1Feminist comics
An expanding field
Kristy Beers Fägersten, Leena Romu, Anna Nordenstam, and Margareta Wallin Wictorin
Introduction
The pre-cursor to this anthology was the conference, “Comics and Feminism,” co-organised by the Nordic Summer University study circle, “Comics and Society: Research, Art, and Cultural Politics,” and the research project “A Multidisciplinary Study of Feminist Comic Art”1 (2018–2021) held at Södertörn University, Sweden, in late February 2020. Shortly afterwards, we as the conference organisers would count ourselves lucky that the event was not affected by the travel restrictions that were soon to be imposed and the general upheaval of daily life. Indeed, as this volume of transnational perspectives on feminist comic art now goes to press, we are in the midst of global turbulence. The year 2020 has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which in addition to resulting in mass deaths and sicknesses, has strained healthcare resources, created political divides, exacerbated social inequalities, and crippled economies. By the time the coronavirus reached pandemic status, the global geopolitical scene was already characterised by grave tensions intensified by nationalism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and far-right terrorism. And in countries such as Brazil, China, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and the US, political leadership had already begun taking the form of autocracy, dictatorship, or demagoguery, stoked by the immigration crisis and bolstered by overreaching law enforcement and military involvement. In response, protests have proliferated and acts of resistance abound. Before the pandemic, the #metoo movement had already had a profound effect and has continued to expose widespread and systematic sexual harassment and assault; climate change activism had secured a political foothold; massive protests had shone a spotlight on and defied the rule-of-law hypocrisy in Brazil, Belarus, Hong Kong, Russia, and the US; and the resurgence and worldwide spread of the Black Lives Matter movement had forced an international reckoning with racism and racial inequality. Such progress, however, is put at risk by further threats, challenges, and injustices, more of which are certain to come.
It is thus a worrisome present with a future that may seem bleak, but it is nevertheless important to understand the times we are experiencing as the context for artistic output. The publication of this anthology coincides with grand events on a global scale, such as the examples above. Like each of them, the anthology, too, should be put into context, such that it can answer the question: what has instigated the production of a transnationally expanding field of feminist comic art? The anthology Comic Art and Feminism in the Baltic Sea Region: Transnational Perspectives aims to explore how the relationship between comic art and feminism has been shaped by global, transnational, and local trends. Given that comic art has always been an international form, it is no surprise that comics should also create, reflect, and respond to trends of globalisation. If the rise of graphic narrative genres in multiple national contexts may in itself be seen as an effect of cultural globalisation, comic art is, at the same time, deeply enmeshed in local histories and contexts.
An expanding historical context: Feminist comic art in Sweden and Finland
The emergence of feminist comic art can be traced to the Anglo-American context of the 1960s and 1970s. At this time, women’s comic art and graphic narratives were closely associated with second-wave feminism, “which enabled a body of work that was explicitly political to sprout” (Chute 2010, p. 20). Self-published, underground “comix” were proliferating, which gave rise to comics with a decidedly feminist orientation (Robbins 1999), albeit as “more a reaction to [underground comix] than their outgrowth” (Sabin 1993, p. 224). Women’s underground comix in the US and the UK thus paved the way for contemporary feminist comic art, and a growing number of contemporary comics are continuing to explore themes of feminism by creating new discursive spaces for problematising gender, gender roles, and social norms. Indeed, many women creators in particular have achieved mainstream recognition thanks to the expanding graphic novel market and the popularity of autobiographical comics.
While it is conventional to cite the Anglo-American history of feminist comics as central to the field, significant but often overlooked parallel developments or subsequent effects also took place in other countries. One noteworthy example is Sweden, where feminist comics were published in connection with the women’s liberation movement from the early 1970s. In feminist publications, such as the women’s journal Kvinnobulletinen, one could read comics in different styles, in which humour and satire were deployed as a weapon, and with themes connected to women’s bodies, the labour market, and different sexualities. Feminist comics and cartoons have also long been published in Swedish fanzines, daily newspapers, and anthologies (Nordenstam and Wallin Wictorin 2019). In Comic Art and Feminism in the Baltic Sea Region: Transnational Perspectives, the point of departure is the comic art landscape of Sweden, where the history of feminist comics that explore the political through the personal has established comics artists as influential social commentators and powerful political activists. Many Swedish female comics artists have garnered mainstream popularity and critical acclaim for their feminist perspectives and scathing but humorous social commentary. While positioned for comparison to their Anglo-American contemporaries, best-selling Swedish artists such as Liv Strömquist, Nina Hemmingsson, Moa Romanova, and others nevertheless deviate from the established aesthetic with similar yet singular styles of illustration and multimodal ways of interacting with materiality. These contemporary feminist comics artists can thus be considered pioneers with regards to their depictions of female experiences, and topics such as politics, class, gender, sexualities, and other issues of equality, thereby operationalising a feminist movement in Sweden.
Not only is Sweden a nation of enthusiastic consumers and creators of comic art, it is also progressive in many (but certainly not all) issues of equality, which has contributed to establishing substantial female representation in the otherwise male-dominated comics industry. Indeed, in his account of Swedish comics history, Fredrik Strömberg (2010) points out in the chapter, “The 21st century – Women take charge,” that Swedish “female cartoonists” have recently been able to challenge male dominance due to “an active public debate about equality that has been going on in Swedish society for quite some time” (p. 96). Women creators are thus currently and unprecedentedly enjoying the unique status, from both a national and international perspective, of industry leaders. This development is also mirrored in publishing with the example of Galago, one of Sweden’s oldest and largest comics publishers, which focuses on alternative and feminist comics and today boasts an all-female staff.2
The success, popularity, and momentum of Swedish feminist comic art warrant an exploration of local reverberations and transnational trends in feminist comic art both in and around Sweden, such as in Finland. When female cartoonists started to become more common and visible on the Finnish comics landscape during the 1980s and 1990s, there was a need to categorise their comics as “women’s comics” in comparison to the decidedly established norm of male-dominated comics. The cultural conversation about the necessity of the label “women’s comics” continued in Finland until the 2010s, as the main comics festivals discussed the label’s positive and negative connotations.3 As the discussion has continued, the Finnish comics field has also become more diverse and the need for categorising comics based on the artist’s gender has become obsolete.
Furthermore, when discussing feminist comics and their distinctive features, it is of utmost importance to consider the differences between genres, artists, and generations of artists, since both the cultural and political contexts for making comics change over time. In Finland, women cartoonists had to defend their new place in the earlier male-dominated industry until the 2000s, when women were no longer a rare sight among the readers, students, or creators of comics. Additionally, the ways in which feminism(s) is(are) understood have changed over time; in Finland, the debates about intersectionality, the rights of non-binary and transpeople, mental health, and body positivity have become more important and increasingly relevant topics, especially for many younger comics artists during the 2000s and 2010s. This trend is set to continue into the 2020s, even if the critical aspects and themes may very well change as a reaction to societal and political developments.
An expanding geographical perspective: Feminist comic art in the Baltic Sea region
As feminist comic art in Finland and Sweden show, the surrounding society – with its political situation, gender expectations, legislation, and cultural norms – affects what kind of feminist ideas artists may choose to tackle in their work. In this sense, both commonalities between and unique characteristics in feminist comics are significant. In many contexts, however, the concept of “women’s comics” prevails, threatening to undermine the value of the social and political issues they address. The chapters of this anthology therefore promote and elaborate on the concepts of feminist comic art and feminist comics artists. The idea to compile an anthology on feminist comics in the Baltic Sea region thus first raises the question of whether it is possible to find a common denominator for feminist comic art. Are feminist comics connected by certain aesthetic qualities or themes? Is there a shared conception of feminism that is recognisable in the comics produced in the Baltic Sea region? The answer to both questions is “no.” As much as there is an exchange of ideas and aesthetic influences between artists in different countries, there are local varieties specific to countries and individual artists. Furthermore, variations in contemporary conceptions of feminism seem to depend on varying historical conditions and experiences in the different countries. There is also a great variety of genres, media, and narrative styles represented in the feminist comic art of the Baltic Sea region. Thus, identifying or categorising feminist comic art can be considered an exercise in recognising variations on shared aesthetic, discursive, and ideological themes.
The situation of categorising based on such “different similarities” has a Nordic precedent. According to Rikke Platz Cortsen and Ralf Kauranen (2016, p. 12), Nordic comics are variable and diverse, thus making it impossible to find a certain thematic, stylistic, or generic commonality. The ways in which the comics draw inspiration from Nordic cultures and societies in creating their story worlds, characters, and atmosphere are numerous. “Nordicness” in Nordic comics is not an inherent quality but, rather, as Cortsen and Kauranen claim, a constructed quality that is built for transnational collaboration and promotional purposes (ibid.).
In the same way, feminist comics around the Baltic Sea region draw their aesthetic influences and feminist ideas from several sources. This anthology aims to identify salient distinguishing features and transnational commonalities of feminist comic art. The transnational perspective highlights practices and characteristics of feminist comic art which have mobilised to extend across national boundaries. However, there might also be translocal particularities, where forms of global media are adapted to meet the needs of local contexts, which themselves are increasingly linked through practices of adaptation, translation, and mediation (Dirlik 1996; Brickell and Datta 2011: Denson, Meyer, and Stein 2013; Greiner and Sakdapolrak 2013). This anthology’s chapters on Finnish, German, Polish, Russian, and Swedish comics endeavour to broaden the research perspective and develop the concept of feminist comics to include comics cultures peripheral to the Anglo-American, Franco-Belgian, and Japanese cultural centres of comic art.
An expanding collaborative landscape: Feminist comic art activity in the Baltic Sea region
The Baltic Sea region has functioned both as a site for transnational collaboration between artists and an inspiration for stories. Comics artists and others working in the field of comic art have collaborated, for example, by extending mutual invitations to local comics festivals, translating each other’s work, or co-publishing anthologies and zines. The Baltic Sea region as a geographical and geopolitically defined area has also inspired comics artists to depict the sea as a facilitator for historical, cultural, linguistic, and social exchange between nations and people (Kauranen 2019).
The idea of the Baltic Sea region as a locus for transnational collaboration and exchange also holds true when it comes to artist networks. In 2016, Femicomix Finland, a network for feminist minded comics artists and activists, co-edited an issue of Kuti magazine dedicated to feminist comics (Kuti #40). The issue included comics from the Baltic Sea region (Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, and Sweden) but also from other parts of Europe and around the world. Femicomix Finland itself was established in 2013, drawing its inspiration from the Swedish feminist network Dotterbolaget, which was founded in 2005 by a group of women who had studied at the Comic Art School of Malmö, Sweden. Central to Dotterbolaget’s explicit ethos is creating and upholding a collaborative and supportive network among women and transpeople inside the comics industry (Hinchcliffe Voglio 2019), an ideology that Femicomix also subscribes to. Similar networks (and important partners for transnational collaboration) include the Chicago-based Ladies Night Anthology and the British collectives Comic Book Slumber Party and Laydeez do Comics, which share the aim of promoting female creators and diversity in the comics industry.
Transnational connections, that is, aesthetic, social, political, economic, and cultural interaction reaching across national boundaries, shape comics cultures and graphic narratives, as Shane Denson, Christina Meyer, and Daniel Stein (2013, p. 1) have proposed. Translating works from one language to another is a common way to enable a transnational flow of ideas and narratives; however, not only can translations, festivals, artist meetings, or collaborative works (such as anthologies, zines, etc.) create transnational interaction between artists, but also the Internet, especially via social media platforms such as Instagram, enables transnational networking. These platforms have also made it easier for readers to find new comics and artists from other cultures and language areas.
Research on comics has expanded substantially during recent years, resulting in academic conferences and publications, national and international research networks, and dissemination and outreach activities. Among noteworthy examples of the latter is Nicola Streeten’s series of five online seminars, “Feminism, comics & humour,” organised by Laydeez do Comics and funded by The British Arts Council. The seminars, delivered...
