Women Who Can Fly: Trina Robbins and Superheroines
From: Elizabeth Chur
Length: 00:06:03
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Piece Description
Comics are a way of life for Trina Robbins. She's been drawing and writing them for 40 years. In addition to her own work in comics, Robbins literally wrote the book on women cartoonists and women superheroes. She's also the author of "From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women Comics from Teens to 'Zines." This piece was originally produced as part of an hourlong Public Radio International holiday special, "Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes."
Transcript
Trina Robbins? comic book collection overflows from a tall, circular magazine rack. It spills out onto bookshelves and several filing cabinets in a back room of her San Francisco flat.
(Fade up ambi of squeaking rack, then down and under short dialogue)
Elizabeth: Wow?how many comics do you think you have?
Trina: I?ve never counted them?I have no idea.
Robbins helped write and edit the first all-women comic book, ?It Ain?t Me, Babe,? in 1970. Her prolific work also includes a comic about the women garment workers who died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and a Wonder Woman graphic novel about spousal abuse.
There's a lot of topics that women deal with that men are not interested in. But in underground or small press women's comics, they talk about abortion, they talk about menstruation, they about birth control. These are things that women talk about.
Girl...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
HOST INTRO:
Comics are a way of life for Trina Robbins. She?s been drawing and writing them for 40 years. In addition to her own work in comics, Robbins literally wrote the books on women cartoonists and women superheroes. She also wrote a book called ?From Girls to Grrrlz??that?s ?girls? with three ?R?s? and a Z. It?s a History of Women Comics from Teens to Zines. Producer Elizabeth Chur visited Trina Robbins shortly before Chanukah and has this story.
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Joseph Dougherty
Posted on February 02, 2007 at 12:47 PM | Permalink
Review of Women Who Can Fly: Trina Robbins and Superheroines
Elizabeth Chur?s interview with comic book creator Trina Robbins is comparatively dry as programing but charged with the appropriately super energy and insight of its subject. Trina Robbins who can look at the history of the world and come to the curious, but completely understandable conclusion that ?All through history men have been intimidated by women who fly,? is well worth meeting and the piece presents her in a clear, uncluttered way. Beyond comics and post-post feminism Girl Power, Robbins is someone worth knowing about as a creative beacon. Chur describes her with what could be the best life instruction I?ve ever heard: ?When there?s a book she wants to read that no one has written yet, she has to write it herself.? Programable anywhere, but because of its almost austere production values, it would benefit from carefully selected wraparound material.