1.13.2011

Feminist & Indie Comix

A rundown of cool feminist, woman-made and/or indie comics. By Jen!

Alison Bechdel
dykestowatchoutfor.com
Alison Bechdel is the one who inspired this entire blog post, because today I checked out her graphic novel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic from the library and it is so good. It's a memoir about her family and childhood and while I have enjoyed her strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which is a comedic look into feminist lesbian culture, Fun Home is a more serious (although still funny) piece that explores different issues (family relationships). It's an interesting side to Bechdel and I highly recommend it - and all of her other work!

Hothead Paisan by Diane DiMassa
hotheadpaisan.com
dianedimassa.com
It's not really possible to write about feminist comics without mentioning Diane DiMassa's Hothead Paisan Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist. It is best described by DiMassa herself: "Reading Hothead comics is guaranteed to give you a fleeting sense of empowerment while you laugh until you realize it's not funny and start crying." (Totally true.) It's very cathartic to vicariously release pent-up feminist rage and anger through Hothead's violent outbursts and rampages. Also, Chicken is my cartoon feline soulmate.

Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic, Persepolis, is about growing up female in Iran during the Islamic Revolution (1979). I learned a lot about the history of Iran while reading it. I thought it was beautiful how she portrayed her relationship with her religion and with god, and how she maintained that relationship as her culture became increasingly fundamentalist. Embroideries is another comic by Satrapi in which she is discussing sexuality with her female relatives (mother, grandmother, aunts, etc.). It's funny, cute and insightful.

Trina Robbins
trinarobbins.com
My introduction to the feminist comix world was Trina Robbins' beautiful and interesting book From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women in Comics. In it, she writes about the history of comics that were written for a female audience (as opposed to mainstream superhero comics that were marketed to boys). She discusses romance comics and Archie and all that nonsense (which, while being nonsense in my mind, was nonetheless interesting) but in the last two chapters she talks about feminist comics specifically, from the second wave feminist movement to "riot grrrl" and DIY comics of the 90's. It was through this book that Ms. Robbins informed me of the existence of the comic Love and Rockets, for which I will forever and always love her. Trina Robbins has also written A Century of Women Cartoonists and The Great Women Superheroes (among other nonfiction books), both of which are at my local library and which I intend on checking out sometime in the very near future. In the past she worked on It Ain't Me Babe and Wimmen's Comix, and also created the Go Girl comics.

Invincible Summer by Nicole Georges
nicolejgeorges.com
etsy.com/shop/spinstersummer
Nicole Georges draws the cute comic zine Invincible Summer (two anthologies have been published by Microcosm) and puts out the Invincible Summer Animal Calender every year. She has also toured with Sister Spit (sisterspit.com). Invincible Summer is one of my favorite zines ever!

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
I don't know how accurately you can apply the feminist label to Ghost World (and I also don't know if it is important to consider that there are several rips on feminists and feminism in the (shitty ass piece of garbage) Ghost World movie) but it is a story about a close female friendship that I personally love and find beautiful and funny.

Locas by Jaime Hernandez
LOCAS IS MY FAVORITE COMIC EVER!!!!!!!!! Seriously! I wonder if I can even write about Locas coherently, it's that good. If you're not into comics, read Locas, and you will officially be INTO comics. I promise. Okay. So, Locas is a part of the Love and Rockets series that Jaime Hernandez does with his brothers (Gilbert's work is worth checking out too but it's not as good as Locas in my opinion) and it is about two punk rock chicks, Maggie and Hopey, whose relationship blurs the lines between best friends and lovers. If you read the comics from start to finish there is a very natural and profound progression in the characters' lives and personalities. It's subtle, like watching your friends grow up - they feel like the same character until you look back on the beginning of the story. The characterization is just incredible! Locas explores themes like sexuality, gender, race, the punk subculture, relationships and friendship. To my knowledge, Jaime Hernandez is not a (self-proclaimed) feminist, but his comics indisputably are.

Fly
flyspage.com
peops.org
Fly makes these cool zines called PEOPs. They are portraits of her friends and aquaintances, various artists, band members, activists, etc. and in the background of the illustration is a transcript of the things the subject was talking about as Fly drew them. A collection of some of her PEOPs drawings was published by Soft Skull Press. She also makes the comic Dog Dayz and Autonomedia published her book CHRON!ICRIOTS!PA!SM! which is "A collection of stories & comics & sketchbook pages about life in a squat in the lower east side of NYC & traveling the world."

Jessica Abel
jessicaabel.com
I haven't yet read any of Jessica Abel's work, but I just checked out her graphic novel La Perdida out of the library and it's looking good. I heard about her comic Artbabe from Trina Robbins' aforementioned book and would like to track it down soon. In her FAQ on her Web site, Jessica writes in response to the question "Are your comics feminist?":
"Short answer: Yes. Long answer: this is a really stupid question. Read them and figure it out. I mean, of course they are! But this question often seems to mean something more specific, i.e., do your comics have a specifically feminist agenda? To which the answer is no. I am a declared feminist, not afraid of the label, but I simply allow my view of the world to inform my writing, not dictate it. My comics are implicitly feminist (because I am), but not explicitly so (because that’s not what I’m interested in writing about). Why aren’t men asked this question?!"
I haven't read through it yet, but she also has this cool DIY section on her site: http://jessicaabel.com/learning_comics/index.php?s=diy

Joyce Farmer
Joyce Farmer was the co-creator of the feminist comics Tits 'N' Clits and Abortion Eve in the 70's and a contributor to Wimmen's Comix. She recently published a graphic novel called Special Exits about taking care of her aging parents that looks very good.

Stephanie McMillan
minimumsecurity.net
stephaniemcmillan.org/codegreen
Stephanie McMillan writes the comic Minimum Security, which is about radical environmentalists and their struggles against industrial capitalism. It's heavy stuff presented in a very cute and often funny way. I love it! She has co-authored a book with Derrick Jensen, As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, and illustrated his children's book, Mischief in the Forest. She also makes the editorial comic Code Green.

Roberta Gregory
robertagregory.com
Roberta Gregory is the creator of Naughty Bits, featuring her character Bitchy Bitch: "a short-tempered, foul-mouthed middle-aged 'everywoman'.” Bitchy Bitch also has a lesbian counterpart, Bitchy Butch. Very funny.

Other comic artists I enjoy that don't really fall under the feminist or woman-made category are Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), John Porcellino (King Cat), Nate Powell, and Joe Sacco.

Who are your favorite comic book artists and graphic novelists?

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