“Maxine!” by American comic creator Marian Henley appeared in a head-scratching combination of publications between October 1981 until December 2002, such as San Francisco Chronicle, Heavy Metal, MS, Glamour, MAD, Funny Times, a newsletter for Hawaiian polygamists, recovery books for renegade Scientologists, funny sex books from the Kinsey Institute, and, yes, we had better stop right there.
There’s a smashing new guide to this fondly remembered strip here, on Who’s Out There. The strip was collected in Laughing Gas in 2002.
Marian Henley, who lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband Rick, son William, and numerous cats and dogs, is still busy today as a cartoonist, artist, and author. In addition to US publication, her work has been translated for foreign publication into Russian, Swedish, Italian, and Spanish.
Her work includes The Shiniest Jewel, published in 2008, a moving graphic memoir that poignantly recounts Marian Henley’s trials and tribulations in her late 40s: adopting a baby from Russia, deciding whether to marry her younger boyfriend, and coping with her elderly father’s illness.
She’s also the author of Pucker Up!, a cheeky, irreverent, funny, and occasionally poignant guide for women on aging well.
“My parents claim I began drawing when I was an infant, that I would trace any pattern I could reach with my finger,” says Marian of her start as a creator. “When I got old enough to hold a crayon I began drawing on the walls. Of the house. All over the house.
“Rather than rebuke me, my mother taped butcher paper from the top of the stairs to the bottom so I could sit on the stairs, moving from one to another, and draw all day long.
“When I got old enough to roam outside by myself (this was the Playstoscene Age when children could be spotted in the wild), I dislodged hunks of limestone from the nearby creek for drawing up and down the sidewalk. All over the sidewalk. Up and down the block. When I got older still, I began drawing cartoons. And books. I’ve been pretty happy drawing all over the place and have never come up with any solid reason to stop.”
Marian’s most recent work includes Finding the Light, published last year, a poignant graphic memoir that describes the most difficult conversation between a mother and her son — the one about the two rapes she experienced as a young woman. It’s something she always knew she would share with her son, but the process of doing so is harder — and more freeing — than she could have imagined.
“This difficult but beautiful story chronicles how she overcame trauma and violence to find love and healing as a mother,” the book description from publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing. “Drawing on her decades as a professional cartoonist, Henley’s elegant black ink illustrations, trademark humour, and witty writing style shine through even in the darkest moments and tell a story of survivorship, parenting, and hope.”
• Finding The Light is available from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link) ISBN
• Marian Henley is online at marianhenley.com
• Who’s Out There: Maxine Always Has Her Mouth Open
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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