Iconic Comic Book Creator Dies After Suffering Stroke

Trina Robbins, a trailblazing comic book creator who pioneered as a woman in the male-dominated field of comics, has reportedly passed away at the age of 84. Robbins wrote books about women who specialized in comics.

The legendary writer reportedly died at a San Francisco hospital, said her partner Steve Leialoha, who claimed that Robbins died after suffering a massive stroke. Robbins was behind the first comic book made exclusively by women.

Before becoming involved in the world of comic books, Robbins was a clothes designer and seamstress who worked with stars Donovan and David Crosby. Joni Mitchell even wrote a song about Robbins, who had become a popular figure in the hippie movement of the 1960s.

The New York Times reports,

The first verse of Ms. Mitchell’s song “Ladies of the Canyon,” featured on her 1970 album of the same name, is a portrait of Ms. Robbins:

Trina wears her wampum beads
She fills her drawing book with line
Sewing lace on widow’s weeds
And filigree on leaf and vine.

Trina Perlson was born on Aug. 17, 1938, in Brooklyn, the younger of two daughters of Jewish immigrants from what was then Russia but is now Belarus. Her father, Max Bear Perlson, worked as a tailor until Parkinson’s disease forced him to retire; her mother, Elizabeth (Rosenman) Perlson, was a second-grade teacher.

t a young age, she became obsessed with comic strips and comic books, gravitating to female characters like Brenda Starr, Patsy Walker and Millie the Model. A particular favorite was the fashion plate Katy Keene, who inspired Ms. Robbins to make dresses for her own paper dolls.

She also drew comics: In her 2017 memoir, “Last Girl Standing,” she wrote, “My wonderful mother brought home from school an endless supply of 8½” by 11” Board of Education paper and No. 2 pencils, from which I would chew off the erasers.”

The New York Times

Rest in peace to a cutting edge icon!