Early Underground Feminist Comic Wimmen's Comix, Archive of Eleven Issues, 1972-1987

Wimmen's Comix

Periodical

Underground women's collective anthology Wimmen’s Comix, eleven period issues from 1972 to 1987, documenting how feminist creators built an ongoing publication outside the male dominated underground comix network. The group comprises nos. 1 through 5 and 7 through 12, lacking only no. 6 from the opening twelve issues; it includes the inaugural number, both sides of the publication hiatus after no. 7, and the first two Renegade Press numbers. Founded after the 1970 one shot It Ain’t Me, Babe, the series used rotating editors to distribute authority among its contributors and publish work concerning abortion, lesbian identity, employment, sexuality, domestic life, and politics. No. 1 anchors the group with Trina Robbins’s “Sandy Comes Out,” identified in scholarship as the first comic strip centered on an openly lesbian character.

Moodian, Patricia, et al., eds. Wimmen’s Comix. Nos. 1 through 5 and 7 through 12. Berkeley and San Francisco: Last Gasp Eco Funnies and Last Gasp; Long Beach: Renegade Press, 1972 to 1987. Eleven illustrated comic books.

[1] Moodian, Patricia, ed. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 1. Berkeley: Last Gasp Eco Funnies, November 1972. The Patricia Moodian cover bears a 75 cent price sticker and advertises “Sex, Revelation, Psychotic Adventure”; the issue contains Aline Kominsky’s “Goldie a Neurotic Woman,” Lora Fountain’s “A Teenage Abortion,” Lee Marrs’s “All In A Day’s Work,” and Robbins’s “Sandy Comes Out.”
[2] Marrs, Lee, ed. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 2. Berkeley: Last Gasp Eco Funnies, 1973. Edna Jundis’s floral cover identifies the publication as “The Anthology of Women Cartoonists,” while the contents include Kominsky’s “Hard Work and No Fun,” Michele Brand’s “Home Agin,” and Marrs’s “The S.B.I. Story.”
[3] Rudahl, Sharon, ed. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 3, “Fun & Games Issue.” Berkeley: Last Gasp Eco Funnies, October 1973; second printing, January 1974. The 75 cent cover identifies this copy as the second printing and surrounds its central figures with games and activities; stories include “A Sordid Affair,” “Rip Van Rosie,” and “The Great American Dream Scream Game.”
[4] Sampson, Shelby, ed. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 4. Berkeley: Last Gasp, 1974. Shelby Sampson’s cover places a woman amid frogs and lily pads; the issue includes Diane Noomin’s DiDi Glitz story “She Chose Crime,” “Cyberfenetics: The Everyday Housewife,” and “When a Woman is a Man.”
[5] Robbins, Trina, and Terry Richards, eds. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 5, “International.” Berkeley: Last Gasp, June 1975. The airport cover announces the international theme; contents include “Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World,” “Die Bubbeh: The Grandmother,” and “Tiger Lily of Saigon.”
[6] Gebbie, Melinda, and Dot Bucher, eds. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 7, “Outlaws.” San Francisco: Last Gasp, December 1976 issue; undated second printing. The $1.25 cover price identifies this copy as the second printing; “Pirates” concerns Mary Read and Anne Bonny, while “Protecting Yer Morals,” “Moonshine Mama,” and “Jailbreak at Hermosillo” address policing, criminality, and women outside legal authority.
[7] LeMieux, Kathryn, and Lee Binswanger, eds. The Return of Wimmen’s Comix. No. 8, “The 21st Century Woman.” San Francisco: Last Gasp, March 1983. Published after the six year hiatus, the issue presents Trina Robbins’s technological parody on its cover and includes “Equal Rites,” “Virginia’s Story,” “The Misogynist,” and “Really Had a Ball Last Night.” [8] Leschen, Caryn, and Rosemary Dinegar, eds. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 9, “Women at Work.” San Francisco: Last Gasp, May 1984. Its compartmented cover depicts women in offices, domestic labor, retail, and other workplaces; the contents include “A Typical Day at the Office,” “Vocational Training,” and “The Young and the Professional.”
[9] Farmer, Joyce, ed. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 10, “International Politically Incorrect Fetish Issue.” San Francisco: Last Gasp, October 1985. Joyce Farmer’s cover stages human and animal fetish figures around the issue title; “Fetus Fetish Funnies,” “Modemorphose,” “Yuppie Love,” and “Anarchy in the 21st Century” appear inside.
[10] Kryttre, Krystine, and Dori Seda, eds. Wimmen’s Comix. No. 11, “Fashion Confidential.” Long Beach: Renegade Press, April 1987. The fashion magazine parody introduces pieces on AIDS era clothing, body size, consumer culture, and lesbian presentation, including Alison Bechdel’s “Butch & Femme,” from Dykes to Watch Out For.
[11] Bocage, Angela, and Rebecka Wright, eds. Wimmen’s Comics. No. 12, “3 D.” Long Beach: Renegade Press, November 1987. Carol Lay’s painted cover shows a child with three eyes; the issue uses three dimensional effects by Ray Zone for work including “Closed Circuit,” “Why We Do It,” and Diane Noomin’s “A Blonde Grows in Brooklyn.”

The collective formed when women cartoonists in San Francisco found limited access to the anthologies produced by their male counterparts, and it sustained a rotating editorial system across changing contributors, themes, and publishers. Aesthetic and political disagreements prompted Aline Kominsky and Diane Noomin to leave after no. 4 and produce Twisted Sisters in 1976, while Wimmen’s Comix continued through no. 7 before suspending publication until 1983. Nos. 8 through 10 document the Last Gasp revival; nos. 11 and 12 record the transfer to Renegade Press and the anthology’s engagement with workplace identity, fashion, AIDS, queer life, and autobiographical cartooning during the 1980s. Covers show light to moderate edge and spine wear, scattered rubbing, and small corner creases, with interiors primarily clean; overall very good condition. A substantial opening sequence of the first ongoing women created comic book series, preserving its feminist underground origins, editorial conflicts, six year interruption, and return under a new generation of contributors.

Item #23843

Price: $750.00