Mary Wings

Mary Wings (born April 14, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois as Mary Geller) is an active American cartoonist, writer, and artist. She is known for highlighting lesbian themes in her work. In 1973, she made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian comic book. She is also known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor. Divine Victim, Wings' only Gothic novel, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery in 1994.
Wings, an open lesbian, lives in San Francisco.
Early life and education
Mary Wings was born on April 14, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois as Mary Geller.
Wings was raised in the Baháʼí Faith in Chicago. She attended Shimer College, a Great Books college then located in the town of Mount Carroll, Illinois. Later, she studied ceramics at Museum Art College in Portland, Oregon. She also studied theater set design at San Francisco State University.
Career
Mary Wings is a pioneer in the two literary fields she contributed to—lesbian comics and lesbian mystery novels. Her work is driven generally by the desire to discuss underrepresented topics that are relevant to her personal life. Initially, she did not intend to publish any of her work.
Comics
Wings was not originally a cartoonist or part of the 1970s underground comix movement when she created her first comic book, Come Out Comix. This comic book was created in response to Trina Robbins' comic in Wimmen's Comix #1, "Sandy Comes Out" — the first comic about lesbians. Wings was angered by "Sandy Comes Out," believing that the complex process of coming out was misrepresented by Robbins, a straight woman. She wrote Come Out Comix in seven days. Wings self-published Come Out Comix, printing copies in the basement of a karate studio. The plot of this comic book focuses on the character Maggi, who is coming to terms with her lesbian identity and finding a lover in the process. Come Out Comix is influenced by the author's own experience of coming out. Wings is also attributed with creating the first homosexual non-erotic comic book because comic books pre-dating Wings often fetishized any homosexual themes.
Wings later published two other comic books, Dyke Shorts and Are Your Highs Getting You Down?. The latter, Are Your Highs Getting You Down, was funded by a California Arts Council grant in 1979, tackled the growing issue of drug addiction and abuse. She also contributed to Howard Cruse's publication, Gay Comix. She wrote comic strips for issue numbers one and two.
Her comics became very popular in the lesbian community. Rather than simply including lesbian characters in her comics, she addressed themes specific to the community such as coming out, artificial insemination, discovering your parents' homosexuality, and writing lesbians into history. Because of her open addressing of homosexuality, her comic books were controversial. Notably, a shipment of her books were seized at the border of Canada due to the content.
Novels
Although Wings started her career in comics, she later longed to create more complex plot lines, leading her to pursue fiction through novels rather than comics.
Lesbian detective fiction first appeared in 1984 in response to the decline of the coming out story and the assertion of lesbian identity as separate from feminist theory. Wings was one of the originators of lesbian detective fiction, publishing her first mystery novel, She Came Too Late, in England in 1986 and the United States in 1988. She Came Too Late was a success and gave Wings notoriety as the book appeared for seven weeks on the London City Limits Bestseller List and won Best Novel of the Year in the 1986 Reader's Poll. She later wrote four other mysteries starring the same lesbian detective, Emma Victor.
Wings's only stand alone novel, Divine Victim, is a lesbian mystery-thriller that won the 1994 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.
Current projects
For the first time in over 30 years, Wings is working on a new comics project entitled Old. She is creating this comic in response to the lack of content appealing to people her age. She also hopes to fight stigmas related to ageism. Her comic may include paper doll cut-outs reminiscent of early comics for women.
Wings is also currently very active, discussing her pioneering work at comics events, in news articles, and on podcasts.
Personal life
Wings first heard the term lesbian when she was 19 years old, and she came out at age 21. Her mother did not understand Wings's identity, and she begged Wings not to tell her father.
Her mother died when Wings was in her mid-twenties after unexpectedly being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Around this time, Wings published Come Out Comix and her sexuality was made known to the public. Due to the Briggs Initiative, Wings feared that her open lesbianism would bar her from ever becoming a teacher in California, a childhood dream of hers.
Wings also played the banjo in a band called Robin, Woody and Wings with Robin Flower and Woody Simmons. After her mother's death, Wings moved with her band to San Francisco. She later left the band.
In 1980, Wings left San Francisco and moved to the Netherlands where she became fluent in Dutch.
In 1987, Wings returned to San Francisco after the publication of her first novel. Upon her return, she became once again active with gay and lesbian causes, participating in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian History Project and the Frameline Film Festival.
Bibliography
Comic books
Come Out Comix (1973)
Dyke Shorts (1978)
Are Your Highs Getting You Down? (1980)
Other comics contributions
"A Visit From Mom" published in Gay Comix #1: Lesbians and Gay Men Put It On Paper! (1980)
"Child Labor" published in Gay Comix #2: One Step Ahead of the Homophobes! (1981)
Novels
Divine Victim (1993) - Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery winner
Emma Victor series
She Came Too Late (1986)
She Came in a Flash (1988)
She Came by the Book (1995)
She Came to the Castro (1997)
She Came in Drag (1999)
Short stories
"Kill the Man for Me" published in A Women's Eye fiction collection (1992)
"Mars Bar" published in Out/Look magazine
Lectures
A Woman of Affairs with historian Eric Garber (1993) — The Life of Greta Garbo
References
External links
Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University
1949 births
American lesbian writers
LGBT comics creators
Living people
Novelists from Chicago
Female comics writers
Lambda Literary Award winners
LGBT people from Illinois
American women novelists
Pacific Northwest College of Art alumni
Shimer College alumni
20th-century American novelists
American LGBT novelists
20th-century American women writers