uwmspeccoll:Queer Comics CornerAll this month we will be taking a dive into some of the LGBTQ+ comic
uwmspeccoll:Queer Comics CornerAll this month we will be taking a dive into some of the LGBTQ+ comics in our collection here at UWM Special Collections. The two comics above come from The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, a two-volume set that collects all seventeen issues of the women-helmed underground comic anthology, Wimmen’s Comix (1972-1992). The two-volume edition was published in 2016 in Seattle by Fantagraphics, and was issued in a slipcase along with a pair of 3D glasses. Our copy is signed by comic creator Trina Robbins, a fixture in the Bay Area underground comix scene, who was instrumental in forming the Wimmen’s Comix collective and also provided an introduction to the collection. Robbins is also notable for her contribution to Wimmin’s Comix #1 (San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1972), the comic “Sandy Comes Out,” often cited as the first depiction of an openly lesbian character in comics. In No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (recently realized as a feature length documentary), editor Justin Hall characterizes “Sandy Comes Out” as “the first comic about a lesbian that was neither derogatory nor erotic.” The Sandy in question was also the real-life sister of hugely influential underground comic artist Robert Crumb. The comic was met with mixed reactions, however. For one, Robbins was straight, but more importantly the three-page comic faced critiques of misrepresenting, or being flippant towards, the coming out experience. It was, nonetheless, an important milestone that encouraged some lesbian readers, like Mary Wings, upset by what she saw as a flat depiction of the lesbian experience, to turn to comics making. Wings went on to create the first lesbian comic book, Come Out Comix, in 1973, self-published out of the basement of a radical women-focused karate studio in Portland, Oregon.“Sandy Comes Out” also telegraphed a willingness on the part of Wimmen’s Comix to include lesbianism in their conception of the women’s liberation movement at a time when lesbian and bisexual women were fighting to be heard. By their fourth issue (San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1974), the collective included a comic about lesbianism that was submitted by an actual real-life lesbian (imagine!): Roberta Gregory’s “A Modern Romance.” Gregory’s comic packs a lot of heft into four pages (homophobia in the women’s movement, sexual harassment, self-doubt and denial, vulnerability, tenderness, losing ones virginity). Gregory would go on to create Dynamite Damsels, the first continuing series self-published by a woman. You can find our former intern Cameron’s post on Wimmen’s Comix, which features individual issues in our collection, here. Find more of our past Pride Month posts here. -OIivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern -- source link
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