One of a handful of women cartoonists who pioneered the genre of women’s autobiographical comics, Diane Noomin helped establish cartooning as a viable expressive and professional avenue for women artists.
In the 1970s, Noomin was one of the original contributors to the first significant anthology series publishing women cartoonists, Wimmen’s Comix. Along with Aline Kominskey-Crumb, she founded the second, Twisted Sisters. These anthologies gave voice in the comics medium to the era’s feminist concerns with beauty, social expectations, sexuality and the limiting effects of gender norms.
Noomin’s best-known character, Didi Glitz, described by Noomin as “a suburban Sysiphus striving futilely to redecorate her life,” crystallizes many of these themes. Deftly and humorously navigating the territory where confession becomes self-satire, Noomin’s Glitz captures the feminist dissatisfaction with the demands of stereotypical femininity, but recognizes the enduring appeal of glamour, “glitz,” style and romance — our affection for and ambivalence about those norms.
Wimmen’s Comix and Twisted Sisters also heralded the very existence of women cartoonists, who were almost entirely overlooked in the male-dominated culture of the day — and for years afterward. Speaking at the University of Florida in 2003, Noomin commented that the work “that was in Wimmin’s Comix just disappeared from view. It was like being invisible.” In the early 1990s, she and Aline Kominskey Crumb published two collections of previously published work by women cartoonists who had contributed to Twister Sisters and Wimmen’s Comix. After the collections’ publication, Noomin remarked, “I felt that not only had I helped all these other women become visible, but I was really proud to be part of this group.”
In this respect, Noomin and her fellow cartoonists and editors are the godmothers of the diverse culture of indie comics today.
Fantagraphics will release a collection of Noomin’s cartoons this fall.
