torchy Todd and Katy Keene, and “dumb blondes” like Suzie of Laugh Comics.
Yet, comics geared towards women and girls saw an evolution of style and content in their own right, and protofeminist themes appeared occasionally, even before second-wave feminism called for all-out women’s liberation. Patsy Walker, a popular Archie-esque character originating in girl’s magazine Miss America, demonstrates all the stereotypical fixations of teen girls, yet stands out in issue no. 2 of her title series (1945) when she demands equal pay for women.
Little Lulu is a cute but mischievous character who evolved from single-panel cartoons in the Saturday Evening Post to a daily syndicated comic strip and then to a stand-alone series. Lulu turned out to be something of an incidental feminist by way of her outspoken attitude towards male characters and the dominant social structure.
Lulu is one of several quirky “littles” along with Little Audrey, Little Dot, and Little Lotta, whose insatiable appetite gives rise to superhuman strength. While Lotta’s weight brings her a fair share of ridicule, bullies are quick to regret it. She is a friend to all and her ability to eat everything in sight is hailed as a superpower, in an early display of body positivity.
During the 1940s-1950s, comics that promoted careers suited for women were popular. Timely Publications issued a “career girl” series that included titles like Nellie the Nurse, Tessie the Typist, Sherry the Showgirl and the longest running, Millie the Model. In an early issue of Millie the Model, Millie surprises her would-be beau when, after much deliberation, she opts not to end her career to marry him and keep house. The series ran for twenty-eight years and would feature several spin-offs including Modeling With Millie, which was decidedly more slap-stick in its later years. These series shared much in common, including romance, drama, pin-up paper doll cutouts, and advertising geared towards achieving feminine perfection.
The 1960s saw a gradual integration of counterculture into comics. Mods, beatniks and hippies began to appear in painfully cheesy series like Go-Go, The Modniks, and Josie and the Pussycats. Comics about hopeless romantics, career girls, and dramatic teens remained popular, but started to reflect more liberated women who played in bands, worked as flight attendants, and even went to college!
In the late 1960s, inspired by Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD Magazine and other satirical publications, cartoonists launched the revolutionary “underground comix” genre, where the only rule was that there were seemingly no rules. Yet, not surprisingly, the scene was as rife with misogyny as the mainstream culture they sought to disavow. Trina Robbins recalls the scene as feeling like “a closed boy’s club, with no room for women.” Disrespect and violence towards women were frequent themes.
Everything changed in 1970. That year, Robbins published It Ain’t Me, Babe Comix, the first all-woman produced (written, drawn, inked) comic, with fellow members of a San Francisco-based newspaper collective of the same name. Contributors included Willy Mendes, Nancy Kalish, Meredith Kurtzman, Michelle Brand and Lisa Lyons.
The 1970s became, in effect, a golden age for feminist underground comics. In 1970, Trina Robbins published the one-shot anthology All Girl Thrills, with collaborators Willy Mendes and Jewel Wood. Mendes produced her own psychedelic comic, Illuminations, in 1971
Robbins went on to create Girl Fight Comics which spanned two issues, published in 1972 and 1974.
Last Gasp launched Wimmen’s Comix in 1972, upon the formation of the Wimmen’s Comix Collective, whose founding mothers included Robbins, Marrs, Brand, Patte Moodian, Terre Richards, Sharon Rudahl, Lora Fountain, Shelby Sampson, Aline Kominsky, Karen Marie Haskell and Janet Wolfe Stanley.
Content differed from the deliberate vulgarity and hedonism of the male-centered underground comix. Women began writing and drawing about their struggles, from the mundane to the appalling, and everywhere in between: insufferable secretary gigs, street harassment, sexuality, birth control, domestic violence, rape and abortion, just to name a few. The vulgarity often remained, but shifted from the space of nihilism espoused by their male counterparts to a space of necessity. Women had had enough of it all and comics became the perfect medium to illustrate their feelings.
Another series to launch that decade was Tits & Clits, self-published by Lyn Chevely (aka Chin Lively) and Joyce Farmer as a response to the harsh misogyny of the quintessential underground series Zap Comix. The series ran from 1972-1987 and was picked up by Last Gasp Eco Funnies for the last four issues. Contributors included Robbins, Sampson, Marrs, Rudahl, Roberta Gregory, and others.
In 1973, Lee Marrs launched The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, about an overweight, easily impressionable teen runaway whose mission in life is to lose her virginity. Body-shaming, drug use, sexually-transmitted infections, hygiene and birth control were among the many themes Marrs incorporated in the 3-issue series.
That same year, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton legalized abortion. Chevely and Farmer published the pro-choice Abortion Eve, which featured dialogues with three women considering abortions for different reasons, and provided resources for women finding themselves in such situations.
Melinda Gebbie, a Wimmen’s Comix and Tits & Clits contributor, published her own semi-autobiographical solo work, Fresca Zizis, in 1977. Due to its obscene content (Gebbie is known for her heavy, frank depictions of sexuality), Fresca Zizis was seized by British Customs, burned and outlawed in the United Kingdom. Here in the U.S., however, women’s erotica like Gebbie’s found a home in the Kitchen Sink anthology, Wet Satin, and other women’s comix continued to enjoy attention throughout the decade.
Curated by Anna Culbertson