I was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and I've been writing stories and drawing pictures pretty much all my life. My father, Robert Gregory (who died in December 2003) used to write Donald Duck and other Disney comics while I was a small child at home. The house was always full of comic books and I learned to read before I got to kindergarten. From an early age I would draw dogs and cats and horses and write dialogue balloons above their heads, and then staple little comic books together and sell them to my family members, bless them! My creativity escalated throughout my adolescent years, as I turned out countless pages of quirky stories, written and illustrated, that I thought were far too strange to interest anybody but myself. (Fortunately, or UNfortunately, very little remains of my early, badly-drawn and poorly-written pages!)
Here is page one of a 3-pg story of my early creative life, from NB #30.
But, I have also done a lot of traveling, thanks to the generosity of comics publishers all over the world and others who appreciate my work. I have been to Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, (several times!), Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. I would never have been able to afford this sort of travel strictly on my own dime. My new book Follow Your Art is a collection of many of these expeditions!
It's been a very interesting life so far. And, I have gotten comics industry nominations and actual awards for my work: several Eisner nominations (humor, best short story, best writer, best writer/artist), an Inkpot Award from Comic Con International, Cartoonists Northwest’s Toonie Award, and most recently, the Haxtur Award (for humor!) from the Salon Internacional del Principado de Asturias in Spain.
The last issue of Naughty Bits was published in 2004, and the latest collection of Bitchy stories, Life's a Bitch, was published by Fantagraphics in 2005. Most of the comics and books are still available: see the Publications page. (Most of my books and comics from earlier years mentioned in my History are also available from my web site, though some in very limited quantities.) It is never too late to 'discover' my comics and see if YOU are one of the people I am 'writing for.'
Since my work does cover such a wide range, I have had reactions across the map to my stories and comics. People have said one of my books was now one of their favorites--and it was also something that I got an absolutely rotten review of in print (in a few instances, so over-the-top negative, I wonder if I struck a nerve somewhere). My response is: I am not writing for everyone. You may absolutely hate something that I have written but you may love something else. Don’t be afraid to let me know something is not your “cup of tea,” (as long as you enjoy something else of mine). Believe me, I am used to it by now!
Post-Naughty Bits, my comics stories have appeared in some other books: Road Strips, published in 2005 by Chronicle Books; Sexy Chix, published in 2006 by Dark Horse; Tales of the Slug, published in 2006 by Windstorm Creative, and Friends of Lulu: the Girl's Guide to Guy Stuff, published in 2007.
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A page from my “California Girl” story from the book, Roadstrips, a Graphic Journey Across America, available from Amazon.com.
One of my early (VERY primitive!) strips, from Uncle Jam, circa 1973.
I never really made much money from my creative projects, even the animated cartoon, and have had a stunning variety of semiskilled 'day jobs' from working in a grain elevator, working in a marine biology lab (and out in the soggy field), marketing research, in a bookstore, and lots of pre-computer production art (the primitive era of X-acto knives, waxers and stat cameras) on everything from textbooks to car magazines to medical journals to Fantagraphics publications. Currently, I am a part time maintenance person (Union pay, great benefits) for the beautiful McCaw Hall, home of Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Since I mostly work evenings and weekends, I haven't much of a social life. At least I get to listen to gorgeous music as I sweep up broken wine glasses, move furniture, change light bulbs, empty trash cans and try to figure out why the automatic faucets in the restrooms don’t work. But it sure does eat into the time I would much rather be spending in writing stories and drawing pictures--what I am SUPPOSED to be doing!
My Creative History
My Creative History
When I got into college (CSU Long Beach) in 1971, the feminist movement was in full swing, and I experimented with many different styles in the college humor paper, Uncle Jam (Published by Phil Yeh) until I created the "Feminist Funnies" strip in 1974. This was the year I sold my first story to the underground comic book, Wimmen's Comix, Issue #4 (published by Last Gasp of San Francisco). I expanded the comic strip into a comic book of my own, Dynamite Damsels (cover detail in strip at top of page). I think this officially made me the first woman to solo publish a regulation-sized comic book, but I don't think I knew it at the time. I was much inspired by (and had a lot of help from) Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli, of the Nanny Goat Productions collective, which had been publishing feminist comic books since 1972. My stories appeared in a few issues of their irreverent title, Tits and Clits, and a few more times in Wimmen's Comix through the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s.
I was happy to be living proof that feminists did have a sense of humor, but I was really just writing and drawing the sorts of stories that I would love to read, if someone else was doing them. Nobody else WAS, so it seemed to be up to me, to create this stuff so I would be able to read it. And that has pretty much been the story of my creative life! When Gay Comix appeared in 1980, my stories were in several of the issues throughout the 1980s. All these comic books have been long out of print, but I am planning on someday (soon, I hope!) reprinting these decades-old stories for the benefit of my readers, the newer ones and those who have fond memories of my older stories.
During the late 1980s I started working on Winging It, a very ambitious project: a mythical-metaphysical graphic novel that incorporated themes from stories I have been writing all my creative life. I also created Sheila and the Unicorn, a lighter-in-tone comic strip-like story. I published the first volume of Winging It and the Sheila collection in 1988.
In 1989 I moved from California to Seattle and started working at Fantagraphics Books ("publishers of the world's greatest cartoonists") and the first issue of Naughty Bits, my long-running comic book series, appeared in 1991. I also began the short series, Artistic Licentiousness, three issues of which appeared in the 1990s. The first issue (now out of print) was published by Starhead Comix, and I published the last two issues myself. The second volume of Winging It was finally published in 1999.
Bitchy Bitch was born with the series, Naughty Bits, and has become my most well-known creation, and the character of mine that the most readers seem able to identify with! She has taken many incarnations, from appearing in the comic book, to stage productions, to a weekly strip, and even a cloth doll (which is, unfortunately, no longer available) and from 2001-2003, Bitchy starred in the “Life’s a Bitch” animated cartoon on Comedy Network in Canada and Oxygen Network in the US.
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A lovely square in Stockholm, Summer 2008
Not too long ago...
Late 2009: I had a two page story published in Not My Small Diary #15 about an unplanned encounter with the Dalai Lama at work. For more information, see: www.mysmallwebpage.com
Art Exhibits, 2009:
Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California, June 2009: "Strips, Scrips and 'Scapes"
Fantagraphics Gallery, Seattle, Washington, August 2009: "Comics Savants—a Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists”
Riga, Latvia, September, 2009: "The Last Match Exhibit"
Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle Central Community College, October-November 2009: “Climate Change Comics in Seattle"
Late 2009: A short essay of mine was published in the art book, Sweet Fever: The Art of Hans Meertens
Of course, “History” is ongoing, and today is tomorrow’s “history” and all that, so this will soon be out of date, with all the projects I am trying to get finished and into the hands of readers. So come back to my site frequently for updates, please!
To read more about my books and comics from the past, (most of which are still available) click on each of the following titles: Real Cat Toons, Sheila and the Unicorn, Winging It, Dynamite Damsels, Naughty Bits, Bitchy Collections.