A Cup Of Coffee With Comic Book Artist & Historian Trina Robbins

A Cup Of Coffee With Comic Book Artist & Historian Trina RobbinsTrina Robbins with Roy Lichtenstein's "Reflections On Minerva," SFMOMA. | Photo: Trina Robbins/Facebook
MJ Carter
Published on July 30, 2017

Now that comic book heroine and feminist icon Wonder Woman is the star of a blockbuster that’s grossed more than $750 million—with a 2019 sequel in the works—there’s been a resurgence of interest in the character.

Princess Diana has been depicted by a legion of artists, but only a few women have held the pen so since she was created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston. One of those women, Trina Robbins, 78, lives in San Francisco.

Wonder Woman premiere with Valerie Perez, Trina Robbins, Lynda Carter, Christie Marston and Susan Eisenberg. | Photo: Valerie Perez

We spoke to Robbins over coffee about a career that brought her west after the Summer of Love, where she developed from being an underground cartoonist into a noted author and industry historian.

A science fiction fan since she was a teenager, Robbins created illustrations for sci-fi fanzines. By the 1960s, her work achieved a wider audience when she designed the costume for Vampirella, the heroine of a horror anthology series.

While in New York, Robbins also became a part of the music scene, eventually becoming close to members of The Byrds, The Doors and singer Joni Mitchell, who describes Robbins in her classic, Ladies Of The Canyon:

Trina wears her wampum beads
She fills her drawing book with line
Sewing lace on widows' weeds
And filigree on leaf and vine
Vine and leaf are filigree
And her coat's a secondhand one
Trimmed with antique luxury
She is a lady of the canyon
"Ladies Of The Canyon," Joni Mitchell | YouTube

Robbins moved to San Francisco in 1970, driving cross-country “with a bunch of other cartoonists,” she said. “We stopped occasionally to sleep, otherwise, we just drove straight through.”

Even through the Summer of Love was three years in the past, the city was still a magnet for young people, particularly those who had a creative bent. The year she arrived in San Francisco, Robbins produced and created It Ain’t Me, Babe, the first comic book to be entirely produced by women.

“Around that time between ’67 and ’70 and well into the early 70’s, people where just flocking to San Francisco because it was just the place to be,” said Robbins.

A contributor to Wimmen’s Comix for 20 years, Robbins created “Sandy Comes Out,” the first comic strip to feature an out lesbian.

Publishing 17 issues in two decades, Wimmen’s Comix depicted themes and issues concerning sexuality, politics and feminism that weren’t of interest to publishers who catered to young, male audiences.

Trina Robbins at 1982 San Diego Comic Con. | Photo: Alan Light/Flickr

Robbins worked with Marvel Comics in the 1980s, and in 1986, was hired by DC Comics to draw a a four-issue limited series, “The Legend of Wonder Woman.”

From time to time, major publishers “kill off a lot of the old characters and them revived them as new characters,” said Robbins.

Before bringing back Wonder Woman, DC Comics "needed someone to do just a four-issue series just to cover four months in between and they asked me, which was really nice,” she told Hoodline.

In May, Robbins attended the Wonder Woman premiere in Hollywood, “probably the most glamorous moment of my life,” she said.

“They had the streets roped off and they had a carpet. Afterwards, we went to the after party, which was just amazing."

On June 16, Robbins was inducted into the Hall of Legends at the Wizardworld comics convention in Sacramento, the second person to receive the honor. “I am waiting to see who else will be inducted,” she said. “It was a great honor. I love it. It's a pretty award.”

In July, Robbins received a Will Eisner Hall of Fame award for Best Archival project at San Diego Comic-Con for her work editing The Complete Wimmen’s Comix.

Her illustrated memoir, Last Girl Standing, is due out in September from Fantagraphics. According to promotional materials, the book is about “her fight against misogyny, producing the very first all-female comics anthology, running a fashion boutique, mingling with rock stars and MUCH more."