Fear of Blogging Makes MS Magazine!

Hey, MS Magazine online has reprinted Lisa Hix’s great interview and article about me,
from Collector’s Weekly:
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/09/29/women-who-conquered-the-comic-book-world/
I can’t believe I finally got into MS! Back in the 70s, MS refused to carry ads for Wimmen’s Comix.

Surprise! Lily Renee Comes to Comic Con!
Return with me now to those thrilling days of July, 2014. I was all set to fly to the San Diego comic con on Thursday, July 24th, when on Tuesday, the 22nd, I got an email from Rick Phillips, the son of Golden Age cartoonist Lily Renee: Lily was visiting him in San Diego, and she’d like to come to the con; can she get in free? I’m like, duh, she’s the great Lily Renee, of course she can! But just to make sure, I emailed Jackie Estrada who was like, duh, she’s the great Lily Renee, of course she can! Then after some fancy back and forth emailing with beautiful Jen Vaughn of Fantagraphics, we had a day and time for Lily to sit with me at the Fantagraphics booth and sign copies of Pretty in Ink. And THEN I put the announcement up on Facebook so everybody would know Lily was coming!
Friday in the convention center an eager line of fans who knew their Golden Age comics awaited Lily, who is elegant and intelligent, and proof that, no matter how old you are, when you’re beautiful you stay beautiful. We sat next to Don Rosa, the best Duck Artist in the world (I believe he channels Carl Barks) and an awfully nice guy, who, purely by coincidence, had that very day bought a Fiction House comic book with a Lily Renee cover. And he had no idea she was going to make an appearance! (And here I am with Don) Does he have the cutest smile, or what? Just what you’d expect from a duck man.
Mary Fleener, the best cubist artist except for a bunch of dead guys, showed up and here’s a photo of the three of us.
After the signing, we headed for Steve’s table, which he shares with Scott Shaw! and Sergio Aragones. Scott and Sergio had no idea Lily would be there and their minds were totally blown! Sergio, continental guy that he is, actually got down on one knee and kissed Lily’s hand! I said to them: You guys owe me one. Here we all are:

I LEFT MY APPENDIX IN HONOLULU
So there we were on vacation in Hawaii, having a lovely time. Then, 3 days before we were slated to fly back, on a Tuesday night I started feeling pain in my right side, decided to sleep on it and hoped it would be gone by morning, which of course it was not. Steve and I went to the Waikiki Urgent Care Clinic where the doc told me “You have appendicitis.” We taxied to Queen’s hospital in Honolulu, where they admitted me and performed a speedy appendectomy. I had to stay overnight but they took great care of me, brought me breakfast (that I couldn’t eat), then later lunch (That I also couldn’t eat) before discharging me Thursday evening, in no condition to travel yet. (our return flight was Friday morning!) Our only problem was changing our flight to Saturday. The airline
representative we spoke to over the phone had the compassion of a clam. Didn’t anyone ever teach her to say, even if you don’t care, “I’m so sorry this had to happen to spoil your vacation, and I hope you recover quickly?”
I am all better and tapping again. If you ever need a hospital on Oahu, Queen’s Hospital comes highly recommended. Steve sez the only thing left is next time we go to Molokai and I get leprosy.

COMING UP:
APE is this weekend, October 4th and 5th, at Fort Mason in San Francisco, and I’ll be there on the 4th. Find me at the Fantagraphics booth!
Next: From October 24th through the 26th, I’ll be in Victoria, British Columbia, at the MOST AMAZING COLLECTIBLE SHOW (that’s what it’s called!). Here’s some
information: http://www.vimacs.ca/dealerinformatio.html
and: http://www..vimacs.ca/guestandevents.html
Come by, find me, say hello!

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FEAR OF BLOGGING TRAVELS!

…Starting with my exhibit at Toonseum, America’s cutest comic art museum. As you may know, if you know me or even about me, I possess the world’s largest collection of comic art by early 20th century women cartoonists. This is possible because all the guys who collect original comic art want Jack Kirby or Spiderman #1. For the same reason, I’m not afraid of it being stolen because since it’s all by girls, nobody wants it but me.
Anyway, chunks of my collection are almost always on exhibit somewhere. So on March 20th I found myself in Pittsburgh giving a presentation about my collection, and about my final and definitive history of women cartoonists, Pretty in Ink. Here I am giving everybody a tour of the art hanging on the walls. I will be doing the same thing at the San
Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, which is currently showing the largest chunk of my collection ever. The exhibit will be up through August, and on July 31st, I will be your tour guide at the museum’s official reception.
Cons I have been to:
The day after speaking at Toonseum was PIX, a friendly small con, featuring lots of local talent and lots of DIY comics. I had a great time there, but one question: why, with all the really talented local women sitting at booths with their really good comics, was I the only female featured guest?
Just two weeks later, I was off to Gem City con, in Dayton, Ohio. Here I am with Matt Tauber at Gem City con. Matt brought some of my books from the 70s and 80s for me to sign. He also writes a mean blog (his specialty is Milton caniff) in which he says nice things about me: http://matttauber.blogspot.com/2014/04/gem-city-comic-con.html

During both these cons, I was suffering from my annual bout of bronchitis, but no way was I gonna cancel either cons and make people mad at me, so I went and I coughed. Everybody was extra nice to me, and supplied me with cough drops, teas, and even honey. Thank you, Pittsburgh honey lady! The worst part was Flying While Coughing, to and from both cons, although the flight to and from Toonseum took the cake. I was the star of the flight, but not in a good way. I was a Jonah! If they could have thrown me off
the plane, they would have. One woman even asked me if I knew what I had, because she was immuno deficient. I had to explain over and over that it was bronchitis, and that I was not contagious. (I wasn’t!)
Then, in May: TCAF! The Toronto Comics Art Festival, and one of the best conventions I’ve ever been to. There was not one cosplayer to be seen, and no mainstream superhero stuff — just good panels, good comics and graphic novels, and soooo many talented women with their graphic novels! Here’s something I’m noticing at conventions: lots of beautiful young women of a certain size. They are zoftig, buxom, call it what you will, and they wear their flesh with pride, along with chic mini dresses and bright red lipstick. I say brava!

The day before the festival, the kind people in charge took all us guests to Niagara Falls. I had been to the American side of the falls, but never to the Canadian side, and I must confess: the Canadian side is even more kozmik!
Also in May: Big Wow comic con, in San Jose. Thank you, Steve Wyatt, for having me as a guest and inviting me back. And I had a great time there! But one question: in your long list of special guests, why is it that the only woman included was a cosplayer?
Here’s a link from last Autumn (!!!) that I should have put up ages ago. It’s a great tv show called “Ten Percent” with the wonderful David Perry, and here I am being a guest on his show. Thank you for having me, David, it was fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jHLWinevAs

What am I reading: I’m reading and enjoying Susan Vreeland’s “The Forest Lover,” which is about the Canadian painter Emily Carr. Being the Ugly American that I am, I knew nothing about Emily Carr until a few years ago when I stayed at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, as a guest of the Victoria film festival. Right in front of the hotel is a staue of a very solid woman in a sensible skirt and sensible shoes with a dog at her feet and a monkey riding on her shoulder. Turns out it’s a statue of Emily Carr, one of the great women painters of the 20th century, who every Canadian school kid apparently knows about but I didn’t. While I was in Victoria, some kind person gave me a copy of Carr’s journals, Called “Hundreds and Thousands,” which I have yet to read but I will when I finish “The Forest Lover.” Plus, there’s a very sweet graphic novel about her called “Four Pictures by Emily Carr.” I’m returning to Victoria in the fall, and this time I’m gonna seek out the galleries and museums that have her art. BTW, Susan Vreeland is a very good writer who seems to specialize in writing about art-related subjects. I loved the novel she wrote called “Girl in Hyacinth Blue,” about a Vermeer painting.
Oh look! Here I am with an anthology that I’m thrilled to have contributed to: “Heroines of Comic Books and Literature,” edfited by Maja Bajac-Carter, Norma Jones, and Bob Batchelor. I’m sitting in the shady courtyard of one of my fave neighborhood cafes, Thorough Bread, on Church Street. A good place to sit with a cuppa joe and a good boo
What I’m working on: my memoir, finally, to be published by Kitchen Sink. And to get me in the mood, I’ve been reading memoirs by people I know: Carol Ruth Silver’s “Freedom Rider Diary,” and Dave Van Ronk’s “The Mayor of MacDougal Street.” In 1961, 22 year old Carol, a nice middle class girl, bravely followed her conscience and got herself arrested in Mississippi, along with more than 300 other freedom riders, for the

cause of equality and desegregation. Forget about “Orange is the New Black”: read Carol’s book. Dave Van Ronk, alas, is no longer with us, but he was a dear friend of mine in the 1960s, and nobody sang like him. His book gives a wonderful picture of the Greenwitch Village folk scene of the 1950s and 60s, and I can just hear his voice when I read his writing. Where I’ll be next: San Diego comic con, the largest pop culture convention in America.
And here’s where you can find me:
Thursday, July 24th, from 4 – 6, at the Fantagraphics table
Friday, July 25, from 10 – 11 a.m., Fantagraphics
Saturday, July 26, 11 a.m. at the Dark Horse table
and Sunday, July 27, back at Fantagraphics at 9:30 a.m.
Come by, say hello, bring stuff for me to sign. You don’t have to buy anything!
And remember: July 31, at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum!

FEAR OF BLOGGING HAS A GREAT YEAR!

…and a busy one. But first, what did I do for Christmas? I danced! At ODC, the Oberlin Dance Commons, to be exact. My tap class and my hula class performed there in December, mainly for an audience of friends and relatives (We’re not yet ready for
Broadway) and here we are. In the tap photo, the guy in the middle is our teacher, Bruce, and the guy in the middle of the hula girls is not our teacher: he’s Robert, the only guy in the class, so of course he gets to be in the center. I love tap and hula and will never stop dancing!
FEAR OF BLOGGING IS HAPPY BECAUSE…
Back in 1974, underground comix editor and publisher Denis Kitchen and Stan Lee (Yes, THAT Stan Lee) collaborated to publish a series of underground comix anthologies in magazine format, funded by Marvel Comics (Yes, THAT Marvel Comics). The series lasted 5 issues before going under, and now Denis’ Kitchen Sink books has reprinted the best of the collection. Last month the Best of Comix Book collection was selected as one of “Amazon’s Best Books.” Here’s the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Comix-Book-Marvel-Underground/dp/1616552581/ref=sr
_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390940804&sr=1-1&keywords=comix+book
I was a contributor to that series with my Panthea stories, which are included in the book, along with the first comic I sent in for publication, which was rejected. I was a strong feminist (Still am, duh!) and a struggling single mother, so that story, “Wonder Person Gets Knocked Up,” was inspired by my life at the time. Trouble is, I was so naive at the time that I had not realized that most of the characters I was satirising — Wonder Woman, Batman, Plastic Man — were part of the DC universe, and Stan Lee did not want to get sued. My originals hung around the Marvel offices for quite a few years when somebody (not naming names!) “found” the pages, took them home, amd offered them up for sale. I found out and got in touch with Jim Shooter, who got them back for me. Now you can read my previously unpublished, rejected (with good cause!) comic, “Wonder Person Gets Knocked Up,” in the Best of Comix book, and it still holds up. Reading it after all those years, I really like it! AND THIS MONTH…
You can find me at the San Francisco Writers Conference,(https://sfwriters.org/) over President’s Day weekend (February 13th to 16th), at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. I’ll be speaking about graphic novels for teens and tweens on Friday at 4:30, and about research on Saturday, 4 pm. I love these conferences! There are always so many panels I want to take in that my chief frustration is when 3 panels I want to see are all scheduled at the same time – or worse, at the same time as my presentation. Aargh! Plus, the Mark Hopkins is a glorious historic hotel and a grand place for a conference. If you come to my presentations or run into me on the floor, please stop and say hello; I am always up for a coffee break at the conference’s Cafe Ferlinghetti.
AS FOR PRETTY IN INK…
I presented a talk about the book in December at the Cartoon Art Museum, and will be talking about it some more in March: first at Toonseum, the world’s cutest comics museum, in Pittsburgh, (http://www.toonseum.org/exhibits.html) on March 20th, and at
PIX, the Pittsburgh Indie Comic Expo, on Saturday March 22nd:
http://pixcomics.blogspot.com/p/pix-guests.html
then on March 27, at the main branch of the San Francisco public library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. If you’re in the area of Pittsburgh or San Francisco, come see me and learn stuff you probably didn’t know about early 20th century women cartoonists.
Many of you know that I possess the world’s largest collection of original comic art by early 20th century women cartoonists, and in March you’ll be able to see selections from my collection (many not included in “Pretty in Ink”) at Toonseum ( it’s already there — opened on January 4th!) and at the SF public library. From April 27 through August, a large chunk of my collection will be at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum. But more on that later.
Ooh, ooh, wait, one more thing! And on March 1st at 2pm, I’ll be on a panel at the Marin Theater in Mill Valley, where they’ll be performing a new play, “Lasso of Truth,” all about the creation of my favorite superheroine, Wonder Woman, from February 20th
through March 16th. And here’s the link: http://marintheatre.org/productions/lasso/

FEAR OF BLOGGING HAS A GREAT TIME IN ENGLAND…

In October we attended the Lakes Festival in the charming town of Kendal, in England’s beautiful Lakes district. Because we were so late in contacting the festival to say we’d like to attend, all the rooms in the hotel were already taken by the other guests, so we were put up by the honorable Clare Feeney-Johnson, councilwoman and ex-mayor of Kendal, much better than staying in some hotel. Clare was a wonderful hostess and her husband did his best to help us figure out our dreadful problems with our iPhone service, meaning, there WAS no service and our new iPhones simply didn’t work. Later we found out that iphones don’t work in Europe until you’ve had them for 90 days,
something we were not told when we got them. So we basically used them for taking pictures during our trip — at least we put them to some use!
From Kendal, after a two-day whirl in Oxford, we wound up in London, where I shared a talk with Hannah Berry at Orbital Comics. I’m delighted to know Hannah, a funny bubbly kind of gal whose excellent but absolutely creepy comics are just the
opposite. How can such dark stuff come out of such a perky person? See for yourself at
http://www.hannahberry.co.uk. And here we are. Hannah is to my right and the ladies to my left are Jessica Kemp and Corrine Pearlman.

Who else did I meet at the festival? Antonella Caputo is a comics writer who lives in Rome. There are tons of women drawing comics these days, (And brava to that!) but it was nice to meet a woman who WRITES comics, like I do.
What to look forward to: Bryan and Mary Talbot’s new graphic novel, “Sally Heathcote, Suffragette,” done with brilliant cartoonist Kate Charlesworth this time. (Bryan and Mary’s last collaboration was “Dotter of her Father’s Eye,” which I loved and
which won all sorts of awards.) “Sally Heathcote” won’t be out until Spring, but Bryan, Mary and Kate gave a great presentation at the Lakes Festival, and I’m counting the days till I can read it.
DEPARTMENT OF FUNNY FOTOS:
In November we attended the wedding celebration of my dear friend (and publisher) Brian Anderson, and his life partner Preston Nesbitt, and wouldn’t you know it, there was a photo room with funny hats’n’props. (Is this the latest thing? It seems wherever I go these days, it’s Funny Foto time!) So here’s Steve as a fireman, and I finally get to be Catwoman (or is it Batwoman?).
What’s next? I’ll be giving a presentation on my brand new, final and definitive history of women cartoonists, “Pretty in Ink,” at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum (That’s at 655 Mission Street, (415) CAR-Toon) on December 19th, at 6 p.m. Here’s what Fantagraphics (with a little tweaking by Yours Truly) has to say about the book:
With the 1896 publication of Rose O’Neill’s comic strip The Old Subscriber Calls, in Truth Magazine, American women entered the field of comics, and they never left it. But you might not know that reading most of the comics histories out there. Trina
Robbins has spent the last thirty years recording the accomplishments of a century of women cartoonists, and her presentation at the Cartoon Art Museum will give you a taste of Pretty in Ink, her ultimate book, a revised, updated and rewritten history of women cartoonists, with some startling new discoveries (such as a Native American woman cartoonist from the 1940s who was also a Corporal in the women’s army) In the
pages of Pretty in Ink you’ll find new photos and correspondence from cartoonists Ethel Hays and Edwina Dumm, and the true story of Golden Age comic book star Lily Renee, as intriguing as the comics she drew. Although the comics profession was
dominated by men, there were far more women working in the profession throughout the 20th century than other histories indicate, and they have flourished in the 21st. Trina is
the preeminent historian of women comic artists; forget her previous histories: Pretty in Ink is her most comprehensive volume to date.
And here you can get a glimpse into the interior of Pretty in Ink, as a phantom
hand turns the pages:

FEAR OF BLOGGING GOES TO ENGLAND…

Tomorrow! We’re heading to the Lakes Festival, to be held in the charming town of Kendal, in England’s beautiful Lakes district, from October 18th – 20th. On Saturday, October 19th and Sunday the 20th, you’ll be able to find me sitting behind a table at the Clock Tower, and as for where that is, your guess is as good as mine, though I imagine we’ll both find it when we get there. I’ll also be presenting a short slideshow and talk, and I’ll be interviewed by professor Melanie Gibson, on Friday, October 18th at 7:00pm in the Kendal library. Here’s the link to the festival: http://www.comicartfestival.com/
Then, on October 23rd, you can find me in London, at Orbital Comics, where I’ll be signing my books and talking on a panel with Hannah Berry, who is a very good cartoonist, and whom I’m eager to meet, and Orbital Comics owner, Chris Thompson,
whom I’m also eager to meet. (For Leialoha fans, Steve will be at Orbital Comics along with Mark Buckingham, the very next evening.) And here’s the link:
http://www.orbitalcomics.com/events/
And my final and definitive history of women cartoonists, “Pretty in Ink,” will make its debut at the Lakes Festival! My kind publisher has arranged for six (6) advance copies to be sent, and I will be there to sign them. First come, first served!
More news: The next Miss Fury collection has just come out, but alas! I still don’t have my advance copies, so there will be no copies of the book at the Lakes Festival. My copies will be awaiting me upon my return, and I am eager to see them — this collection contains the early Miss Fury Sunday pages, from 1941 – 1944, and I think of it as The Prequel to the first book.

Can’t get to England? On NOvember 13th, you can find me on a panel at the California College of Art, along with Mary Wings, Maureen Burdock, Isis Rodriguez, and Heather Plunkett, discussing Women in Comix, Then and Now. I promise a lively discussion! WomenCartoonistsFlyer
And that’s all, folks: next blog will feature my report on England. Stay tuned!

FEAR OF BLOGGING GETS AN EISNER!

Actually, I was voted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame at the San Diego comic con this year, and that’s even more exciting than an Eisner — and Eisners are the Oscar of the comic world. All too often the Hall of Fame awards go to a bunch of dead guys, so it’s nice to still be alive and get one. There I am accepting my award. Photo by the brilliant Batton Lash.

What was exciting this year at the Eisner Awards: more women than ever before up on that stage, getting Eisners for their graphic novels, even self-published graphic novels. And these ladies are great! I am really glad that I stopped drawing, because I could never compete with such talent. (Fact: many of the early women cartoonists from Wimmen’s Comix were pretty awful. We were all beginners, just learning our craft. Some of us improved, some didn’t.) Here are the women with their Eisners, ten of us sitting in the front row, legs crossed like a row of geeky Rockettes. Thanks to Jamie Coville for the photo.

More from the awards night: Maggie Thompson, former editor of the Comics Buyers Guide, yours truly, Neil Gaiman, and Jackie Estrada, administrator of the Eisner awards. Do I look happy?

<img src="https://trinarobbins.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/jamie-coville-eisners-2013-1.jpg?w=500" alt="Jamie Coville Eisners 2013 (1)" width="500" height="248"

What else happened at comic con: The Women’s History Museum of California (http://womensmuseumca.org/) has a great exhibit called Wonder Women, on Paper and Off, featuring original art by contemporary women cartoonists along with a large chunk of my collection of early 20th centrury women cartoonists. On Thursday night Mary Fleener, Ramona Fradon and I had a panel discussion at the museum, which was pure fun, and here’s Ramona, standing in the midst of the Wonder Woman display, photographed by Carrick Esquival.

I’m so glad I found this museum; it’s really amazing (Loved the fabulous vintage dresses from the turn of the last century!), but it also is in the middle of nowhere, far from the convention center, and I feared that nobody would show up for the panel. Boy, was I wrong! Every seat was filled, and people were standing. The show runs through September, so there’s still time to see it. Trina sez two thumbs up!
Endless Con: No sooner did we get home than the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum (http://cartoonart.org/) had an opening party for their Superman 75th anniversary show. Would the con never end? The joint was filled with luminaries of the comics biz, and I had a great conversation with Nicky Wheeler Nicholson, whose grandfather,Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson, founded National Periodical Publications, which became DC comics. And here’s her blog:
(http://malcolmwheelernicholson.com/2013/07/30/super-women-and-men/#comment-2484) Nicky’s working on a book about her illustrious grandfather, and here we are.

Ah, but the biggest star was Alexandria, the 3 year old daughter of Joyce Chin and Art Adams,who happens to be the cutest 3 year old girl in the Solar System, so I hung out with her.

Department of Silly Photos: In June, Steve and I attended an opening night party at the San Francisco Jewish museum. Along with all the very serious art on exhibit (Art
is serious stuff, right?) there was a group called SnapFiesta, documenting the event by taking very serious photos, and here we are, looking very serious at the serious Jewish Museum.

More silly photos from comic con: Here I am as the undead, from the Dracula exhibit,
and here I am with my pal Superman, from guess what exhibit.

Up next: Arizona. (That’s right, I never sleep!) Steve and I will be guests at Coppercon in Mesa, Arizona from August 8 – 11. (http://casfs.org/cucon/) Another guest will be Liz Berube, who in the early 1970s was the only woman drawing for DC comics’ romance line. She supplied lovely art nouveau/art deco pages of fashion and horoscopes and I’ve put Liz in all my histories of women cartoonists, but I finally got to meet her last May at Springcon in St. Paul. This time, I’ll be interviewing her and showing Powerpoint slides of her work. Don’t miss it!
After that: England in October! The Lakes Festival! But first, enough sleep…

FEAR OF BLOGGING GOES TO SPRINGCON

…and lives to tell the tale! Actually, it was my second time as a guest at Springcon, held at the Fair Grounds in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I knew what to expect: that I would be treated royally and have a great time. These folks, the Midwest Comic Book Association, are great hosts, and one of the outstanding events of the con is the big hunk o’beef lunch they feed us. I, who almost never eat meat, found myself devouring an eight ounce steak, grilled to rare perfection (Vegans, forgive me!). The fairgrounds are so cool — they are like a little village, and since the fair is closed (I guess till Summer), it’s like a ghost town. For the second year, I intended to get out there and walk around the deserted village, and for the second year, the weather prevented that. Last time, it had been tornado warnings; this time it was torrential rain, and I truly mean torrential!
Once again I saw old friends whom I only see on my rare trips to St.Paul/Minneapolis, like Diana Green, Frenchy Lunning, and Barbara Schultz, all friends from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (hitherto known as MCAD), and made new friends, chief among them long-time cartoonist Trevor Von Eeden, whose face I
could finally put to a name and turned out to be one of the nicest guys on Earth, Amy Reeder, whose work I have always admored, so it was nice to finally get to know her, and the fabulous Elizabeth Berube. I have written about Liz in all of my histories of women cartoonists. In the early 1970s she was the last and the only woman drawing for DC
comics’ romance title, and her stylish pages outshone all those cliched comics the guys were drawing. I can’t believe that we have finally met and are friends! Liz, Amy, and I had a nice comfy panel, seated on nice comfy sofas and armchairs (this is how ALL panels should be!) and here’s a photo. That’s Amy, me, and Liz.
Liz and I will be together again in August, at Coppercon, in Mesa, Arizona (August 8 – 11th) and here’s their website: http://casfs.org/cucon/
I’ll be on a panel with Liz, interviewing her and presenting a Powerpoint slideshow of her work.
Hey, guess who else I finally met at Springcon? Tyler Page, who draws our Chicagoland Detective Anegcy series! Yes, we have worked together on five books (the 6th is being drawn as I write this) and it’s the first time we had ever met! Like just about everybody else at Springcon, Tyler also teaches at MCAD, I love to peices the art he’s
done for the series, and he is a prince among men. So happy to have finally met you, Tyler!
I stayed on for one day afer Springcon, so our gracious host, Mike Frigon (who is a very cool guy and a voiceover actor — you should hear his Alec Guiness!) could show us around — “us” in this case being Liz, Trevor and yours truly. As before, I wanted to see the Mississippi. To lil ole California girl moi (and Mark Twain fan), it’s such an American icon! The weather was perfect and we got to sit in the sun and gaze at the river and the paddle wheel boats — and I even dipped my feet in the Mississippi so I could say I did.
There are some fabulous statues in the downtown St. Paul parks. Did you know Peanuts creator Charles Schulz came from St. Paul? Scattered around the city are life sized bronze statues of the Peanuts gang: Lucy, Linus, Charlie Brown with Snoopy in his lap — so of course we took a photo and here we are: Mike Frigon, moi, Liz Berube,
Trevor Von Eeden, Charlie Brown, and Snoopy.
Finally, there’s another life sized statue in St. Paul — that of St. Paul native F.Scott Fitzgerald, a writer I’ve always had a bit of a crush on. Oh, Scotty, if only we could have met, I could have kept you from drinking, and you’d have had a long happy life! Anyway, here I am hugging the guy.
WHAT’S COMING NEXT?
The San Diego comic con, that’s what! And at the same time as the con there will be a special exhibit at the Women’s History Museum of California called Wonder Women, on Paper and Off and here is the link:
http://womensmuseumca.org/exhibit/wonder-women-paper-and-off
The exhibit will feature a big chunk of my collection (the entire collection has NEVER been shown) of original comic art by early 20th century women cartoonists, the largest collection of its kind in the world. My collection has been shown in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Japan, New York, and San Francisco, and finally it’s your chance to see it in San Diego. And on Thursday, July 18th, at 7 pm, we’ll have a panel discussion at the museum featuring Ramona Fradon, Mary Fleener, Carol Lay, and me. Come see us; we’ll be great!

FEAR OF BLOGGING STRIKES AGAIN!

And this is your last chance, WordPress. Today I’m being helped by the fabulous Raymond Larrett, better known as Norman Dog, one of the most talented cartoonists in America and certainly one of the funniest. And he knows LOTS more about the internet than I do, so if he can’t help me, nobody can. And if I still can’t get WordPress to behave, I’m finding another blog server. Looking back at my blog, I see that I was so traumatized by my terrible experience putting up the last blog, that it’s been at least two months, so let’s go back to March, and
I’ll relate my adventures in Florida and Switzerland:
First came Gainseville, Florida, where I was keynote speaker at a great feminist comics conference at the University of Florida Called “A Comic of her Own.” Aside from some fascinating presentations, “A Comic of Her Own” featured the best looking program I have ever seen at a conference or convention, and here it is (art by Leela Corman).

I had never been to Florida before, but now I want to go again. They have alligators!
(And they are very proud of their gators. Did you know that that’s where GatorAid comes from?) This one was just dozing in the sun a few feet away from me. And they have Spanish moss! (I took some home) And the university has built two bat houses (Batman, step aside!), where people collect just before sunset, because at sunset the bats
emerge from their houses and great clouds of them darken the sky. On my last morning I awoke to a dense fog, and what with the fog, the Spanish moss, the gators and the bats, I wanted to shout, “Quick, someone! Film a gothic horror movie RIGHT NOW!” So, yeah,
despite the fact that it takes 9 hours to get to Gainseville from San Francisco (One more hour and that’s the time from San Francisco to England!) I wanna return.
A plus was that I got to hang out with cartoonist Megan Kelso, who was also a guest, and with Leela Corman and her husband, Tom Hart, who is Executive Director of the Sequential Arts Workshop (http://sequentialartistsworkshop.org/wordpress/), the cutest school I have ever seen. It’s in a small store front, snug and user-friendly, with all sorts of great stuff up on the walls, and a very good cafe around the corner. I am a big fan of Leela’s graphic novel, “Unterzakhn,” which for a change is NOT a memoir but a real
NOVEL about twin sisters growing up in New York’s Lower East Side in the early 20th century. It’s been nominated for an Eisner award, and she has my vote. Soooo…Two days after I returned from Florida, I was off again, to Switzerland, and the flight only took 3 hours longer than the flight to Florida. But lemme tellya, a 12 hour flight when the person between you and the aisle has an iron bladder and NEVER ONCE
during the flight gets up, is no fun!
Lucerne is a medieval town with fairytale towers and covered bridges spanning a swan-filled lake, and the convention was held all over the town, so I got to see the whole town. My big disappointment: twice I hiked up the hill to the wall that circles the town, only to join small groups of other disappointed tourists as we discovered the wall was
closed to walkers. (Maybe they open it in the Summer?)
Switzerland is beautiful but expensive! The only thing I bought was chocolate — lots of chocolate!
Next stop: Springcon in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 18th and 19th.
(http://midwestcomicbook.com/) This is one of my all-time favorite conventions; it’s held on the state fair grounds, which are still closed for the Winter, so it’s like a really cool ghost town. Last time I went to this con, 2 years ago, there was a tornado, which
was exciting, but disappointing, as the tornado struck nowhere near our building and thus did not whisk us away to Oz. I’m not sure if the weather will oblige me again this year.
Aside from the fact that Minnesota folk seem to be the friendliest in the world, I’m excited about this con because of their special guest, Elizabeth Berube. In the 1970s, Liz Berube was the only woman drawing for DC’s romance comics line. She contributed charming art nouveau and art deco-inspired fashion pages, astrology pages, and general beauty advice (“Beauty on a Budget”) and even one six-page comic. Meanwhile the guys who drew for the books were completely clueless about drawing a believeable up-to-date young woman, figuring if they gave her a short skirt and boots it would be fashionable.
I’ve written about Liz in all of my histories of women cartoonists, and now I will finally get to meet her face to face, and we’ll be on a panel together, where I’ll interview her and show a Powerpoint presentation of her work.
Next: San Diego! But I’ll write about that later…

Dear friends, because Word Press is so weird that the only way I can include pictures with my text is to put the pictures up and include the text as captions (and there’s no human being to contact for help!), in my attempt to put up my pics, I have put my blog up BACKWARDS!  That’s why it starts with “And finally…” which is where it should end, and ends with Victoria, which is where it should begin. Verily do I call it “Fear of Blogging!”  Try reading it from bottom to top.

bark-in-space-cover.jpg

Finally: WordPress is so wierd! Every time I try to put up my blog another strange thing
happens. (And there’s no way to contact a live human being to help you figure out what’s
going wrong!) Last time, the only way I could put up a picture was to post it as a picture,
and put the rest of the blog up as a CAPTION (!!!), and that’s why my blogs looks so
wierd. The result was that I was unable to include a pic of the cover of my latest
Chicagoland book, “The Bark in Space”. (And that’s why I call this “Fear of Blogging!”)
I love this book and I want you to see the cover, so here it is.