Famous cartoonist, daughter of immigrants from Belarus, dies at 85

Trina Robbins / lemonde.fr

Trina Robbins / lemonde.fr / lemonde.fr

The famous cartoonist Trina Robbins, who "grew up in New York in a modest Jewish family of Belarusian origin", died in the United States in San Francisco, writes the French edition of Le Monde. She was 85 years old.

Trina was born in 1938. Her father Max worked as a tailor, her mother Bessie was a teacher. In Belarus, they, Belarusian Jews, had the surname Perechudnik, and when they arrived in the United States, they became Perlson. Trina Robbins admitted that she didn't like the last name.

From childhood, Trina was fascinated by comic books, fascinated by their characters. Then came a fascination with science fiction. After moving to California in 1960, Trina Robbins became a self-taught stylist, dressed famous musicians, was friends with Jim Morrison.

She returned to New York in 1966 to open a clothing boutique. That's when she started publishing comic books. And eventually became a famous American cartoonist. She was one of the first members of the "underground comics movement" and one of the first women in it. She has been called a "historian of feminism". She said in an interview that she faced sexism from other cartoonists early in her career. But publishers favored her work and published it. 

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