514 ROBBINS, TRINA
While Road to Perdition qualifi es as both a graphic crime novel and graphic historical
novel, Collins’s expert development of the father/son relationship and Rayner’s exqui-
site artwork elevate the novel beyond generic limitations and expectations.
Anthony D. Baker
ROBBINS, TRINA (1938–). Trina Robbins is the world’s foremost comics “herstorian,”
having written several major books on women in comics. She is also an important car-
toonist in her own right, and a pioneer in publishing female comics artists. Robbins
made her debut working in underground comics , or “ comix ,” in the early 1970s, and
was one of the very fi rst female comics artists to emerge in these formative years for
comic art. Robbins’s fi rst comics were printed in the East Village Other. She later joined
the staff of the feminist underground newspaper It Ain’t Me, Babe , where she produced
the fi rst American all-woman comic book, also titled It Ain’t Me, Babe , in 1970. She
would go on to become increasingly involved in creating outlets for, and promoting,
female comics artists — who at the time were few and often not invited to the all-male
underground comix anthologies.
Robbins next major project was the anthology Wimmen’s Comix , started in 1972
and run by a group of female artists. Wimmen’s Comix turned out to be an impor-
tant springboard for a whole new generation of female comics artists, including Mary
Fleener, Melinda Gebbie, Phoebe Gloeckner , Roberta Gregory, Aline Komisky
Crumb, Carol Lay, Diane Noomin, Lee Marrs, Sharon Rudahl, Dori Seda, Carol Tyler,
and Penny Van Horn. Th e magazine folded in 1992.
Even though she has always worked to promote other female artists, Robbins has
also had the time to work as an artist herself, in the 1970s producing underground
comix magazines like All Girl Th rills and Girl Fight. In the 1980s she, among other
things, worked as penciler on Wonder Woman for the major publisher DC Comics. In
the 1990s and into the 21st century she has worked on the comic GoGirl , with artist
Anne Timmons for Image Comics.
Always working with a feminist goal, Robbins soon realized that the literature about
comics was not paying enough attention to female creators, characters, and readers.
In the 1980s she therefore set out to produce the very fi rst book about comics from a
decidedly female perspective. Th e result was Women and the Comics , published in 1985
and co-written by Catherine Yronwode. Since then, Robbins has become the world’s
leading comics herstorian, producing a number of books about comics, writing articles,
curating exhibitions, and giving lectures.
Robbins has also written several books on other themes, but always from a
feminist perspective. Today she is, among other things, producing scripts for bio-
graphical comics like Hedy Lamarr and a Secret Communication System and Florence
Nightingale: Lady with the Lamp. Robbins won a Special Achievement Award from
the San Diego Comic Con in 1989 for her work on Strip AIDS U.S.A. , a benefi t
book she co-edited with Bill Sienkiewicz and Robert Triptow. She was also one
of the founders of the non-profi t organization Friends of Lulu , created in 1994 to
