Women and Comics

doi:10.1017/9781009255653.015

Chapter 11 - Women and Comics

Politics and Materialities

from Part II - Readings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2023

Maaheen Ahmed

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Maaheen Ahmed

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Maaheen Ahmed: Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium

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Summary

Countering popular assumptions about comics being made for and by men, this chapter begins by offering a brief alternative comics history focusing on women artists, covering comics production from the mainstream to the underground. Taking cues from recent exhibitions on women artists and comics history by women authors and artists, the chapter provides insight into the different contexts and communities, covering political cartoonists and illustrators, mainstream and underground artists.

The second half of the chapter focuses on the graphic novel and examines works by Lynda Barry and a new generation of women comics artists, Ebony Flowers and Weng Pixin. It elaborates on the possibilities of reading the graphic novels in light of the rich history of women artists and comics storytelling, building bridges between individual and collective stories while pointing out the innovations unfolding through drawing, writing, and collage.

Keywords

women comics artists gender activism race autofiction collage Trina Robbins Lynda Barry Ebony Flowers Weng Pixin

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Comics , pp. 225 - 243

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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