Trina Robbins was a pioneering cartoonist who was among the first female artists of the underground comix movement, who later became a noted comics historian.
- Died: April 10, 2024 (Who else died on April 10?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 85.
- We invite you to share condolences for Trina Robbins in our Guest Book.
Trina Robbins’ legacy
When in school, Brooklyn-born Trina Robbins was one of the only kids in her class who enjoyed science fiction. The flights of fantasy and mind-bending stories proved influential to her later work – but before comics, she first had a career in fashion. Robbins owned a boutique in New York’s East Village, where she sold clothing that helped define the look of the 1960s counterculture.
Robbins moved to San Francisco in 1970, where she created and published the first all-woman comic, “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” with Barbara “Willy” Mendes. Her work also appeared in “Wimmen’s Comix #1.” That story, “Sandy Comes Out,” was the first comic story to feature an openly lesbian woman. Robbins’ work of the era was frequently outspoken – she was highly critical of acclaimed artist Robert Crumb’s depictions of women – and she did not shy away from social and political issues, including helping produce a pro-choice comic anthology in 1990.
In 1986, Robbins made a brief foray into mainstream comics when she drew Wonder Woman. First published in 1941, she became the first ever woman in the comic’s then 45-year history to draw the character in her own book.
Beginning in 1985 and continuing through the rest of his career, Robbins also became a comics historian. She wrote or co-wrote an array of works on comic book history, often focused on the role women have played in creating art or on female comic characters. They include “From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines,” “A Century of Women Cartoonists” and “The Great Women Superheroes.”
Robbins is in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, won the Lulu of the Year award three times and is in the Wizard World Hall of Legends, among other honors.
On the alternative comics scene:
“It was just a new art form. It was very revolutionary. The idea that you could do comics that were not Spiderman or Batman, you know, that were counter culture. It was a brand new art form, and it was very exciting, and it was very vigorous and very alive.”—Interview with Comic Book Historians, 2019
Tributes to Trina Robbins
Full obituary: Forbes
