214 FEMINISM
male cartoonists would never touch: abortion, menstruation, sexual harassment, rape,
domestic violence, incest, lesbianism. Th e book inspired other women cartoonists to
publish. In 1976, Roberta Gregory self-published the fi rst lesbian comic book, Dyna-
mite Damsels , followed by Mary Wings’s self-published Come Out Comics in 1977, and
Dyke Shorts in 1978. Among the many well-known women cartoonists whose work fi rst
saw publication in Wimmen’s Comix are Phoebe Gloeckner and Melinda Gebbie.
Actually, Wimmen’s Comix was not the fi rst ongoing all-woman comic anthology; a
comic book with the outrageous title of Tits & Clits preceded it to the newsstands by
two weeks. Tits & Clits , published under the name Nannygoat Productions, was the
product of two Southern California women, Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli, working
under the pseudonym, Chin Liveley.
While Wimmen’s Comix dealt with every subject of interest to women, Tits & Clits
was all about sex. Farmer and Chevli, reacting to the sexism that they saw in male-
dominated underground comics, intended their self-published comic books to refl ect
sexuality from a feminist point of view, while being just as controversial as the male
underground comix. Because the book’s name was getting the two cartoonists into
trouble — it was not being reviewed and the title could not be printed in mainstream
media — they changed it to Pandora’s Box for one issue, after which they threw caution
to the winds and reverted to the original title.
In 1973, Farmer and Chevli produced one of the most important and unjustly
forgotten feminist comic books, Abortion Eve. Th e subject of abortion had been dealt
with as early as the fi rst issue of Wimmen’s Comix , in “A Teenage Abortion,” by Lora
Fountain, but Abortion Eve was the fi rst entire comic book to deal with the subject.
Drawn by Farmer, and written by Farmer and Chevli, the story featured four women, all
with names that were variations on Eve — Eva, Evelyn, Evita, and Evie — who meet at an
abortion clinic. Th ey each have diff erent reasons for terminating their pregnancies, and
the book reads like a turgid soap opera while at the same time educating readers about
abortion, which had just become legal. Abortion Eve was the second comic book to be
published by Farmer and Chevli as Nannygoat Productions.
In 1978, Robbins, a single mother who was fed up with slick women’s magazines
glamorizing motherhood and child-rearing, decided to show the reality of mother-
hood by editing an anthology, Mama! Dramas. Th e book, published by Edu Comics,
featured stories by seven women cartoonists who were also mothers. Th e subject matter
included co-op playgroups and alternative schools, and focused on the real problems of
single mothers and welfare mothers.
By 1979, there were enough women drawing alternative comics that the British
publisher, Hassle Free Press, was able to put together a trade paperback anthology,
edited by Robbins, titled Th e Best of Wimmen’s Comix and Other Comix by Women. Th e
book reprinted the work of 20 women.
By this time, the idea that women could create their own comics and tell their own
stories was spreading overseas. In 1977, Suzy Varty edited Heroine , the fi rst all-woman
comics anthology in England. In France, Les Humanoids Associates, publishers of
