American illustrator and writer Trina Robbins, who has died aged 85, began her comics career in her hometown of New York in the 1960s, contributing to the counterculture newspaper East Village Other. She also drew and wrote strips for Gothic Blimp Works, an underground comic strip.
Next came comic strips, covers, and spot illustrations for the underground publications Berkeley Tribe and It Ain’t Me, Babe, often described as the first feminist newspaper, followed by an all-female comic strip, It Ain’t Me, Babe . Comix (1970), followed by the anthology All Girl Thrills (1971) and the solo comic Girl Fight Comics (1972).
Her black protagonist, Fox, was serialized in Good Times (1971), and another of her characters, Panthea, who first appeared in the Gothic Blimp Works (1969), was a regular in Comix Book (1974-76).
She was also one of the 10 founders of Wimmen’s Comix, an all-female underground comic anthology published from 1972 to 1992, and was a contributor to High Times, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon, and Playboy in the late ’70s.
He later adapted Sax Rohmer’s 1919 novel Dope for Eclipse Comics (1981-83) and wrote and drew Meet Misty (1985-86) for Marvel. She was also the first woman to draw Wonder Woman in The Legend of Wonder Woman (1986).
Robbins’s interest in the history of girls’ comics led her to write a book about the genre with Catherine Yronwode, titled Women and Comics (1986), and later a book called A Century of Female Cartoonists (1993). Biographies of female comic pioneers such as Nell Brinkley, Lily Renée, Gladys Parker, and Tarpé Mills.
Born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Queens, where her mother, Bessie (née Roseman), was a teacher. Her father, Max Perlson, was a tailor and later wrote for Yiddish-language newspapers and published the story collection A Minyen Yidn (1938), which was turned into a comic anthology by Trina in 2017.
At age 10, she graduated to reading wholesome animal comics featuring Millie the Model, Patsy Walker, and other heroines. The Katy Keene comic strip was particularly influential because it encouraged Robbins to make paper dolls and design clothes for them. She was also a big fan of jungle adventurer Sheena.
Discovering science fiction at the age of 14, Robbins began attending conventions and met short story writer Harlan Ellison at one such meeting. At 21, she was five years his senior, but they dated briefly and he later cast her in his film The Oscar (1966) as Trina Yale, played by Edie Adams.
Trina attended Queens College before studying drawing at Cooper Union, but dropped out after a year. She married cartoonist Art Castillo in 1957; They moved to the Los Angeles Bay Area until they got lost in Mexico and the relationship ended.
She worked as a model for men’s magazines for a while, and was a film reporter when she met Paul Robbins, whom she married in 1962, following Castillo’s death. Her new husband wrote for the LA Free Press, which gave him access to the Byrds, Bob Dylan, and other musicians, and she began making clothes to sell to musician friends, including Mama Cass.
She returned to New York on her own in 1966 (she and Robbins eventually divorced in 1972), opening a boutique called Broccoli on East 4th Street, making clothes for exotic clients and working with many clients, including Doors singer Jim Morrison. flirted. and activist Abbie Hoffman; he also had longer relationships with Crawdaddy magazine editor Paul Williams and cartoonist Kim Deitch, with whom he founded a cartoon art museum on East 9th Street.
Her clothing making included her in a song by Joni Mitchell; in that song, Lady of the Canyon, he wrote: “Trina wears wampum beads / Fills her sketchbook with lines / Sews lace on widows’ weeds / And filigrees on leaves and vines”.
After selling his boutique in 1969 and starting to earn his living with comics, he never looked back.
In addition to his writing and illustrating activities over the years, in 1994
She co-founded Friends of Lulu, a US-based charity that encourages women’s reading of comics and women’s participation in the comics industry.
She later produced three more books on the history of women in comics: From Girls to Grrrlz (1996), The Great Women Cartoonists (2001) and Pretty ink (2013).
She also wrote a number of books for children, beginning with Catswalk: The Growing of Girl (1990) and including the Chicagoland Detective Agency series of whimsical high school mystery adventures (2010-14).
For adults, she wrote The Great Women Superheroes (1996), Eternally Bad: Goddesses With Attitude (2001), Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill (2003), and Wild Irish Roses: Tales of Brigits, Kathleens and Warrior Queens (2004).
His most recent graphic novel was Won’t Back Down (2024), a pro-choice anthology.
She is survived by her partner, Steve Leialoha, a daughter, Casey, from her relationship with Dietch, and sister, Harriet.
• Trina Robbins, author and illustrator, born August 17, 1938; Died April 10, 2024