Trina Robbins
What can I say about Trina Robbins? As it turns out, a hell of a lot. But I have to begin somewhere.
Trina Robbins (née Perlson; August 17, 1938 – April 10, 2024) was a cartoonist, writer, historian and lecturer. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe, which was the first comic book entirely created by women. She co-founded the Wimmen's Comix collective, wrote for Wonder Woman, and produced adaptations of Dope and The Silver Metal Lover. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Eisner Awards in 2017 and 2021.
As a scholar and historian, Robbins researched the history of women in cartooning. She wrote several nonfiction books including Women and the Comics (1985), A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), The Great Women Superheroes (1996), From Girls to Grrrlz (1999), Pretty in Ink (2013), and Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age (2020). She co-founded the organization Friends of Lulu in 1993.
That's plenty right there, right? But that's not even a tenth of what this remarkable woman accomplished in her life.
Here's something about Trina that not a lot of people know: She was immortalized in a song by Grammy winner and singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. Trina is mentioned in Joni's song "Ladies of the Canyon". Robbins met Mitchell in the late 1960s through musician David Crosby, a connection formed during her time visiting friends in Laurel Canyon. Mitchell was so taken with Robbins that she penned the very first verse of "Ladies of the Canyon" about her, opening with the famous lines: "Trina wears her wampum beads / She fills her drawing book with lines / Sewing her skins and her beads..."
Trina was a wonderful, caring, giving and loving human being who stood up passionately for her beliefs and fought for what she thought was right. She was also an amazingly talented writer and artist that loved comics. There will never, ever be another like her.
Trina passed away on April 10th, 2024 after suffering a stroke. She was 85 years old.
You know, every time .... every single freakin' time I hear that one of the greats has passed away it rips out another piece of my soul. And the older I get the more it happens. Nearly everyone I met when I first started going to comic con in the 80's is gone now. And Trina's death hit me particularly hard. I mean, she was 85. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later so I can't say I was shocked. But it hurt.
But I can't look at it that way. All of those greats, all of those Hall of Famers ... Kirby, Kurtzman, Eisner, Toth, Adams, Barks, Schultz, Ditko, Frazetta, Robbins ... I shouldn't be sad that they're gone. I should be happy. Happy that they chose to be artists. Happy that they chose to share their art with the world. Because their art will live forever.
Thank you, Trina. For everything.
Mike
(12 Days Until SDCC 2026!)
What can I say about Trina Robbins? As it turns out, a hell of a lot. But I have to begin somewhere.
Trina Robbins (née Perlson; August 17, 1938 – April 10, 2024) was a cartoonist, writer, historian and lecturer. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe, which was the first comic book entirely created by women. She co-founded the Wimmen's Comix collective, wrote for Wonder Woman, and produced adaptations of Dope and The Silver Metal Lover. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Eisner Awards in 2017 and 2021.
As a scholar and historian, Robbins researched the history of women in cartooning. She wrote several nonfiction books including Women and the Comics (1985), A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), The Great Women Superheroes (1996), From Girls to Grrrlz (1999), Pretty in Ink (2013), and Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age (2020). She co-founded the organization Friends of Lulu in 1993.
That's plenty right there, right? But that's not even a tenth of what this remarkable woman accomplished in her life.
Here's something about Trina that not a lot of people know: She was immortalized in a song by Grammy winner and singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. Trina is mentioned in Joni's song "Ladies of the Canyon". Robbins met Mitchell in the late 1960s through musician David Crosby, a connection formed during her time visiting friends in Laurel Canyon. Mitchell was so taken with Robbins that she penned the very first verse of "Ladies of the Canyon" about her, opening with the famous lines: "Trina wears her wampum beads / She fills her drawing book with lines / Sewing her skins and her beads..."
Trina was a wonderful, caring, giving and loving human being who stood up passionately for her beliefs and fought for what she thought was right. She was also an amazingly talented writer and artist that loved comics. There will never, ever be another like her.
Trina passed away on April 10th, 2024 after suffering a stroke. She was 85 years old.
You know, every time .... every single freakin' time I hear that one of the greats has passed away it rips out another piece of my soul. And the older I get the more it happens. Nearly everyone I met when I first started going to comic con in the 80's is gone now. And Trina's death hit me particularly hard. I mean, she was 85. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later so I can't say I was shocked. But it hurt.
But I can't look at it that way. All of those greats, all of those Hall of Famers ... Kirby, Kurtzman, Eisner, Toth, Adams, Barks, Schultz, Ditko, Frazetta, Robbins ... I shouldn't be sad that they're gone. I should be happy. Happy that they chose to be artists. Happy that they chose to share their art with the world. Because their art will live forever.
Thank you, Trina. For everything.
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Mike
(12 Days Until SDCC 2026!)
