Trina Robbins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Trina Robbins |
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Robbins at the 2023 WonderCon
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| Born | Trina Perlson August 17, 1938 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 10, 2024 (aged 85) |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist, Editor |
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Notable works
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Wimmen's Comix Vampirella Wonder Woman Women and the Comics |
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Trina Robbins (Trina Perlson; August 17, 1938 – April 10, 2024) was an American cartoonist. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first female artists in that movement. She is a member of the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.
Contents
Career
Early work
Robbins was an active member of science fiction fandom in the 1950s and 1960s. Her illustrations appeared in science fiction fanzines like the Hugo-nominated Habakkuk.
Comics
Robbins' first comics were printed in the East Village Other; she also contributed to the spin-off underground comic Gothic Blimp Works.
In 1969, Robbins designed the costume for the Warren Publishing character Vampirella for artist Frank Frazetta in Vampirella #1 (September 1969).
She left New York for San Francisco in 1970, where she produced the first all-woman comic book with fellow female artist Barbara "Willy" Mendes. Robbins became involved in creating outlets for and promoting female comics artists, through projects such as the comics anthology Wimmen's Comix, with which she was involved for twenty years.
In 2000 Robbins introduced GoGirl! — superhero stories designed to appeal to young girls. Robbins wrote the stories, with Anne Timmons providing the bulk of the art. The series ran for five issues with Image Comics, and then was picked up by Dark Horse Comics, with the final issue coming out in 2006.
In 2010, she began writing comics adventures of the Honey West female detective character for a series published by Moonstone Books.
Wonder Woman
Robbins' official involvement with Wonder Woman began in 1986. At the conclusion of the first volume of the series (in conjunction with the series Crisis on Infinite Earths), DC Comics published a four-issue limited series titled The Legend of Wonder Woman, written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Robbins. The series paid homage to the character's Golden Age roots. She also appeared as herself in Wonder Woman Annual 2 (1989).
In the late 1990s, Robbins collaborated with Colleen Doran on the DC Comics graphic novel Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story.
Writing and activism
In addition to her comics work, Robbins was an author of nonfiction books on the history of women in cartooning.
Her first book, co-written with Catherine Yronwode, was Women and the Comics, a history of female comic-strip and comic-book creators. Subsequent Robbins volumes on women in the comics industry include A Century of Women Cartoonists (Kitchen Sink, 1993), The Great Women Superheroes (Kitchen Sink, 1997), From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines (Chronicle, 1999), and The Great Women Cartoonists (Watson-Guptill, 2001). More recent work includes Pretty In Ink, published by Fantagraphics in 2013, which covers the history of North American women in comics from Rose O'Neill's 1896 strip The Old Subscriber Calls to the present.
Robbins was a co-founder of Friends of Lulu, a nonprofit formed in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry.
Robbins is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.
Personal life and death
In the late 1960s, Robbins ran an East Village clothing boutique called "Broccoli" and made clothes for Mama Cass, Donovan, David Crosby, and others. She wrote a memoir entitled Last Girl Standing, released in 2017 from Fantagraphics. Her partner was artist Steve Leialoha. Robbins died on April 10, 2024, at age 85.
Awards and recognition
Robbins was a Special Guest of the 1977 San Diego Comic-Con, when she was presented with an Inkpot Award. She won a Special Achievement Award from the San Diego Comic Con in 1989 for her work on Strip AIDS U.S.A., a benefit book that she co-edited with Bill Sienkiewicz and Robert Triptow.
She was the 1992 Guest of Honor of WisCon, the Wisconsin Science Fiction Convention.
Robbins was a three-time winner of the Lulu of the Year award — in 1997, for her book The Great Women Superheroes; in 2000 for her book From Girls to Grrrlz; and in 2001 (along with co-author Anne Timmons) for Go-Girl!. In 2001, Robbins was inaugurated into the Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
In 2002, Robbins was given the Special John Buscema Haxtur Award, a recognition for comics published in Spain.
In 2011, Robbins' artwork was exhibited as part of the Koffler Gallery show Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women.
In July 2013, during the San Diego Comic-Con, Robbins was one of six inductees into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. The award was presented by Mad magazine cartoonist and Groo the Wanderer creator Sergio Aragonés. The other inductees were Lee Falk, Al Jaffee, Mort Meskin, Joe Sinnott, and Spain Rodriguez.
In a 2015 poll, Robbins was ranked #25 among the best female comics creators of all-time.
In 2017, Robbins was chosen for the Wizard World Hall of Legends.
ComicsAlliance listed Robbins as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.
Robbins' art and art from her collection of the work of women cartoonists was featured in the 2020 Society of Illustrators exhibit "Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back". It was later featured in the "Women in Comics" exhibit at the Palazzo Merulana in Rome, Italy.
See also
In Spanish: Trina Robbins para niños
