Bagieu, Pénélope (1982 - )

French illustrator and author

Bagieu is best known for her blog BDs (French webcomics in blog format) My Quite Fascinating Life and Les Culottées. Les Culottées was compiled and released in English as the graphic novel Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, which received widespread recognition. She has also created blog BDs California Dreamin' and Joséphine.

In March 2008, she invented the character Charlotte to launch a new magazine, Oops, which features the adventures of a sassy girl at the forefront of verbal and clothing trends, and reviews the daily salient topics which are as varied as they are unusual.

In September 2008, she released the first volume of Joséphine, a comic which portrays a character commissioned by Femina magazine.

In 2016, Bagieu created the blog BD Les Culottées for Le Monde, which was eventually compiled into book form and released in 2018. She created one comic a week for 30 weeks, originally in French. Each comic featured a woman with an unusual or inspiring story. The work was released in French in two volumes with the subtitle Des Femmes Qui ne Font Que ce Qu’elles Veulent (Women Who Do as They Please).

On July 20, 2019, she received an Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material at San Diego Comic-Con (now Comic-Con International), for Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World.

Barbará, Carmen (1933 - )

Spanish Comics Artist and Illustrator

Carmen Barbará Geniés is one of the few female comic artists from Spain who has had her own long-running serial.

Although she has illustrated many girls' comics, such as Florita, Azucena, Sissi, Blanca, Claro de Luna and Marilyn, she is best known for 'Mary Noticias', which, since June 21, 1962, has appeared in 484 books and several extras published by Ibero Mundial until 1971.

Mary Noticias revolutionized the image of women in Spanish cartoons, breaking from their traditional romantic roles.

Barclay, Violet A. (1922-2010)

American Illustrator

Valerie Barclay was one of the pioneering female comic-book artists, having started in the field during the 1930s and 1940s period historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books whose art style was influenced by Nell Brinkley and began her career at 18 years old working for then Timely Comics editor Stan Lee.

She also drew romance titles for the Atlas Group (later Marvel Comics) as well as other publishers, such as, Better Publications, Ace Periodicals, and St. John Publishing.

Barry, Lynda Jean (1956 - )

American Cartoonist

Barry is best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek which ran in over 70 alternative newspapers from 1979 until its discontinuation in 2008. In the beginning of it's publication, the comic chronicled the everyday life of a young boy, Ernie Pook. However, within a period of about a year, the comic's focus shifted to a slightly awkward young girl named Maybonne Mullen and her largely dysfunctional family, who live in a trailer park in the Pacific Northwest sometime in the early 1970s.

She garnered attention with her 1988 illustrated novel The Good Times are Killing Me, about an interracial friendship between two young girls, which was adapted into a play. Her second illustrated novel, Cruddy, first appeared in 1999.

Three years later she published One! Hundred! Demons!, a graphic novel she terms "autobifictionalography". What It Is (2008) is a graphic novel that is part memoir, part collage and part workbook, in which Barry instructs her readers in methods to open up their own creativity; it won the comics industry's 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.

In recognition of her contributions to the comic art form, ComicsAlliance listed Barry as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition, and she received the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. In July 2016, she was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame.

Beaton, Kate (1983 - )

Canadian comics artist

Beaton's most acclaimed work is Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands and is also well known for her published webcomic, Hark! A Vagrant, from 2007 to 2018.

She moved her work from LiveJournal to her new website, also titled Hark! A Vagrant, in May 2008. Its subjects included historical figures, such as James Joyce and Ada Lovelace, or fictional characters from Western literature. In several comics, Beaton caricatured herself, past and present. Hark! A Vagrant won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic.

Beaton's work has been profiled in Wired, Maclean's, and Comic Book Resources. "The Origin of Man", her comic celebrating Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, was showcased by MySpace Dark Horse Presents in March 2009. In June 2009, she released a book titled Never Learn Anything from History. Several of her cartoons have been published in The New Yorker. Drawn & Quarterly released her second book, also titled Hark! A Vagrant, in September 2011. Time magazine named it one of the top ten fiction books of the year, with Lev Grossman calling it "the wittiest book of the year."

Beaton's self-published Never Learn Anything from History won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. Hark! A Vagrant won the 2011 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work, having been nominated the previous year, and was also nominated for Joe Shuster Awards in 2009 and 2010. Beaton followed up her 2011 Harvey win by taking home three Harveys in 2012, for Humor, Online Work, and Best Cartoonist.

Bechdel, Alison (1960 - )

American cartoonist

Bechdel is best known for her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (1983-2008) which was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture.

Bechdel came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was named Time magazines number one of it's "10 Best Books of the Year" and spent two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller's list for Hardcover non-fiction.

She is also known for originating what would later be called the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test, also known as the Bechdel–Wallace test, is a measure of the representation of women in film and other fiction. The test asks whether a work features at least two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. Some versions of the test also require that those two women have names.

A work of fiction passing or failing the test does not necessarily indicate the overall representation of women in the work. Instead, the test is used as an indicator of the active presence (or lack thereof) of women in fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction.

Bellamy, "Zorilita" Mary

American comic book writer, artist, and graphic novelist

Bellamy is best known as the My Little Pony Cover Artist.

Bellamy has been working in comics since 2000. She began her work in comics in 2000 as an inker for Shanda Fantasy Arts and moved on to work on anthologies with Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, amongst others. Later, she became the editor for the Womanthology Sketchbook project as well as an artist contributor and colorist for the Womanthology: Heroic anthology.

In between official comic book projects she also illustrates licensed artist trading cards for various comic properties including Transformers, DC Comics, Marvel and Star Wars and self publishes her own graphic novel series, Ah Heck!! - The Angel Chronicles and Faux Facts - The Truth Can Be Strange!.

Bennett, Anina

American comic book writer and editor/producer

Some of Bennett's famous works have been the Boilerplate robot hoax/comic and various Dark Horse Comics she has produced.

Anina Bennett is part of the husband-and-wife team with Paul Guinan who has been collaborating in print since 1989 and have been regulars at the comic con scene giving seminars. Some of Bennett's early editorial work has been for multiple titles for First Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

Bennett and Guinan created Heartbreakers for the indie anthology Dark Horse Presents in 1989. Heartbreakers is a groundbreaking series of science fiction comic books and graphic novels, one of the first to star a team of female action heroes.

She is currently working with Guinan on Aztec Empire, an historical online graphic novel series written by Paul Guinan and illustrated by David Hahn. It recounts the dramatic fall of the mightiest empire in the Americas, only three years after the arrival of strangers from another world. A unique tale in human history.

To learn more about Bennett and Guinan's creative works and seminars, please follow the link https://www.bigredhair.com/ to their official website.

Berger, Karen (1958 - )

American Comic Book Editor and writer

Berger has is best known for her work as Executive Editor and Creator of DC Comics' Vertigo Imprint (1993-2013). During her time at Vertigo, many successful titles were produced under the imprint such as Saga of the Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Hellblazer, Watchmen, V is for Vendetta, The Invisibles, 100 Bullets, Y: The Last Man, and Preacher among others. Many of which changed the direction of mainstream comics with challenging and complex stories and narratives.

Berger's business platform and vision to allowed creative freedom over a given title allowed the imprint's success to reach unprecedented levels.

As DC's UK liaison, she was responsible for hiring British writers like Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, assuring the imprint's success. Karen Berger helped to bring Neil Gaiman's work to a mass audience by having him write The Sandman.

Blaustein, Maddie (1960-2008)

American voice actress and comic writer

Madeleine Joan Blaudsrein (also known as Kendra Bancroft), was known for her voice acting work for 4Kids Entertainment, DuArt Film and Video and NYAV Post, for her reprising role as the character Meowth from the Pokémon anime series and for comics written for Milestone Comics, in which she introduced one of mainstream superhero comics' first transgender female characters.

In the first limited series by Milestone Media, called Deathwish (1994-1995), Blaustein (along with her partner, Yves Fezzani) created its central character Marisa Rahm, a transgender police officer. She was also the first intersex and transgender voice artist for many of her respective agencies.

In the late 1980s, Blaustein worked for Marvel Comics, as an editor (several issues each of Web of Spider-Man, Marvel Tales, and Marvel Saga) as a writer (several issues of Conan the King), and penciling a one-shot of Power Pachyderms. She wrote assorted comics published by DC Comics in the early 1990s, including a few for the Impact Comics imprint and TSR line.

Bloch, Virginia Hubbell (1914-2006)

American comic book writer

Bloch was a writer for Lev Gleason Publications, MLJ Comics, and Dell Comics during the Golden Age of Comics.

Under the name Virginia Hubbell she ghost-wrote much of the later content of Charles Biro's Daredevil and Boy Comics, as well as the notorious Crime Does Not Pay.

After the war, she wrote for the Good Comics (1953), Marvel Comics (1955) and St. John Publications (1955). From 1957, she wrote the series Little Lulu for Dell Comics as the successor to John Stanley.

Blum, Audrey Anthony 'Toni' (1918-1972/73?)

American comic book writer

Blum was active during the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age of Comic Books", known for her work with Quality Comics and other publishers and as one of the first female comics professionals in what was then an almost entirely male industry. Blum also co-created numerous features for Eisner-Iger clients and was the only female employee of the shop at the time. She was also the ghost-writer of it's title feature the Spirit for a time in 1942, while Eisner did World War II U.S. military service.

Along with Ruth Roche and Tarpé Mills Blum is considered among the only female comics writers of the Golden Age era (the 1930s and 1940s).

Brackett, Leigh (1915-!978)

American author and screenwriter

Dubbed “The Queen of the Space Opera,” Brackett is best known as the premiere sci-fi romance writer of her time, as well as her second career as acclaimed screenwriter for films such as The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye and the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back. In 1953, Brackett joined her husband, similarly accomplished sci-fi writer Edmond Hamilton, in co-writing a story for Detective Comics #198, “The Lord of Bat-Manor.”

Brackett first published in her mid-20s; the science fiction story "Martian Quest" appeared in the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Her earliest years as a writer (1940–1942) were her most productive. Some of her stories have social themes, such as "The Citadel of Lost Ships" (1943), which considers the effects on alien cultures of Earth's expanding trade empire.

Brandon-Croft, Barbara (1958 - )

American Cartoonist

Barbara Brandon-Croft is best known for creating the comic strip Where I'm Coming From, and for being the first nationally syndicated African-American female cartoonist.

Brandon-Croft started publishing Where I'm Coming From beginning in 1989 in the Detroit Free Press. The comic strip traces the experiences of about twelve African-American women and gives insight into the challenges of being an African American woman living in the United States. It features characters such as Alisha, Cheryl, Lekesia, Nicole and others. The characters are based on Brandon and her real-life friends.

The artwork is minimalistic. There is an absence of backdrop drawings, with the focus solely on the characters, who are represented by drawings of their upper torso. Speech bubbles are also omitted and the characters address the reader directly.

Where I'm Coming From went into national syndication in 1991 with the Universal Press Syndicate, making Brandon-Croft the first female black cartoonist to be nationally syndicated. It was the first comic strip by a black woman to be syndicated in mainstream newspapers. The comic strip was featured in more than sixty newspapers between 1989 and 2004. It appeared in newspapers throughout the United States, including Essence, The Sacramento Bee, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Baltimore Sun, as well as in The Gleaner in Jamaica and the Johannesburg Drum magazine. Brandon-Croft ceased publication of the comic strips in 2005 after subscriptions dwindled.

Brandon-Croft's and her father's work are both represented in the Library of Congress and in editions of Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year.

If you want to learn more about Barbara Brandon-Croft, please follow the link https://barbarabrandoncroft.com/ to her official website.

Bretécher, Claire (1940-2020)

French Cartoonist

Bretécher was one of the foremost socio-satirical French cartoonists of her generation. Her sharp and subtle observations of the prosperous, urban female of the 1970s and 1980s made her world famous, as her work was also published in most of the other European countries and the USA.

Bretécher was the first female comic artist with a prominent spot in several Franco-Belgian comic magazines. Her humorous series for Record ('Baratine et Molgaga' ), Tintin ('Hector') and Spirou ('Les Gnangnan', 'Les Naufragés') already hinted at the irony and humor of her later work. She was also at the vanguard of a new wave of adult-oriented comics with her contributions to Pilote and as co-founder of the satirical magazine L'Écho des Savanes.

Bretécher was additionally one of the first comic artists to successfully venture into self-publishing. But most of all, she was the first satirist who meticulously and subtly captured the behavior and conversations of both the adult and adolescent female in her two signature series 'Les Frustrés' (1973-1981) and 'Agrippine' (1988-2009), all in her trademark loose and sketchy style.

Brewster, Ann (1918-2005)

American cartoonist and illustrator/inker/penciller

During the Golden Age of comics, Brewster had provided art for many different publishers, including Ace Magazines, Fiction House, and Atlas Comics (later to become Marvel Comics) with a career spanning forty years as an artist for comic books, magazines, and novels. Brewster is most notable for illustrating romance comics.

Her career began in Jack Binder's "Binder Comic Shop" in 1941. The Binder Comic Shop was responsible for supplying artwork to comic book publishers. It was while working at the Binder Comic Shop where Brewster received her first credit as an artist in Samar for Quality Comics in 1941. In March 1942, Brewster created her first comic art for Fiction House's Sheena comics. She was the artist for 15 Sheena comics between 1942 and 1946.

Brigman, June (1960 - )

American comic book artist and illustrator

Brigman is best known for creating the preteen superhero characters Power Pack with writer Louise Simonson in 1984. Brigman was the artist of the syndicated newspaper strip Brenda Starr, Reporter from 1995 to 2011 and in 2016 became the artist for the newspaper strip Mary Worth.

Brigman broke into comics with AC Comics in 1983. A sample Astron story (eventually published by AC in 1986) earned her a job with DC Comics in 1984. Later, she worked instead for Marvel Comics, where she worked on Power Pack, a series she penciled on and off until issue #17. For the next seven years, Brigman worked exclusively for Marvel, mostly on short runs; she also contributed illustrations to various editions of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Brigman pencilled DC's Supergirl mini-series in 1994, following that with 1995's Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars mini-series River of Chaos (which was written by her former Power Pack collaborator Louise Simonson).

Brinkley, Nell (1886-1944)

American Illustrator and Comic Artist

Called the 'Queen of Comics' during Brinkley's four decade career working with New York newspapers and magazines , she is the creator of "The Brinkley Girl", a stylish character who appeared in comics and became popular symbol of songs, film and theatre.

The Three Graces, her drawing which idolized "the three graces of suffrage, preparedness and Americanism," set a new standard for feminine beauty and inspired a whole generation of female artists, including Dale Messick, the creator of the comic series 'Brenda Starr, Reporter'.

Brody, Zena (1928-1971)

American comic book editor

Brody worked for DC Comics as an editor for the romance comics line during the golden age of comics. On her appointment in 1949, Brody was the first ever woman comics editor.

Brody is best remembered as an editor on DC’s romance titles between 1956 to 1957. Record keeping on the credits in books like Girls’ Romances, Heart Throbs and Secret Hearts is spotty at best, but it’s generally understood that many romance editors frequently contributed their own stories to these anthology titles.

Brody was hired on to launch Girls' Love Stories, which took on traditional themes such as female behavior, gender roles, love, sex, and marriage. She continued on to edit Girls' Romances and Secret Hearts. Zena continued her career until she was succeeded by editors Ruth Brant, Phyllis Reed, and Dorothy Woolfolk.

Bryne, Olive (1904-1990)

Known professionally as Olive Richard. was the live-in life partner of William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston. She has been credited as an inspiration for the comic book character Wonder Woman, which she helped type many of Marston's scripts for.

Byrne was the daughter of Ethel Byrne, the Progressive Era activist who opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States with her sister Margaret Sanger.

Both Byrne and Elizabeth "embodied the feminism of the day". As reported by Jill Lepore in the 2014 book The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Byrne has been credited by some as being Marston's inspiration for the physical appearance of his iconic character, Wonder Woman. Marston himself only remarked that a pair of bracelets that Byrne frequently wore inspired the ones that became an important feature of the comic book heroine. The 'bracelets' themselves were representative of Bryne's 'marriage' to both William and Elizabeth, wearing these wide-band bracelets on each arm instead of a ring.

Buell, Majorie Henderson (1904-1993)

American Cartoonist

Working under the pen name Marge, Created the comic panel Little Lulu. (This would inspire the organization "The Friends of Lulu" (1994-2011), an organization promoting reading and authoring of comics to girls and women).

Originally, Lulu appeared as a single panel cartoon in the Saturday Evening Post magazine, as a replacement for Carl Anderson's 'Henry'. The 'Little Lulu' panel ran in the Post from February 1935 until December 1945, when the feature was turned into a comic strip. By then, the character had already starred in a series of theatrical animated shorts by Famous Studios. By 1950, the strip was picked up by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, who syndicated it to newspapers around the USA and abroad.

Burns, Peggy

Canadian President and Publisher

Burns is the President, Publisher, and Co-Owner of Drawn & Quarterly (as of 2015).

Under her leadership she has transformed the company into a leading literary graphic novel publisher, expanding its international presence, establishing the Librairie Drawn & Quarterly bookshop, and successfully guiding the company through leadership changes.

She has also continued to support and publish a diverse list of acclaimed cartoonists, including Lynda Barry, Adrian Tomine, and Kate Beaton, while maintaining the company's commitment to creative freedom for its authors.

Of course, you can check out all of Drawn & Quarterly's incredible published works and more on their website here https://drawnandquarterly.com.

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