Despite popular assumptions about the comics world, women have been writing, drawing and reading comics since the medium's beginning in the late 19th century. Today, there are scores of women involved in comics and vibrant fan culture.

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Following our presentation of Marisa Stotter’s 2014 documentary, She Makes Comics, enjoy a roundtable discussion with comic writers Trina Robbins, Amy Chu, Carrie Tupper, and Sabs Cooper, as they reflect on the film, as well as the state of the comics today. Their unique perspectives from different corners of the industry help to paint a clearer picture of the role women continue to play in the world of comics and graphic novels. The conversation is also available here.

Trina Robbins:

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, Barbara Hall, and Lily Renee.

In 2013 Trina was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. In 2017 she was inducted into the Wizard World Hall of Legends, and at the San Diego comic convention she received the Eisner award for editing the two-volume reprint collection of the complete “Wimmin’s Comix.”.

And, oh yeah, in 1986 she became the first woman to draw a Wonder Woman comic book.

Amy Chu:

Amy Chu is a writer for comics, graphic novels, and TV, currently working on projects for DC, Marvel and Netflix. She has written popular characters such as Wonder Woman, Deadpool, Ant-Man and Iron Man. She wrote Poison Ivy's first solo mini series, and is the first woman to write the Green Hornet series created in the '30s. She is also the author of children's graphic novels including Sea Sirens and the sequel Sky Island, published by Penguin Random House. Amy is the co-founder of the imprint Alpha Girl Comics and enjoys non-profit work, creating comics for the New York Historical Society, Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Museum of Chinese in Americas. She studied Architectural Design at MIT, East Asian Studies at Wellesley College and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Amy is a frequent speaker at conventions around the world. You can follow her on amychu.com, twitter @amychu and on Facebook/iwritecomics.

Carrie Tupper:

Carrie Tupper has been working in creative development and writing for more than a decade. With a passionate love for history and animation, Carrie is dedicated to creating resonate, transformative storytelling. She is author and co-creator of the Glyph award-winning graphic novel series Kamikaze, about a courier turned fledgling covert operative in a world where food is more precious than gold (read at KamikazeComic.com). With the help of her team, she’s overseen 3 successful Kickstarters which published 2 graphic novel volumes, an anthology and a soon to be released animated short, Kamikaze: Trial by Fire. The comic has been featured on NPR, Bleeding Cool, SyFy Wire, and The Hollywood Reporter. Outside of her work on Kamikaze, Carrie continues to write, edit, and create comics, is a former contributing writer to TheMarySue.com, and co-author for Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film History.

Lilah Sturges:

Lilah Sturges is the PRISM-award winning author of Girl Haven, the Lumberjanes graphic novels, and numerous comic book titles for DC, Marvel, and elsewhere, including Blue Beetle, Thor: Worthy Origins, and Jack of Fables (with Bill Willingham), which was nominated for an Eisner award. Her mission is to create graphic literature for young (particularly LGBTQ+) readers to help them learn who they are and thrive as a result. She lives in Austin, Texas with her fiancee, two daughters, and three cats\

Sabs Cooper (Moderator):

Sabs Cooper manages Pegasus Books in Bend, Oregon, where she writes comics, poetry, stand-up comedy, and various run-on sentences like this one. Her work has appeared in the horror anthology Dead Beats, she is one of the co-creators of Finger Guns, published by Vault Comics, and her very embarrassing fan letters have been printed in books by Marvel, DC, and Image. Her writing can also be found on sites like Geeks OUT and Syfy Wire, and she is on twitter and instagram under the name @witchhatsabs.