And comes home again. But wasn’t New York wonderful! I presented a talk and a Powerpoint show on my newest graphic novel biography, “Lily Renee, Escape Artist,” in two different places: The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art (MOCCA) and a great bookstore called Books of Wonder. Lily herself, the living. breathing heroine of the book, came with me and stole the show. She is so elegant and gracious — and, in her 80s, still so beautiful– that I felt like a mouse. She’s also totally outspoken. (Example: person in audience; “What did you think of Maus?” Lily, in her marvelous Viennese accent: “I hated it.”) I worship her but she also terrifies me. I’m very glad she doesn’t hate ME! (And here we are, in a photo by Robert Pollack)

We had a great audience at both places, and the folks at the museum and bookstore treated us wonderfully. My thanks to them, and to my beautiful editor, Carol Burrell. I am lucky to have the best editor in the world!

Here’s a link to a great write-up of our appearance at Books of Wonder, thank you, Alexa! http://ladiesmakingcomics.tumblr.com/post/12542791776/meeting-golden-age-art-goddess-lily-renee

There was so much that I wanted to do and see in New York, but I had the most limited time ever, and it will have to wait till next time. I wanted to visit Ground Zero, The Occupy Wall Street encampment, and the Highline, a mile-long park built on a section of old elevated train tracks. I’ll have to wait till my next trip.

But I did see some folks from the Occupy movement demonstrating in Washington Square Park, along with a man playing a piano on wheels. I cheered on the Occupy Wall Street folks and I applauded the pianist. I love that park!

What I did manage to squeeze in: I took in the exhibit at the main library, you know, the one with the lions. It’s the NY public library’s centennial, and they showed the most amazing objects from their collection, and what a collection! Jack Kerouac’s typewriter, manuscripts by Bob Dylan, Richard Wright, Ernest Hemingway (that last written in longhand and pencil). A letter opener that Charles Dickens had made from the paw of his deceased cat! First editions of BOTH Mein Kampf and Das Kapital! Virginia Woolf’s walking stick! If you’re in New York, don’t miss it; it’s heaven for book lovers.

I never miss the exhibits at FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology. They always have some great fashion exhibit or other on display, and this trip was no exception. They had TWO exhibits! The first was on sportswear, and before you yawn: there was a swimsuit from 1853, motoring clothes from 1909, divine tennis outfits from the early 20th century, golfing clothes from the 1920s. Those baggy knickers the men used to wear for golfing, you know why they were called plus fours? Because they came down to four inches below the knee!

Ah, but the second exhibit! It featured what must be a mere fraction of the immense wardrobe of Daphne Guiness, heir to the Guiness fortune. Mercifully, I had never heard of Daphne Guiness before — I just don’t travel in those circles. Wikipedia describes her as, among other things, an artist, but nowhere on the web could I find any examples of “art” that she had drawn, painted, sculpted, or whatever. Basically, her distinction seems to be that she is obscenely rich, with money that she never lifted a finger to earn, and the clothing and shoes on display consisted of bizarre and unwearable costumes, and even more bizarre shoes that would be impossible to walk in, by the likes of Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, and Christian Lacroix, all of it meant to be worn once, to make an entrance in. I can�

…And I’m still awestruck! This was a first time for this woman-run convention for geeky girls who are into genres that girls aren’t supposed to be interested in, like comics, computers, games, anime …and comics, yes, comics! It was held in fabulous Seattle, a stone’s throw from the space needle (like the Eiffel tower, the Space Needle lights up at night and is a beautiful sight to behold). GeekGirlCon was an immense success; it sold out, and they actually had to turn away 500 people.

Here’s what happens when women put on a con:

* It goes off without a hitch.

* The rooms are full of the high energy of thousands of beautiful, strong, happy, creative women.

* There’s no backbiting.

*There are no little boys in Spiderman costumes.

* People are nice to each other.

* They give their guests jewelry! I was given an art nouveau looking, mystic looking necklace, and a pair of blue roses to hang in my ears. I later found out that each guest had been given something different; the jewelers had tailored their jewelry to the personalities of the guests.

Go here to read all about it and see lots of great photos:

http://www.geekgirlcon.com/

I’m coming back next year, so join me there!

What’s next? I’m coming to New York the first week in November to do a couple of talks and signings for my newest graphic novel, “Lily Renee: Escape Artist,” an all-ages biography of Lily, who was a teenage Jewish girl in Vienna when the Nazis marched in, in 1938, and who escaped the Nazis in 1939 via Kindertransport. The book relates her adventures in England during the Blitz, and how she was finally reunited with her parents, who had escaped to America. Once in America, the refugee family, who had been very well off in Vienna, but who had lost everything to the Nazis, were living hand to mouth when Lily’s mother saw an ad in the paper: a comic book company was looking for artists. Lily, who was an artist, had never read a comic in her life, but she gamely went to a news stand, bought a couple of comics, studied them, and drew some samnple panels. PS: she got the job, and became one of the best Golden Age cartoonists, drawing, among other things, the adventures of the glamorous spy and Nazi-fighter, Senorita Rio, so that Lily, who had been persecuted by the Nazis, got to fight back on paper. Lily herself will be with me, and we’ll discuss and sign the book and answer questions, and I’ll present a Powerpoint slide show. I give great Powerpoint shows, so come see and say hello; both signings are free.

OMG! “Lily Renee: Escape Artist” has just come out and already the book has received a Gold Medal from Moonbeam Children’s Books Awards in the comic/graphic novel category! Oh yeah, the signing schedule:

Thursday, November 3, from 7:00-9:00 pm at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA)

594 Broadway, Suite 401
(btwn. Houston and Prince Streets)
New York, NY 10012
Tel. (212) 254-3511

And Sunday, November 6, 3:00-5:00 pm at Books of Wonder

18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel: (212) 989-3270

5 Comments on FEAR OF BLOGGING GOES TO GEEKGIRLCON, last added: 10/16/2011

Fear of Blogging has returned from ten days in China, the first three of which she was a guest of the Jilin University of Animation at their forum for games, comics, and animation. Steve and I and Renee Witterstaeter (who was once my editor on Xena comics, but has gone on to far better things) were the only American comics people in a crowd of animators and games designers from the four corners of the Earth. We met Koreans, Russians, French, German, Argentinean, a lovely woman from Australia and another from Croatia, a guy from the Czech Republic and another from Finland, and I’m sure I left some out. (And you know what happens? Once you’ve met all those nice folks from all those different countries you don’t want to kill them! So if we had more international forums we wouldn’t have wars.)

We were each assigned a young student assistant to help us and to get us to our talks on time and in the right building (The university is enormous and awesome but easy to get lost in). (I think it was also a good opportunity for them to practice their English!) Here are we three American comics people with our assistants on the University campus in front of a strange and wonderful sculpture consisting of living foliage.   

All Freshman students at the university have to spend a year in their equivalent of ROTC, and they were practicing marching as I passed by, and they were so cute, so as you can see, I became the Sweetheart of the Regiment.  

Then we went on to Beijing for three more days. Beijing is fabulous! The taxi and bus drivers drive like homicidal maniacs and the air pollution is unbelievable, but on our second night it rained buckets and the next morning the sky was a lovely clear blue — the rain had washed the pollution away. We made friends right and left — people all said hello to us and we responded “Nihau” and they loved it. As you can see from the photo sequence taken at Tienanmen Square I was a great goodwill ambassador. We went back to Tienanmen Square on our own after the tour because our tour guide (The Worst Tour Guide Ever) had given us all of 15 minutes to see everything after explaining stuff endlessly in bad English for

…And returns in one piece! It’s just too darn big, folks!

Steve and I read that there was a Torchwood panel scheduled one morning of the con, and since we’re big Torchwood fans we decided we’d try to get in to see it. So very naively we figured we’d get there a half hour early. If you’ve ever taken in one of those major panels at San Diego, you’re already laughing, right? When we got there, we found that there was a huge line, about four miles long, snaking around the convention center. Gamely, we walked to the end of the line. The people behind us asked what we were on line for, and when we said “Torchwood,” they laughed! The Torchwood panel is already filled, they told us, and they were on line for a panel that didn’t start for another 2 1/2 hours!

So apparantly people come to Comic-con and wait in line all day just to see their favorite movie and TV stars in person on a panel. Not us! (But I’m still a fan, and couldn’t resist getting my picture taken in front of a Tardis!)

I was on some pretty good panels myself, and since none of us on the panel were movie stars, the room was not mobbed. Joyce Farmer, who has been drawing comics as long as I have, was a guest at Comic-con this year because of her truly excellent graphic novel, Special Exits, which should have won an Eisner. She kindly invited cartoonists Mary Fleener, Frank Stack, and me, up to the dais with her to share her solo panel. Since we had all been in comics so long, I decided it was the geezer panel. Every convention has to have a geezer panel!

What I like about Comic-Con is seeing people I love but only get to see once a year (if that!) like Joyce, Mary, and Frank. Before the panel, I met Joyce and Mary for lunch, so we could actually hang out, and the next morning Steve and I met with the fabulous Ramona Fradon for breakfast, and there we are. Ramona’s holding up my Chicagoland Detective ghraphic novel — I hope she enjoyed it!

s

There was a time when Ramona was the only woman drawing for comic books, and then a time when she and Marie Severin were the only TWO women drawing for comic books. But Ramona’s also a mystic and a gnostic, and she has written a book that had absolutely nothing to do with comics: “The Gnostic Faustus: The Secret Teachings Behind the Classic Text.” As it says on the back of the book, Ramona has been investigating the Faust legend since 1978 in order to decipher the mysteries of its spiritual framework. Yes, I bought the book on Amazon.com, but no, I have not been able to read it yet! (My Chicagoland Detective Agency graphics novels are a bit easiet to read!)

Coming up on July 26: I’ll be talking about and signing copies of my Miss Fury book at Escapist Comics, 3090 Claremont Ave, Berkely at 7 PM. I’ve prepared a slideshow about Tarpe Mills and Miss Fury that I promise you will like. Come see it! Their phone number is 510-65COMIC, and you can read more about it at :

http://www.escapistcomics.com/

After that, on September 1st, Steve and I leave for China (!!!!) where we will be guests at an international forum at the Jilin Animation Institute in Changchun. I promise to write all about it when I return.

FEAR OF BLOGGING MEETS ARCHIE!

…and that’s not all! But let’s start with Sacramento:

On June 10th, I drove out to Sacramento along with the fabulous Grant Avenue Follies ladies (and one gentleman), Pat Chin, Cynthia Yee, Ivy Tam, and Chuck Gee. If you’ve read my book, “Forbidden City: the Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs,” you know that these are the original entertainers from the later days of the clubs, and that not only are they still dancing, but they have recruited enough dancers to form a dance troupe, and that they are living legends. We had been invited by the Chinese American Council of Sacramento to be guests at their annual author dinner. What a great evening! We were made so welcome, the food was so delicious (Best Chinese food I’ve had outside of China), and the Grant Avenue Follies shone, as always.

 And here they are now, along with the lovely Ivy Tam doing her signature fan dance. 

After I read from and signed my books, the council presented me with a necklace of freshwater pearls and semi-precious stones! The necklace was made by Joyce Eng, who just happens to be a jeweler, and who is also responsible for putting on the event and getting me there. I have done a lot of readings and signings, but nobody else ever gave me jewelry! Thank you, Joyce! And that’s Joyce in the picture, standing, along with Linda Ng, the Council treasurer, to my left. All these photos were taken by photographer Kingman Louie, who also happens to be vice president of the Chinese American Council .

By the way, when I got home I realized there was something else in the package — a pair of matching earrings! (And there I am in the photo, wearing the necklace.) 

WHITE IS THE NEW RED

Yes, after battling with my new hair for three years (Most of you know that I lost it all to chemotherapy in ‘09 and have been attempting to grow it back ever since) I decided to cut off all the bad hair and go white. Last May, at the Pagan Faire, I noticed that 90% of the women had curly red hair, so I decided curly red hair is OVER. White is the new red.

  Hey, the Honey West Commemorative issue, dedicated to the late Anne Francis and combining my first two Honey West comics, is out, and on Wednesday, July 3rd, I’ll be signing copies (Along with copies of my Miss Fury book, and Chicks in Capes, and whatever you bring for me to sign) at Illusive Comics and Games, 2725 El Camino Real, in Santa Clara. If you’re in the neighborhood, come on by and say hello. You can find out more at www.illusivecomics.com, or phone (408) 985-7481.

Speaking of Miss Fury, look what my editor, Dean Mullaney, sent me from a Paris comic book store: the Miss Fury book was pick of the week. Oh

…Because I hold in my hand an advance copy of my book, Tarpe Mills and MISS FURY, edited and with an introduction by me.  Miss Fury, by June Tarpe Mills, ran in America’s newspapers from 1941 until 1952, and was the first major female superhero created and drawn by a woman. Yes, she beat Wonder Woman to the punch by half a year! This 229 page book (it weighs a ton!) collects the complete Miss Fury Sunday pages from 1944 to 1949 (to my mind, Mills at her best). These pages have never before been reprinted, so now’s your chance to discover for the first time the stylish, lurid, risque, film noir-esque story of Miss Fury — it’s a page-turner! When I took the book out of its packaging, I sat right down with it and reread it from cover to cover.

Here’s some of what it says on the back cover:

Catfights and crossdressers, mad scientists and spike-heeled dopplegangers, 200-year-old men who look 20, and a one-armed Nazi who can’t be stopped!

Oh, and did I mention that the book includes 13 pages of Tarpe Mills’ hitherto unpublished graphic novel, NEVER before seen?!

On April 27th, I was a guest of Toonseum in Pittsburgh. While I haven’t been to every cartoon art museum in the country, I still think that Toonseum wins the prize for World’s Cutest Comic Museum. It’s situated in the moddle of downtown Pittsburgh in a tiny storefront, yet the Toonseum folks managed to squeeze an entire year’s worth of Brenda Starr daily strips, from 1965 to 1966, on their walls without anything looking crowded, and STILL have room for me to give my presentation and talk, and later, to sign books. And after my talk, those lovely Toonseum folks surprised me with an award: the Nemo Award for Excellence in the Comic Arts! (There’s cartoonist Wayno presenting it to me) I’ve been nominated for an Eisner twice but never got one, but now I have a Nemo, so take that, San Diego Comic Con! (Oh, and there I am signing a book for Jessica Heberle. Hi, Jessica!)

Pittsburgh, by the way, is a beautiful city. There are pale yellow bridges everywhere you look, and I loved the old brick buildings. There’s nothing like them here in San Francisco because everything old fell down in 1906. And Andy Warhol was from Pittsburgh! Joe Wos, the executive director of Toonseum and one swell guy, got me into the Warhol Museum for free, and I spent a great afternoon looking at everything Warhol. I found out that he is buried outside of the city, and that people leave soup cans on his grave. Next time I come to Pittsburgh, I am bringing a can of Campbell’s tomato soup for Andy.

FEAR OF BLOGGING SLEEPS IN A MUSEUM!

Well, I didn’t actually sleep in Toonseum, but it sure felt like it! Actually, the museum put me up in the Wyndham Hotel, but when I opened the door to my hotel room, my first thought was, “Oh, somebody’s already staying in this room!” because there were books on comics, cartoons and animation scattered all over the room. Then I noticed that on the walls, where you usually find generic framed prints, were framed original art: comics and animation cels. So my next thought was that the Toonseum folks had snuck into the room like little elves and decorated it for me. But no, it’s a real hotel room at the Wyndham: the “Toon Room,” decor of course by Toonseum. If you’re coming to Pittsburgh, allow me to recommend that you phone the Wyndham and reserve the Toon Room; you’ll find all the comics you need to read during your stay, and with the room you get free entry into Toonseum. Should you get inspired to draw during your stay, there’s a drawing table, too. Look for my signature on it! And if the Toonseum is the cutest cartoon art museum, the Toon Room at the Wyndham is the best hotel room I have ever stayed in!

FEAR OF BLOGGING VISITS THE PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION!

Well, almost. On May 21st and 22nd, Steve and I were guests of the Midwest Comic Book Association at their Springcon, held at the State Fair grounds in St Paul, Minnesota. I’ve never ever been to a State Fair — didn’t even know they still had them! — so I loved the fairgrounds, which are like a miniature city, with shops and restaurants. Except that all the shops and restaurants were closed, because they only open for the State Fair, so it was kinda like a ghost town, which was even cooler. Oh, and here’s the obligatory pic of me at the con: that’s Patricia Gifford to my right and Leyna Gifford

My fortune cookie says, “You will travel and have exciting adventures,” and that sounds good to me! Spring is the start of convention season, and April and May will find me all over the map:

April 1st – 3rd is Wondercon, right here in San Francisco, my own backyard. Look for my table, come by and say hello. And while you’re saying hello, check out my new books:

Number 2 in my 3-book graphic novel series, The Chicagoland Detective Agency, is out, and this one is called “The Maltese Mummy.” It’s all about talking dogs, haiku-spouting girls, computer whiz boys, and — duh! — mummies. I’ll have copies at my table, and I think you’ll like them.

Also: what happens when twelve talented women (including yours truly) write original short stories in which they create their own superheroines? The result is “Chicks in Capes,” which will make its debut at Wondercon. I’m enjoying reading the entire book, and I’m very happy with my own contribution, “Innanna: Witchwoman,” which, she said modestly, is my idea of what Wonder Woman should be, but isn’t.

When something I’ve written comes out and I read it in print for the first time, if I’m really happy with it, my first reaction is always, Did I really write that? And then I go to the computer and check, and sonofagun, I did write it!

Back to Trina’s Springtime Travels:

On April 27th I’ll be in Pittsburgh, at Toonseum, where I’ve contributed some previously unpublished strips by Dale Messick to their exhibit, which consists of a year’s worth of Brenda Starr original strips. Dale, as you may know, was born Dalia, but when she found that editors, instead of accepting her strips, were asking her out to lunch, she opted to change her name to a sexually ambiguous Dale. I’ll be giving a slideshow and talk about Dale — and if you come, please come with questions, because I always have answers, and I love to talk. More info at Toonseum.org.May 7th will find me at the Pagan Festival in Berkeley — yes, I have other interests besides comics, and one of the is The Goddess! The Pagan Festival and parade is held every year at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park – 2151 Martin Luther King Jr.
Way, 94704, at Center Street Next to Farmers Market (And I love that Farmer’s Market — I always pick up a good lunch there). You’ll find me at the Author’s Circle with some of my books of pagan interest like “Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude” and my kids’ book about the queen of California, “Califia“. (Betcha didn’t know that California was named after a beautiful amazon queen!)

Finally, on May 21st and 22nd, I’ll be in St. Paul, Minnesota, at SpringCon 2011, at the Grandstand on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. I’ll be giving a repeat of my Wondercon presentation, for those who didn’t see it on April 3rd (which is basically everyone who doesn’t live in California). There’s a great lineup of guests, including Silver Age cartoonist Elizabeth Berube, on

…to the lovely Anne Francis, who left us on Sunday, January 2, 2011. You may remember Anne from the sci-fi classic film Forbidden Planet, but to me she was and will always be Honey West, the dashing and glamorous first woman private eye on television. It seems like once every few decades, an actress so personifies the part she plays that she IS that character. It happened in the 1950s, when Irish McCalla WAS Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, in 1970, when Lynda Carter personified Wonder Woman for a new feminist generation, and in 1965, when Anne Francis WAS Honey West. The TV series was based on a series of detective books by the husband and wife team, G.G. Fickling, but you can’t read the books without seeing Anne Francis with her blonde flip and her adorable beauty mark. In 2010 I was delighted to pay tribute to my hero by scripting a 2 part Honey West comic book published by Moonstone press and gorgeously illustrated by Cynthia Martin. Look for another 2 parter by me in the future.

And here’s a link to my writing on Anne Francis and Honey West: http://www.popeater.com/2011/01/04/anne-francis-honey-west/

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME…

…Since Fear of Blogging downloaded a blog, so here are some past pictures and some past news:

Hey, it was Christmas last month and here I am with Santa Claus at my neighborhood farmer’s market! My first photo ever with the bearded gent, because growing up Jewish, we didn’t have Christmas and we didn’t have Santa. I was the only kid in my very Catholic class who didn’t believe in him. That’s right, no tree, no presents. You can’t imagine how I envied the other kids!

We lived across the street from my primary school, on the second floor, so from certain school windows you could look into our front room, where we had a humongous potted orange tree that my father would bring down into the sunny backyard for the Summer and nearly kill himself lugging back up in the Fall. One day in November I pointed out our window to a classmate, and she saw the big green tree and said, “Oh, you have your Christmas tree up already!” How I longed to pretend it really WAS our Christmas tree, because then I would belong, I would be One Of Them! But honest me had to admit it was just our orange tree. So here I am with Santa, making up for my deprived childhood.

FURTHER BACK…

In November, the Hotel Whitcomb put up a permanent exhibit on their mezzanine floor featuring historic images of San Francisco’s grand theatrical and musical past. On the walls are vintage photos from the Fillmore jazz scene, the old movie palace, the Fox Theater, and — Forbidden City, the Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs! The gala opening of the exhibit was November 5th, 2010, and it was a glittering occasion indeed, attended by superstar nightclub entertainers of the past like Mia Tai Sing, who came all the way from Hawaii, and Coby Yee, whose costumes were on display. In the sepia photo, to my left is the lovely Joanne Tan, who put the exhibit together. Thank you, Joanne! (To my right is her friend, whose name, alas, I didn

FEAR OF BLOGGING RETURNS FROM ENGLAND…

All in one piece, but without my camera, which I lost on the London Tube on my last day!

Luckily, so you won’t think I made the whole thing up, kind friends have sent photos. But no photos, alas, of Oxford, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say that I and my good friend and traveling companion, Jean Frederickson, costumer to the stars, stayed at medieval Trinity College and ate in oak-paneled dining rooms that reminded me of the Hogwart’s dining room in the Harry Potter movies, with ornately framed oil paintings of ancient dons frowning down at us. Oh, and had lunch in the very pub where Inspector Morse and Lewis ate and drank on the British TV series!

In London, we stayed with sister writer and lovely hostess Rachella Sinclair, now of London, late of San Francisco, and general world citizen. She took us around London on a tour of sights we’d not seen before, like the remains of the original wall! (and that’s Jean and me at a portion of the marvelous crumbling wall, and in an ancient herb garden within the walls.) It was easy, in such surroundings, to fantasize that one still lived in the middle ages, until one suddenly remembered the Black Death and decided it was better to live in the 21st Century.

As evening approached, we walked across the Millennium bridge, and here we are on a bench by the side of the Thames gazing at the lights of old London town. As you can see by the way we’re dressed, the weather was balmy and beautiful.

And the evening before, I had presented my Powerpoint talk and slideshow on why male comics historians ignore women cartoonists (but I don’t!) for a great group called “Laydeez Do Comics,” which is for (duh!) women who do comics. We could definitely use an American version of this group!

To cap off a splendid evening among women cartoonists (and friendly guys!), who should show up but sister pioneer cartoonist Shelby Sampson, one of the founding mothers of Wimmen’s Comix, on a London stopover of her own round-the-world tour. Here are Shelby and me, flanked by artists Nicola Streeter (left) and Sarah Lightman (right). Nicola and Sarah are the two women responsible for Laydeez do Comics, and Sarah (along with Michael Kaminer) is curator of the exhibit “Graphic Details,” which opened at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum on October 1st (see below).

TRINA’S OCTOBER LIBRARY AND MUSEUM TOUR!

: October 12, 6:30 P.M. So you want to be a Graphic Novelist San Bruno Library

: October 26, 7:00 P.M. So you want to be a Graphic Novelist Millbrae Library

: October 13, 3:00 P.M. So you want to be a Graphic Novelist Bel