She Draws Comics vs. Masters of American Comics
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Posted by Mikhaela Reid May 27th, 2006 |
Last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn I was included in the She Draws Comics: A Century of Women Cartoonists exhibit at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York. (Which is still up for a few months, so get down to Soho and check it out if you’re in the area). The show was curated by feminst cartoonist and self-described “herstorian” Trina Robbins in response to the all-male Masters of American Comics exhibit and book, which I blogged about not-too-long ago (see my piece “Silly Girl, Only Men Can Be Masters of Comics!”), which received quite a bit of (ill-deserved) fawning press and praise when it debuted earlier this year.
The above is a photo of Katherine Arnoldi, Tania del Reo, Raina Telgemeier, and me. See my full photo gallery for pictures of cartooning pioneers like Hilda Terry, still going strong at 92. And get more coverage and photos from the Beat.
One frustrating footnote to all this however—the same weekend I accompanied my boyfriend and fellow cartoonist Masheka Wood to the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (see my pictures and captions here). We had a great time, but I noticed there was no overlap between the two events–in other words, all the wonderful black cartoonists we met at ECBACC were men, and there were no black women cartoonists at the She Draws Comics exhibit opening. Which isn’t to say there aren’t black women cartoonists (such as Barbara Brandon, Yaounde Olu, and Spike, to name a few), but that it’d be nice if there were more overlap at these kinds of events in the future.
Anyway, I’m going to be doing interviews with various women cartoonists over the next few months, so watch this space.
May 27th, 2006 16:41
Mikhaela, you look in real life just like your cartoon of yourself! I live in Philadelphia and could have checked out the ECBACC had I known of it. Congratulations on the MOCCA exhibit.
May 27th, 2006 23:50
Mikhaela, actually there’s some art in SHE DRAWS COMICS from Jackie Ormes, a pioneering black female cartoonist. So not QUITE no overlap.
May 28th, 2006 06:40
Thanks Heidi! I’m not sure why I didn’t notice that–Chicago Defender cartoonist Tim Jackson (who runs the Pioneering Cartoonists of Color web site and has done a lot of historical research) told me about Jackie Ormes, who I believe was the first syndicated black woman cartoonist way back in the day… But thanks for the correction. Maybe I should amend to say I wish there was MORE overlap!
June 1st, 2006 14:31
Mikhaela,
I’ve been asked to create a comic for an anthology with Christa Donner, brilliant local Chicago feminist comics artist, on that old, tired subject of “Why There Have Been No Great Women Comics Artists” in response to the Masters show (currently up in Milwaukee.) I’m sure you get this question on panels lately as often as I have: how do you usually respond?
Anne
June 2nd, 2006 09:59
oh, I HATE that question. often the problem is that their definition of what makes a great comic artist is a bit different than mine, to say the least–somehow, all the guys who drew old superhero comics or humor comic strips for boys were masters, but women who drew romance comics or other kinds of comic strips were not… to many of those guys, there’s no greater art than R. Crumb drawing about his misogynistic sex fantasies. Not that R. Crumb isn’t an amazing cartoonist, because he’s obviously quite talented, but that’s a basic starting difference right there… I usually make up a different answer to that question every time.
June 2nd, 2006 14:29
No, I love the question. Such a great excuse to pontificate about what it takes to survive in comics. So far my favorite responses:
1. Lynda Barry, goddammit. (This by the way, was my response to John Carlin, who curated the MAC exhibition, when he posed basically the same question to me before the show was mounted.)
2. Vaginas. (I like to leave this one unexplained.)
3. Who cares? It’s comics.
4. A very long and detailed discussion of the economics of survival as an artist working in the cross between the art world and the publishing world, two very traditional masculine endeavors where “greatness” practically means “male,” and where eating is a luxury even for the regular man on the totem pole.
5. We’re really busy that night washing our hair.
Your R. Crumb is my Jack Kirby,
aem
February 11th, 2008 13:34
Here is information concerning the new Jackie Ormes book to be released soon (Feb. 2008)
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=150236