Friends of Lulu

In the early 1990s, comic book professionals Trina Robbins, Heidi MacDonald, Deni Loubert, Anina Bennett, Liz Schiller, and Jackie Estrada banded together to share frustrations, information and aspirations for women in the male-dominated comics industry, and held the first "Friends of Lulu" meeting at a comics convention. Co-founder Trina Robbins recalls that a Cherry Poptart lookalike contest sponsored by Comic-Con International was the "last straw" that inspired the creation of the organization.[5]

Friends of Lulu was formed in the summer of 1994,[6] beginning as an amateur press association which lasted three issues.[7]

FoL elected its first board of directors in the summer of 1995 at San Diego Comic-Con.[8] (The organization continued the tradition of electing board members during Comic-Con for many subsequent years.)

In 1997 the first annual Lulu conference and Lulu awards were held in California.[9]

In 2000, Friends of Lulu was awarded a grant from the Xeric Foundation to self-publish Friends of Lulu: Storytime.[10][11]

In 2003, the organization published an anthology entitled Broad Appeal.[12]

With the dissolution of Friends of Lulu, observers weighed in on the organization's legacy:

...today’s younger female creators don’t see the problems FoL was created in response to (in part due to FoL’s actions) and thus don’t see much of a need for the group. These creators have more avenues available to them — webcomics, book publisher graphic novel contracts, online organization and support — and a formal group may seem old-fashioned.

— Johanna Draper Carlson[22]

Heidi MacDonald added:

...the world that FoL was created to confront doesn’t exist anymore. Women are back in comics as creators, readers, retailers... you name it.... The ’90s were a period when women had been driven out of the medium, for the most part, even as it was a blossoming time for women IN the media.[21]

• 1997–1998 Laurel Carpenter[23]
• 1998–1999 Jackie Estrada[24]
• 2000–2001 Liz Schiller[25]
• 2001–2002 Katie Merritt (owner of retail store Green Brain Comics)[26]
• c. 2005 Tasha Lowe[27]
• 2006 Katie Merritt[28]
• 2007 Shannon Crane[14]
• 2007–2010 Valerie D'Orazio[29]

The Lulu Awards, presented annually at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, from 1997 to 2009, bestowed the Lulu of the Year trophy for overall work; with additional awards, variously over the years, including the Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent; the Volunteer of the Year Award; the Women of Distinction Award and induction into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

Friends of Lulu published a number of books, including:

• How to Get Girls (Into Your Store) (1997) — guide for comics shop owners on how to make their stores more female-friendly, edited by Deni Loubert
• Friends of Lulu Presents: Storytime (2001), compiled and edited by Anne Chang-Blaeske and Phil Yeh
• Broad Appeal: An Anthology of Comics for Everyone (2003) — anthology of comics by women artists, edited by Dave Roman
• The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff (2007) — anthology of over 50 women cartoonists including Roberta Gregory, Abby Denson, and Julia Wertz, edited by Robin Enrico and M. K. Reed.

• List of Lulu Award winners
• Sequential Tart
• Female comics creators
• List of female comics creators
• List of feminist comic books
• Portrayal of women in American comics

• Friends of Lulu Homepage