A Bunch of Jews (and other stuff)

Max Perlson, author

Trina Robbins, author

In 1970, Trina Robbins produced the very first all-woman comic book, It Ain’t Me, Babe. In 1972 she was one of the founding mothers of Wimmin’s Comix, the longest-lasting women’s anthology comic book (1972 – 1992). In the mid-1980s, tired of hearing publishers and editors say that girls don’t read comics and that women had never drawn comics, she co-wrote (with Catherine Yronwood) Women and the Comics, the first of what would become a series of histories of women cartoonists. She has been responsible for rediscovering previously forgotten early women cartoonists like Nell Brinkley, Tarpe Mills, and Lily Renee. In 2013 Trina was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Miriam Katin, illustrator

Miriam Katin, born in Hungary in 1942 immigrated to Israel after the Hungarian uprising in 1956. She apprenticed in a Tel Aviv graphic studio for two years in the 1960s before joining Israel Defense Forces as a graphic artist. With no formal training, she became involved in animation and design working with Ein Gedi Animation, Nickelodeon, MTV Animation, and Disney. Her graphic novel We Are On Our Own premiered in 2006 and has won multiple awards since and been translated into six different languages.

Miriam Libicki, illustrator

Miriam Libicki is a graphic novelist living in Vancouver, Canada. Her short comics have been published by Alternate History Comics, Rutgers University Press, and the Journal of Jewish Identities, and her 2008 Israeli Army memoir jobnik! has been used in over a dozen university courses. Her new book of drawn essays, Toward a Hot Jew was published fall 2016 by Fantagraphics.

Shary Flenniken, illustrator

Shary Flenniken is a freelance cartoonist, editor, and screenwriter currently living in Seattle, Washington. She holds degrees in Multimedia Technology and Professional Teaching. She is best known as the creator of the Trots & Bonnie comic strip and as a contributor and editor at National Lampoon Magazine. She is currently writing and drawing for American Bystander Magazine.

Joan Steacy, illustrator

Joan grew up in southern Ontario, and is a graduate of Sheridan College, The Ontario College of Art & Design, and The University of Victoria. A visual artist who has worked in a variety of disciplines, including sculpture, traditional illustration, and digital imaging, she is the author/illustrator of So, That’s That!, a biography of her father who lived to be 100 years old. Her most recent work is Aurora Borealice, a trilogy of autobio/graphic novels, the final volume of which is nearing completion. It debuted at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and was nominated for a Doug Wright Award. She currently teaches Comics & Graphic Novels at Camosun College in Victoria BC, a visual storytelling program she co-created with her husband, author/illustrator Ken Steacy.

Barbara 'Willy' Mendes, illustrator

Barbara Mendes studied art throughout her youth in NYC; then published stories and covers in Underground Comix under the name “Willy Mendes”. She developed her style of brilliantly colored narrative paintings, epic in detail and scale, and has exhibited them in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida, and Tel Aviv. Her Biblical murals are permanently displayed in Jerusalem and Florida. Her Los Angeles studio/gallery is open to the public; the building features her intricate and blazing outdoor “Angel Mural”. The 6 ft. x 16 ft. “Vayikra Mural” (oil-on-canvas, 2009), illuminating each of 859 verses in the Book of Leviticus, is available.

Steve Leialoha, illustrator

Steve Leialoha is best known for his inking and penciling on Vertigo’s Fables and illustrating the Fables novel Peter & Max! Other Vertigo contributions include: Jack of Fables, Nevada, Petrefax, the Dreaming, Sandman,and Dead Boy Detectives. Since the mid 70’s he was an inker on Warlock, Howard the Duck, Daredevil, the GI Joe silent issue, Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, Captain America, The Avengers, Secret Wars II, Fantastic Four, and the original 1977 Star Wars movie adaptation. For Marvel and DC Comics he has also drawn Dr Strange, Iron Man,The X-men, New Mutants, Hulk, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman,The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek.

Terry Laban, illustrator

In his 3 decades as a professional cartoonist, Terry LaBan has drawn political cartoons, created numerous alternative comic book series for Fantagraphics and Dark Horse Comics, written for Donald Duck comics for Egmont and off-putting mature stories for DC Vertigo and spent 15 years co-creating with his wife Edge City, a daily syndicated comic strip for King Features. He lives in a leafy suburb of Philadelphia with easy access to numerous synagogues.

Robert Triptow, illustrator

Robert Triptow first met Trina Robbins during his editorship of the groundbreaking Gay Comix series, inviting her to contribute as a “guest heterosexual.” He then co-edited the award-winning Strip AIDS U.S.A. with her and Bill Sienkiewicz. Triptow has cartooned for other many underground and alternative titles like Bizarre Sex, Young Lust, Real Girl, 79 Juicy Mother, The Book of Boy Trouble. His first solo project, Class Photo, the life stories of 66 people in a 1937 school picture, was released in 2015.

Jen Vaughn, illustrator

A storyteller in all weather, Jen works by day as a narrative designer for games (Plants Vs Zombies: Heroes and Nicki Minaj: The Empire) while by night slowly drawing comics with badass women (Cartozia Tales, Avery Fatbottom, Backstory) and knitting for her loved ones.

Caryn Leschen, illustrator

Caryn Leschen is known mostly for her stories in Wimmin’s Comix and Twisted Sisters anthologies. She self-syndicated her comic, Ask Aunt Violet, to alternative weeklies all over North America. As principal of Aunt Violet Productions, she draws and designs for web, print, and mobile platforms, specializing in food and travel illustration. Ms. Leschen is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, where she teaches Animation and Drawing on the iPad. She’s working on her first graphic novel, Once a Month Like a Period, and lectures widely on drawing comics on the iPad, as she considers comics her purest form of self-expression. Learn more at www.auntviolet.com.

Anne Timmons, illustrator

Anne started her comic art career on a high, illustrating two Star Trek stories. Soon after came Dignifying Science, a graphic biography of women in science. Anne met Trina at Comic-Con, setting the stage for many and varied collaborations. They first teamed up on GoGirl!, the crime fighting teenager who can fly. They also worked together on an illustrated adaption of Little Women, and biographies of Florence Nightingale and Hedy Lamarr. Anne also illustrated Trina’s award-winning Lily Renee: Escape Artist, about the groundbreaking Golden Age comic artist who as a girl escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport.

Elizabeth Watasin, illustrator

Elizabeth Watasin is the author of the Gothic steampunk series The Dark Victorian, The Elle Black Penny Dreads, the paranormal sci-fi noir series, Darquepunk, and the creator/artist of the indie comics favourite 78 Charm School, which was nominated for a Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Gentlewoman and artist, respected member of the animation guild with thirteen animated feature film screen credits, she lives in Los Angeles with her black cat named Draw, busy bringing readers uncanny heroines in queer sci-fi, Victorian punk, and diesel fantasy. Winner, Best Lesbian Fantasy & Fantasy Romance, 2015 Rainbow Awards.

Eve Furchgott, illustrator

Eve Furchgott is a cartoonist, printmaker and graphic artist. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, she lived in San Francisco (where she first met Trina Robbins!) and was the creator of Far Out West, a serial comic strip chronicling her life in a Haight Ashbury commune. Since moving to the Big Island of Hawai’i in the early ‘90s she has been the illustrator of many children’s books of Hawaiian lore and culture. She runs a freelance graphics business, Blue Heron Multimedia, and spends what time she can in her printmaking studio. She is slowly working on an update of Far Out West, and is in early stages of a graphic memoir of sorts, tentatively entitled Dogs I Have Known and Loved.

Sarah Glidden, illustrator

Sarah Glidden is a non-fiction cartoonist who lives in Seattle. Her newest book is Rolling Blackouts, published by Drawn and Quarterly.