She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe , which was the first comic book entirely created by women. As a scholar and historian, Robbins researched the history of women in cartooning. She co-founded the organization Friends of Lulu in She grew up in South Ozone Park, Queens , [3] and held an early fascination with comic book heroines, especially Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
As a teenager, she attended science fiction fan conventions. Robbins attended Queens College in New York, and dropped out. She then attended Cooper Union for a year, where she studied drawing. She moved to California in , settling in Los Angeles where she was a nude model for men's magazines.
Robbins was the first of the three "Ladies of the Canyon" in Joni Mitchell 's classic song from the album of the same name. Robbins was an active member of science fiction fandom in the s and s. Her illustrations appeared in science fiction fanzines like the Hugo - nominated Habakkuk. Robbins' first comics were printed in the East Village Other in ; [7] she also contributed to the spin-off underground comic Gothic Blimp Works in Wimmen's Comix 1 featured Robbins' "Sandy Comes Out", the first comic strip featuring an " out " lesbian.
Robbins spoke out against the misogyny and "boy's club" of comics creators, criticizing underground comix artist Robert Crumb for the perceived misogyny of many of his comics, saying, "It's weird to me how willing people are to overlook the hideous darkness in Crumb's work What the hell is funny about rape and murder? She followed Misty with the similar California Girls , an eight-issue series published by Eclipse Comics in — A number of contributors — Nicole Hollander , Cathy Guisewite , Garry Trudeau , Bill Griffith , and Jules Feiffer — were comic strip creators whose work in the anthology was reprinted from their syndicated strips.
In Robbins introduced GoGirl! Robbins wrote the stories, with Anne Timmons providing the bulk of the art. The series ran for five issues with Image Comics , and then was picked up by Dark Horse Comics , with the final issue coming out in In , she began writing comic adventures of the woman detective character Honey West for a series published by Moonstone Books.
