In stores today: The Complete Wimmen’s Comix
In the late ’60s, underground comix changed the way comics readers saw the medium — but there was an important pronoun missing from the revolution. In 1972, ten women cartoonists got together in San Francisco to rectify the situation and produce the first and longest-lasting all-woman comics anthology, Wimmen’s Comix. Within two years the Wimmen’s Comix Collective had introduced cartoonists like Roberta Gregory and Melinda Gebbie to the comics-reading public, and would go on to publish some of the most talented women cartoonists in America — Carol Tyler, Mary Fleener, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Dori Seda, Phoebe Gloeckner, and many others. In its twenty-year run, the women of Wimmen’s tackled subjects the guys wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole: abortion, menstruation, masturbation, castration, lesbians, witches, murderesses, and feminists.
Most issues of Wimmen’s Comix have been long out of print, so it’s about time these pioneering cartoonists’ work received their due. Presented as a gorgeous two-volume slipcased set, The Complete Wimmen’s Comixincludes the ground-breaking 1970 one-shot, It Ain’t Me, Babe, the very first all-woman comic book ever published. Edited with an introduction by Trina Robbins.
Check out a video preview:
Selected Praise:
“As definitely essential as it is definitely not for children.” – Starred review from Booklist
“These comics by and about women responded to the spirit of their times, provided outlets for some extraordinary talent, and stood as counterpoint to historical male dominance in both mainstream and alternative comics.” – Comics Beat
“Wimmen’s Comix should take its share of the credit for nurturing so many now-celebrated women comix artists who have eased the genre out of the underground and into the mainstream of comics and graphic novels—and for providing a lot of raucous laughs to themselves. This publication is a very welcome addition to the feminist media archive and a rich resource for further research and study.” – NY Journal of Books