''It Ain't Me Babe Comix'' is a
one-shot
One shot may refer to:
Film and television
* One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so
* ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake
* ''One Shot'' (2 ...
underground comic
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
book published in 1970. It is the first comic book produced entirely by women. It was co-produced by
Trina Robbins and
Barbara "Willy" Mendes
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 Thr ...
, and published by
Last Gasp. Robbins and other staff members from a feminist newspaper in
Berkeley, California, also called ''It Ain't Me, Babe'', contributed. Many of the creators from the ''It Ain't Me Babe'' comic went on to contribute to the long-running series ''
Wimmen's Comix''.
Background
Female cartoonists Robbins, Mendes, and "Hurricane" Nancy Kalish (who sometimes signed her work "Panzika") were frustrated with the boy's club atmosphere of underground comix, which was dominated by male artists glorying in their depictions of sex, drugs and rock & roll—and the casual misogyny typical of those stories. The editors recruited other contributors, including Carole Kalish, Lisa Lyons (a cartoonist for a socialist newspaper), Meredith Kurtzman (cartoonist and daughter of ''
Mad'' magazine creator
Harvey Kurtzman), and
Michele Brand (
Roger Brand's wife and, according to Robbins, "a better artist").
Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner was interested in publishing a comic tied to the
women's liberation movement, and he paid Robbins $1,000 for the publishing rights.
Publication history
The 36-page one-shot was published in July 1970. The cover of the first printing featured
Olive Oyl,
Little Lulu,
Wonder Woman,
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,
Mary Marvel and
Elsie the Cow
Elsie the Cow is a cartoon cow developed as a mascot for the Borden Dairy Company in 1936 to symbolize the "perfect dairy product". Since the demise of Borden in the mid-1990s, the character has continued to be used in the same capacity for the c ...
on a blue-and-fuscia background with the words "women's liberation"; the second and third covers featured the same characters on a dark-blue-and-green background.
["Underground Comix Collection"]
Comix Joint. The first print run sold 20,000 copies; the second and third sold 10,000 each.
[
''It Ain't Me, Babe'' was reprinted in ''The Complete Wimmen's Comix'', published by ]Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.
History
Founding
Fantagraphics was found ...
in February 2016."The Complete Wimmen's Comix" page
Fantagraphics website. Accessed Dec. 3, 2016.
Legacy
The success of ''It Ain't Me, Babe'' led Turner to ask two of his employees, Patricia Moodian and Terre Richards—who teamed with Robbins—to recruit creators for another women's lib comic, which in 1972 became the
Wimmen's Comix Collective.
[Paul Williams, "Questions of 'Contemporary Women's Comics'", in Paul Williams, James Lyons (eds.), ''The Rise of the American Comics Artist'', University Press of Mississippi, 2010, p]
138
See also
*
List of feminist comic books
References
{{Underground comix works
1970 comics debuts
Comics about women
Comics anthologies
Satirical comics
Feminist comics
Underground comix
Last Gasp titles