Review
In her book, Trina Robbins takes us through the world of cartooning from Rose O'Neill's Kewpies and Jackie Ormes' Torchy Brown to Allison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For and Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse. It is a world that was, and is still, white male-dominated. Women dealing with any subject outside the realm of family and fashion faced being canceled from prominent newspapers or never syndicated at all. Fortunately, this did not stop them; the wealth of comic strips here range from social commentary to politics. I loved the titles in the table of contents (my favorite is Blond Bombers and Girl Commandos). The samples of highly stylized cartooning art alone are worth your time. Now, when you read the funnies, you can know and appreciate women's place in their evolution. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Amy Fletcher
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Marie Severin had heard that Walt Disney Productions had offices in New York City, so she looked them up. At the front desk, a small man with a Disney moustache did not bother to look at her portfolio. Instead, he informed her that Disney didn't hire women. "No women? Not at all?" stammered the aghast artist, who had been used to more egalitarian treatment at EC. The little man replied, "Follow me, I'll show you." He led her to a huge room with orderly rows of desks. At each desk was a lamp, and under each lamp was a man in a white shirt, drawing. "See?" said the little man. Severin realized that she didn't want to work at a place like that, anyway.
