Roberta Gregory

Roberta Gregory (* 1953 in Los Angeles , California ) is an American comic book maker and writer . She is known for her creation Bitchy Bitch and as an early representative of feminist comics. Gregory has been nominated for several Eisner Awards and received the Inkpot Award in 1994 .

Youth and Beginnings

Roberta Gregory is the only daughter of the Disney cartoonist Robert Gregory and came into contact with comics at an early age through her father's profession. After graduating from California State University in 1974, she began pursuing a career in the then-thriving underground comics scene .

Her first comic works were published in 1974 in the female-only female comic anthology Wimmen's Comix . During this time she also created her first own strip feminist funnies and regularly published articles in various underground comics and magazines. In 1976, Gregory published the first edition of the feminist and lesbian-oriented comic book Dynamite Damsels, which she designed and distributed completely herself . Her contributions appeared in almost every issue of gay comics from 1980 to 1996.

Bitchy Bitch

The character Bitchy Bitch first appeared in 1989 . The stories about the life of Midge McCracken, a woman who refuses to conform to the conventions of the world and the peculiarities of the people around her, only to fail in the end. Moments of feminist and lesbian everyday life are exaggerated.

The stories about Bitchy Bitch were recorded by the renowned independent publisher Fantagraphics , and published under the title Naughty Bits in 1991 in the comic format conventional for the US market . The series appeared infrequently until it was discontinued in 2004 after 40 issues by Fantagraphics. In the 1990s, Gregory drew parallel a weekly Bitchy Bitch - Newspaper Strip . In 1995 it was implemented as a play with Maggie Bloodstone, Michael Sheldon, Marcy Rodenborn and others, which was performed a total of three times.

In 1999, Bitchy Bitch was finally produced as an animated series and broadcast under the title Life's a Bitch by Oxygen Network in the United States and The Comedy Network in Canada . The series was not renewed after a season.

More work

In 1988 Gregory's graphic novel Winging It was published and in 1999 the second part, Winging It 2 . During this phase of her work, she published the three-part series Artistic Licentious , a realistic story about love and sexuality, as well as the daily comic strip Sheila's Unicorn , the surreal story about a young woman and her magical unicorn; Sheila's Unicorn was later published as a complete edition. These comics, like other of her work, appeared in Gregory's self-published Comix Bitch.

Meanwhile, Gregory continued to appear in various comic magazines and anthologies, including Robert Kirby's anthology Strange Looking Exile .

Current work

Roberta Gregory is currently working on Mother Mountain , an offshoot of Winging It . Originally conceived as a graphic novel, the first pages of the story were published in Winging It 2 as early as 1999 , the story is to be told in prose form . According to Gregory, two books have already been completed, and another two volumes are in different stages of completion. In addition, a prequel was published online in advance as a graphic novel, for which she first computer-colored.

True Cat Toons , a web series about cats , is also currently out . The series was originally designed by Gregory as a call for donations in order to be able to settle the veterinarian bills for the treatment of her diabetic cat Pushkin, and at the same time to document proof of the whereabouts of donations received. Since then, the site has developed a life of its own beyond its original purpose and is regularly updated.

Private life

Roberta Gregory occasionally "improves her income" as a hypnotherapist, according to her own statement . She also conducts occasional signs workshop How to Draw Cats ( How to cats draws ). She is a regular contributor to Free to Fight , an interactive self-defense project for young women, and has lived in Seattle with her cat, Pushkin, since 1989 .

Awards

Roberta Gregory has been nominated for the Eisner Award several times:

1993 Best Writer

Sin City ( Dark Horse ) and Best Writer / Artist : Naughty Bits ( Fantagraphics )

1994 Best Writer / Artist

Naughty Bits ( Fantagraphics )

1999 Best Short Story

Bye-Bye Muffy ( Comix Bitch )

In 1994 she won the Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International .

bibliography

Comics and Graphic Novels

Published as Roberta Gregory or Comix Bitch :

• Dynamite Damsels # 1, 2 (1976)
• Sheila and the Unicorn (1988)
• Winging It (1988)
• Artistic Licentious # 1 - 3 (irregular between 1991 and 1994) (First edition published by Starhead Comix )
• Winging It 2 ​​(1999)

Under Fantagraphics :

• Naughty Bits # 1 - 40 (1991-2004)

In anthologies:

• Gay Comix # 1 - 5 ( Kitchen Sink Press ) (1980-1984)
• Gay Comics # 6, 7, 10-17, 21, 23 (Bob Ross) (1985-1996)
• Strip AIDS USA ( Last Gap ) (1988)
• Blite ( Fantagraphics ) (1989)
• Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special # 2, 3 ( Fantagraphics ) (1990)
• Choices ( Angry Iris ) (1990)
• Real Stuff # 2 ( Fantagraphics ) (1990)
• Aesop's Fables # 2, 3 ( Fantagraphics ) (1991)
• Born to Be Wild ( Eclipse Comics ) (1991)
• Real Girl # 5 ( Fantagraphics ) (1991)
• A Very MU Christmas ( MU Press ) (1992)
• Drawn & Quaterly # 8 ( Drawn and Quaterly ) (1992)
• Images of Omaha # 2 ( Kitchen Sink Press ) (1992)
• Black Dogs # 1 ( Fantagraphics )
• Planet Illustrated # 1, 4 ( Fantagraphics ) (1993)
• Skunk ( MU Press ) (1993)
• Different Beat Comics ( Fantagraphics ) (1994)
• Spotlight on the Genius That Is Joe Sacco ( Fantagraphics ) (1994)
• Windows # 21 ( Cult Press ) (1994)
• The Substitute Peach ( Aeon ) (1995)
• Northwest Cartoon Cookery ( Starhead Comix ) (1995)
• Small Press Expo # 1997 ( Insight ) (1997)
• To # 14 ( MU Press ) (1997)
• Mythography # 7, 8 ( Bardic ) (1998)
• Magic Carpet # 1 ( Shanda ) (1999)
• Head # 5 ( Eros Comics ) (2003)
• Following Cerebus # 8 ( Win-Mill ) (2006)
• Sexy Chix ( Dark Horse Comics ) (2006)

As a draftsman:

• Buddha on the Road # 1 - 6 ( Aeon ) (1996-1997)
• Supernatural Law # 25 ( Exhibit A ) (2000)

Anthologies

• A Bitch is Born (1994)
• As Naughty as She Wants to Be (1995)
• At Work and Play with Bitchy Bitch (1996)
• Bitchy's College Daze (1997)
• Bitchy Butch: World's Angriest Dyke (1999)
• Bitchy Strips One Shot (2001)
• Burn Bitchy Burn (2002)
• Life's a Bitch (2005)

Web links

• Homepage of Roberta Gregory (English)
• Entry in the ComicBookDB (English)
• Entry at Lambiek (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas C. Knigge: Comics - Vom Massenblatt ins multimediale Abenteuer , p. 172. Rowohlt, 1996.
2. ↑ Information from the producer Cinemaria about the television series Life's a Bitch
3. ↑ Roberta Gregory on Mother Mountain
4. ↑ True Cat Toons website
5. ↑ Interview with Roberta Gregory ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.