Most Popular Books by Trina Robbins

Born on the cusp of WWII in 1938, at a time when other little girls dreamed of being nurses and secretaries, Trina Robbins’s ambition was to be a bohemian; and indeed she did. She chronicles a life of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll — and comics — in Last Girl Standing. Robbins describes her upbringing in Queens, New York, reading comics through her childhood in the 1940s; visiting the EC offices and becoming part of SF fandom (dating Harlan Ellison at age 16); and posing nude for men’s magazines in the 1950s; living in the Village, over her own boutique where she made clothes for and interacted with rock royalty like David Crosby, Donovan, Cass Elliot; her close relationship with Paul Williams; entering the orbit of underground cartoonists like Art Spiegelman, R. Crumb, Vaughn Bodé, and Bill Griffith, when she started contributing comics to The East Village Other; and, in the ’70s, moving to San Francisco, contending with the phallocentric underground scene, marrying Kim Deitch, co-founding Wimmen’s Comix, and being invited into Felch Comics (she declined); her work for the National Lampoon, Marvel Comics, and Eclipse in the 1980s; and her crisis as a cartoonist and transformation into an historian and lecturer in the ’90s and 2000s. From science fiction to the Sunset Strip, from New York’s underground newspapers to San Francisco’s underground comix: Trina Robbins broke the rules and broke the law. From dressing Mama Cass to being pelted with jelly babies as she helped photograph the Rolling Stones’s first US tour, from drunken New York nights spent with Jim Morrison to producing the very first all-woman comic book, this former Lady of the Canyon takes no prisoners in this heavily illustrated memoir.

Various stories of women in the comic book industry and how they got started in it.

Raf knows Megan is trouble from the moment she steps into his mom''s pet food store asking for a tarantula. But there''s one thing you can count on in Chicagoland: weird things happen several times a day. Megan is a vegetarian, manga-reading haiku writer. She definitely doesn''t fit in at Stepford Academy, her new summer school. The other students are happy to be in class. Too happy. And everyone looks and acts exactly alike. That''s weird. Megan is determined to dig into Stepford''s secrets, but soon she''s in way too deep. Raf may be the only human being she knows who can help. But with zombified students, very mad scientists, and the school psychiatrist on their trail, they''re going to need a whole lot more help. We did say that Chicagoland is weird. . .

Showcasing stories from some of the comics'' greatest female creators, this anthology features stories that range from mainstream adventures to hilarious comic shorts to heart-wrenching autobiographical stories. Originally published as Sexy Chix in 2006, this new edition is presented in a new, larger size! Featuring over a dozen stories by top talents like New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, Eisner Award-winning illustrator Jill Thompson, Scary Godmother creator Colleen Doran, DC Comics creators Gail Simone and Joëlle Jones, and many more!

Poor Megan-history''s repeating itself. She''s been booted from Stepford Prep, and her father is sending her to visit Pine Lake Academy . . . a boarding school. This could mean the end of the Chicagoland Detective Agency! Raf and Bradley come along to get a sniff at the new school, but when Megan ducks into a restroom marked do not enter and Raf takes a sip from an old fountain, school becomes the least of their problems. Something spooky is knocking around in the pipes, and now it has its hooks in them. Have Raf and Megan really been taken over by a ghost from a hundred years ago? Can Bradley dig up the mystery that''s dogged Pine Lake Academy for a century? What deeply buried dastardly deeds will bubble to the surface?

Trina Robbins has spent the last thirty years recording the accomplishments of a century of women cartoonists, and Pretty in Ink is her ultimate book, a revised, updated and rewritten history of women cartoonists, with more color illustrations than ever before, and with some startling new discoveries (such as a Native American woman cartoonist from the 1940s who was also a Corporal in the women’s army, and the revelation that a cartoonist included in all of Robbins’s previous histories was a man!) In the pages of Pretty in Ink you’ll find new photos and correspondence from cartoonists Ethel Hays and Edwina Dumm, and the true story of Golden Age comic book star Lily Renee, as intriguing as the comics she drew. Although the comics profession was dominated by men, there were far more women working in the profession throughout the 20th century than other histories indicate, and they have flourished in the 21st. Robbins not only documents the increasing relevance of women throughout the 20th century, with mainstream creators such as Ramona Fradon and Dale Messick and alternative cartoonists such as Lynda Barry, Carol Tyler, and Phoebe Gloeckner, but the latest generation of women cartoonists―Megan Kelso, Cathy Malkasian, Linda Medley, and Lilli Carré, among many others. Robbins is the preeminent historian of women comic artists; forget her previous histories: Pretty in Ink is her most comprehensive volume to date.

A friend has vanished, a mummy s amulet is missing, and there s a weirdo out there looking for human brains and hearts. The Chicagoland Detective Agency run by Megan, Raf, and his talking dog Bradley have more than enough cases on their hands (and paws). But where to start? Megan s too busy for private-detecting. Her haikus won her tickets to meet the drop-dead gorgeous rock star Sun D Arc. Raf is sure that Sun is too good not to be really bad. He must be involved in one of their cases. And what about Sun s suspiciously familiar manager? Or the pushy new girl at school? Can Bradley, dog genius, pull his team together and sniff out what suspect goes with which case?

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting to engage reluctant readers! Help! Just before the science fair, a set of magic potions disappear from Luna''s locker! The Chicagoland Detective Agency takes up the young witch''s case. If Raf, Megan, and Raf''s talking dog Bradley can handle space aliens, mummies, and ghosts, this case is child''s play! But when a potion goes awry and a hooded stalker and a wannabe master criminal intervene, the case takes a wild turn into a full-blown catastrophe. Will love-smitten supersleuth Megan and jet-pack inventor Raf be able to straighten out this mess in time? Or will Bradley''s nose save the day once more?

"In graphic novel format, tells the story of Bessie Coleman, the daring stunt pilot"--Provided by publisher.

Yes, Chicagoland is an odd place. But the word is out that Megan, Raf, and Raf''s talking dog Bradley are the team to go to when weirder things than usual start happening. Their Chicagoland Detective Agency takes danger in hand (and paw) to find a mysteriously missing puppy and an even more mysterious pack of dogs that only shows up once a month. Bradley''s nose knows from the start that this is more than a simple case of stray pets . . . and a whole lot more than a stray case of full-moon transmogrification! Will high tech and haikus be enough to save them from the world''s worst case of doggy breath?

An easy biography of Florence Nightingale, told in graphic format.

Yes, Chicagoland is an odd place. But the word is out that Megan, Raf, and Raf''s talking dog Bradley are the team to go to when weirder things than usual start happening. Their Chicagoland Detective Agency takes danger in hand (and paw) to find a mysteriously missing puppy and an even more mysterious pack of dogs that only shows up once a month. Bradley''s nose knows from the start that this is more than a simple case of stray pets...and a whole lot more than a stray case of full-moon transmogrification! Will high tech and haikus be enough to save them from the world''s worst case of doggy breath?

Chicagoland can''t get much weirder than this: Raf, Megan, and Bradley have been abducted by aliens from the planet Fnarf III! And not just your ordinary, everyday aliens, either. These extraterrestrials are intelligent canines, as smart as Bradley, who come from a world where dogs rule and humans drool. And they have a case Bradley can really sink his teeth into: the Fnarfian princess has gone missing, and the space-dogs need help from planet Earth''s home team—the Chicagoland Detective Agency—to track her down. After uncovering zombies, mummies, were-mutts, and ghosts, is the Chicagoland Detective Agency up to the job of investigating their first interstellar caper?

A talented young actress becomes fatally ensnared in London''s mysterious and glittery drug culture of the early 20th century. Trina Robbins'' comic book adaptation of Sax Rohmer''s sensational 1919 novel. DOPE was both the first novel to speak openly about the world''s international drug trade, and the first story to center around the death of a celebrity by drug overdose. As for the art, it is considered by many (including Trina herself) to be her best work ever as an illustrator.

In 1938, Lily Renée Wilheim is a 14-year-old Jewish girl living in Vienna. Her days are filled with art and ballet. Then the Nazis march into Austria, and Lily''s life is shattered overnight. Suddenly, her own country is no longer safe for her or her family. To survive, Lily leaves her parents behind and travels alone to England. Escaping the Nazis is only the start of Lily''s journey. She must escape many more times—from servitude, hardship, and danger. Will she find a way to have her own sort of revenge on the Nazis? Follow the story of a brave girl who becomes an artist of heroes and a true pioneer in comic books.

Fantagraphics celebrates The Flapper Queens, a gorgeous collection of full-color comic strips. In addition to featuring the more well-known cartoonists of the era, such as Ethel Hays, Nell Brinkley, and Virginia Huget, Eisner award-winning Trina Robbins introduces you to Eleanor Schorer, who started her career in the teens as a flowery art nouveau Nell Brinkley imitator but, by the ''20s, was drawing bold and outrageous art deco illustrations; Edith Stevens, who chronicled the fashion trends, hairstyles, and social manners of the ''20s and ''30s in the pages of The Boston Globe; and Virginia Huget, possibly the flappiest of the Flapper Queens, whose girls, with their angular elbows and knees, seemed to always exist in a euphoric state of Charleston.

Women and the Comics is the first attempt to document the careers of the hundreds of women who have created and worked in the field of comic strips, comic book and cartooning. The women whose work is showcased in this book have been long overlooked or ignored by most other histories of comics. In this volume you''ll encounter the art of Rose O''Neill, whose Kewpies popularity spans over 70 years; Nell Brinkley, whose "Brinkley Girl" was just as famous in her day as Gibson''s; Grace Drayton, whose lovely drawings gave the Campbell Kids life; the "flapper" artists of the 1920s; Dale Messick, creator of Brenda Starr; Martha Orr, who originated Mary Worth; the once anonymous female comic book artists of the 1940s; newspaper strip creators Marty Links (Bobby Sox), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy) and Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse); and the many women who write and draw today''s most popular comic books. A special chapter surveying female cartoonists in Europe, Japan, and Australia is also included. Women and the Comics is a landmark book, the result of four years of research by Catherine Yronwode and Trina Robbins. It is a reference source designed to serve future generations interested in discovering the contributions women have made to America''s most popular art form.

Tells the story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Written in graphic-novel format.

Life isn''t exactly paradise for aspiring artist Morning Glory Conroy. Anxious about an upcoming comics festival and worried about her best friend Julia''s deteriorating home life, Glory has enough to juggle without also being swept off her feet by the guy Julia likes. Gabriel is the answer to every girl''s prayers: sweet, full of wonder at the world, and divinely handsome. But does he count as a real boyfriend if his overbearing guardian forbids even kissing? Not to mention the added complication of his mischievous cousin Luci trailing Glory''s every move just to cause trouble. Glory is in for a startling revelation when she discovers Gabriel''s true identity—and learns that their romance has distracted him from an important mission. Will it take a miracle to sort out this mess, or can Glory move heaven and earth to help the people she loves?

Life isn''t exactly paradise for aspiring artist Morning Glory Conroy. Anxious about an upcoming comics festival and worried about her best friend Julia''s deteriorating home life, Glory has enough to juggle without also being swept off her feet by the guy Julia likes. Gabriel is the answer to every girl''s prayers: sweet, full of wonder at the world, and divinely handsome. But does he count as a real boyfriend if his overbearing guardian forbids even kissing? Not to mention the added complication of his mischievous cousin Luci trailing Glory''s every move just to cause trouble. Glory is in for a startling revelation when she discovers Gabriel''s true identity—and learns that their romance has distracted him from an important mission. Will it take a miracle to sort out this mess, or can Glory move heaven and earth to help the people she loves?