Early work Robbins was an active member of
science fiction fandom in the 1950s and 1960s. Her illustrations appeared in
science fiction fanzines like the
Hugo-
nominated Habakkuk.
Comics Robbins' first comics were printed in the
East Village Other in 1966; she also contributed to the spin-off underground comic
Gothic Blimp Works in 1969. Robbins became involved in creating outlets for and promoting female comics artists, through projects such as the
comics anthology ''
Wimmen's Comix, with which she was involved for twenty years. Wimmen's Comix'' #1 featured Robbins' "Sandy Comes Out", the first comic strip featuring an "
out"
lesbian. During this time, Robbins also became a contributor to the San Francisco-based underground paper
Good Times, along with art director
Harry Driggs and
Guy Colwell. 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?" In the early 1980s, Robbins created adaptations of
Sax Rohmer's
Dope and
Tanith Lee's
The Silver Metal Lover. In the mid-1980s she wrote and drew
Misty for the
Marvel Comics children's imprint
Star Comics, Misty being a niece of the long-standing Marvel character
Millie the Model. She followed
Misty with
California Girls, an eight-issue series about teenagers published by
Eclipse Comics in 1987–1988. In 1990, Robbins edited and contributed to
Choices: A Pro-Choice Benefit Comic Anthology for the National Organization for Women, published under Robbins' own imprint, Angry Isis Press. The all-star list of contributors, mostly women, included representatives of the underground —
Lee Marrs,
Sharon Rudahl,
Harry Driggs,
Diane Noomin,
Harry S. Robins, and Robbins herself;
alternative —
Nina Paley,
Phoebe Gloeckner,
Reed Waller &
Kate Worley,
Roberta Gregory,
Norman Dog, and
Steve Lafler;
queer —
Leslie Ewing,
Jennifer Camper,
Alison Bechdel,
Angela Bocage,
Jackie Urbanovic,
Howard Cruse,
Robert Triptow, and
M. J. Goldberg; and mainstream —
Cynthia Martin,
Barbara Slate,
Mindy Newell,
Ramona Fradon,
Steve Leialoha,
William Messner-Loebs, and
Bill Koeb — comics communities. 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 2010, she began writing comic adventures of the woman detective character
Honey West for a series published by
Moonstone Books.
Wonder Woman Robbins' official involvement with
Wonder Woman began in 1986. At the conclusion of the first volume of the series (in conjunction with the series
Crisis on Infinite Earths),
DC Comics published a four-issue
limited series titled
The Legend of Wonder Woman, written by
Kurt Busiek and drawn by Robbins. The series paid homage to the character's
Golden Age roots. She also appeared as herself in
Wonder Woman Annual 2 (1989). In the mid-1990s, Robbins criticized artist
Mike Deodato's "
bad girl art" portrayal of Wonder Woman, calling Deodato's version of the character a "barely clothed hypersexual
pinup." In the late 1990s, Robbins collaborated with
Colleen Doran on the
DC Comics graphic novel
Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story, on the subject of
spousal abuse.
Writing and activism She worked on the newspaper ''
It Ain't Me, Babe'', a newspaper published in 1970 by Berkeley Women's Liberation, a feminist organization. The paper has been called "the first feminist newspaper," although that distinction may only be accurate within
second-wave feminism in the United States. a nonprofit formed in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry. Robbins is featured in the feminist history film ''
She's Beautiful When She's Angry''. == Personal life and death==