Barbara "Willy" Mendes (; )(born January 30, 1948) is an American cartoonist, fine artist, and influential member of the underground comix movement. She is best known for her work alongside Trina Robbins on '' It Ain't Me Babe'' and ''All Girl Thrills''. Although Mendes first attained her fame as ''Willy'', she later transitioned into ''Barbara''.

Education

Mendes attended New York City's

High School of Music and Art The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the H ...

, followed by the University of California, Riverside.

Career

Mendes worked in underground comix while also producing other work for exhibitions in art galleries around the United States. Her art draws inspiration from Judaism and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

themes.

Early work

Mendes began her career in underground comix in the late 1960s. She collaborated with Trina Robbins and Nancy Kalish on '' Gothic Blimp Works'', the comix supplement of the '' East Village Other'', an underground newspaper. Mendes and Robbins continued working together, publishing '' It Ain't Me Babe,'' an all-women comic book, in 1970. In 1971, Mendes published ''Illuminations'', which portrays more psychedelic work. She then stepped away from the comix scene and transitioned, adopting the name Barbara Mendes. Mendes claims that her "stuff was never raw and sexual ... It was about hippies saving the world through spirituality".

Recent work

After completing a mural in a Sephardic Synagogue in Los Angeles, Mendes began to study Torah and actively practice Judaism. Mendes opened her own art gallery in downtown Los Angeles. She paints brightly colored biblical narratives based on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, which is the third book of the Torah. Mendes created her own style of "Epic Paintings", consisting of brightly colored, narrative imagery displaying biblical stories and messages. In 2017, a scene from Bruno Kohfield-Galeano's short film 'The Blinking Game' was filmed in Mendes' studio and features many of her paintings. Mendes returned to comics in 2020 with the release of ''Queen of Cosmos Comix'' from Red 5 Comics. The book combines her modern biblical narrative paintings with her 1970s’ underground comix work into a modern personal and religious narrative.

Bibliography

Comics

Source: * "Make Money, Sell American Seeds," in '' Slow Death Funnies'' #1 (Last Gasp, April 1970) * "Oma," in '' It Ain't Me, Babe'' ( Last Gasp, July 1970) * "Ada," in ''Insect Fear'' #2 (Print Mint, Mar. 1971) * "Take This Woman Comix" in '' San Francisco Comic Book'' #3 (Print Mint, Aug. 1971) * Multiple stories in ''All Girl Thrills'' #1 (Print Mint, 1971) * "Easy Come Easy Go," in '' Yellow Dog'' #23 (Print Mint, Oct. 1972) * "The Hippy Wedding," in ''The Someday Funnies'' (Abrams, 2011) — reprint of a story from the 1970s * ''Queen of Cosmos Comix'' (Red 5 Comics, 2020)

Editor

* '' It Ain't Me, Babe'' ( Last Gasp, July 1970) * ''Illuminations'' (1971)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Barbara Living people 1948 births 20th-century American artists 20th-century American writers 21st-century American artists 21st-century American writers American women illustrators American illustrators American female comics artists Underground cartoonists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists