Q: Have you always been a doll collector? If so how old were you
when you began collecting? What dolls do you collect? How many dolls do you have?
A: Well, you know I always loved dolls (I think ALL women love dolls, it's
in our genes), but for the longest time I wouldn't really admit that to
myself, because it didn't seem like something a grown woman should be
doing. Finally allowing myself to collect dolls was a very liberating
experience! I don't know how many dolls I have--do you really want me to
count them? In the beginning, I only collected old dolls, because then I
could tell myself they weren't really just dolls, they were "antiques,"
but at a certain point I broke down, and there was a homeless guy selling
these dolls on the street -- I could tell they were contemporary but they
were made to look like antique boudoir dolls, and he let me have all 3
for $10, and I guess that was the point at which I said, "The hell with
being grownup, I love dolls and that's that!" Aside from the Wonder
Woman "action figures," the dolls I collect do all at least look old,
because that's what I like. I am irresistably attracted to velvet, lace,
silk flowers, curly hair.
Trina: Okay, let's see...clockwise from the top, that's my 1920s boudoir doll, a nice little senorita costume doll (I have a lot of those costume dolls, but just plucked a few off the shelf for this photo), then to your right below her, a boy harlequin musical doll, one of the ones I actually bought from a homeless guy selling them on the street (and he's lovely, porcelain head, arms and legs, cloth body), lying on top of him is a cloth Carmen Mirands from Brazil, platform shoes and all; the harlequin's purple pants, a pincushion doll from the 20s, porcelain head and torse, crocheted lace over a pincushion body; then to your left of her is a molded rubber baby doll with her underwear molded onto her, above her is the other musical harlequin, a girl this time, that I bought off the street, made just like the first one, in a white satin costume trimmed with maribou feathers; then there's a cute Red Ridinghood doll I bought for a pound at the Glasgow, Scotland, flea market, and finally my prize Shirley Temple doll from the 1950s. Oh, and there's another costume doll next to her -- I almost missed her! It's a pretty good sampling of my collection.
Below is another shot of the same dolls in different light.
Q:How did you first get interested in comics?
A: My mother was a 2nd grade schoolteacher and when I was 4 years old she
taught me to read -- the greatest gift anyone has ever given me -- and I
took to reading like a duck to water. I was the kid who read everything;
the ads on the subway, the backs of cereal boxes, and my parents could
take me anywhere, because as long as I had a book to read, I was quiet
and well behaved. Soooo, unlike many other parents of that time, who
were worried that if their kids read comics they wouldn't read books, my
parents had no problem with that, because I read EVERYTHING!
Q: How many wonder woman dolls/action figures do you have and which
one is your favorite? Do you have any other superhero dolls/figures?
A: Okay, I WILL count them: 14, counting my Wonder Woman Pez dispenser and
the 4 WW action figures I have lent to my grand daughter. She's 3 years
old and has never seen a WW comic (I wouldn't let her -- they're so
violent and sexist!) but she loves the dolls. In San Francisco, when you
take a bus, when the bus starts a recorded woman's voice comes on telling
you to "Please hold on," and my granddaughter has decided that the woman
speaking is Wonder Woman. Other than WW, I have 3 Xenas and one Gabrielle, and some
Powerpuff Girls, but I've given the Powerpuff Girls to my granddaughter, too.
Q: The Once and Future Story: What would you like to tell readers about it? Its inspiration? How it came to be?
A: It just seemed to be a story that needed telling, so I proposed it to DC
comics and much to my surprise, they accepted it! There's so much
violence in comics and so much sexism, I felt the need to counter that,
and I'm very concerned about violence against women. I think every now
and then DC comics feels the need to publish some comic for a good cause,
for their reputation, and I just hit them at the right time. I was
delighted that they let me include such information on the inside back
cover as domestic violence hotlines. When the book came out, some guy
emailed me and wrote that he thought it was admirable that DC comics had
thought to include the hotline information on the inside back cover, and
I answered him the THEY didn't think to include it, *I* thought to
include it!
Thanks again, Trina!
To learn more about Trina Robbins and her work, including her non-comic books and other projects, visit her website at: http://www.trinarobbins.com
