Rachel Pollack

**Rachel Pollack** was a transgender, lesbian, comics author. She created DC Comics' first transgender superhero, Coagula.

## Biography

### Career

While talking with Stuart Moore at a reception for the Science Fiction Writers of America, Rachel Pollack was gushing about her love for Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. This led to her being introduced to the books editor, Tom Peyer, who asked her to send him a sample script since Grant was closing out their run in the near future. Taking cues from sample scripts written by Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore, Rachel wrote what would become her first issue of the series.

While working on Doom Patrol, Rachel created the world's first transgender lesbian superhero, Coagula as a means to both explore transgender issues and create a role model for transgender readers.

In 1995, DC Comics was working on reviving many of their '60s and '70s properties, which led to Tom Peyer submitting a New Gods proposal. Realizing he was already overcommitted, Peyer recalled working with Pollack on Doom Patrol, and having loved collaborating with her, asked Rachel to co-write the run with him. By Issue #6, Pollack became the books lead writer until John Byrne was given the book. "Byrne wanted to do it, and he was a big star" recalled Pollack. "We weren't given much time to wrap up our story and lead into what Byrne wanted to do."

### Personal life

Born in Brooklyn, Rachel Pollack moved to Poughkeepsie at the age of 9. She came out as transgender in 1971 and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1976 while living in Holland. In 1993 she gave a speech in France on "Aphrodite: Transsexual Goddess of Passion" and in 1994 led a "Shining Woman Tour of the Greek Mysteries" archaeological journey through Greece.

After living in Europe for 19 years, Rachel returned to upstate New York, where she became involved with the formation of the Gender Identity Project at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New York City, where she organized a celebration and commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Christine Jorgensen's gender reassignment surgery.

## Bibliography

August 1990
The Woman Who Didn't Come Back
Titan BooksFebruary 2, 1993
Doom Patrol: Sliding in the Wreckage Part One - Burn in the Curse
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintMarch 9, 1993
Doom Patrol: Sliding in the Wreckage Part Two - The Book Office
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintApril 6, 1993
Doom Patrol: Sliding in the Wreckage Part Three - The Pig It was That Lived
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintApril 26, 1993
The Geek: Homelands of the Dolls
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintMay 11, 1993
Doom Patrol: E Rose in the Autos
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJune 1, 1993
Doom Patrol: A Ticket to the Cleaners
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJuly 6, 1993
Doom Patrol: Spooks Return Satisfied
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJuly 13, 1993
Doom Patrol: Down Among the Underpinnings
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintAugust 17, 1993
Doom Patrol: The Laughing Game
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintSeptember 14, 1993
Doom Patrol: The Fox and the Crow
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintOctober 12, 1993
Doom Patrol: The Prince and Princess of Desire
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintNovember 16, 1993
Doom Patrol: The dream Patrol - Return of the Windowmen
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintNovember 30, 1993
Doom Patrol: The Wild, The Good, and the Grown-Up
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintDecember 14, 1993
Doom Patrol: Bootleg Steele
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJanuary 18, 1994
Doom Patrol:The Teiresias Wars Part One - A Handful of Dust
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintFebruary 8, 1994
Doom Patrol:The Teiresias Wars Part Two - The Hotel of Lost Light
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintMarch 15, 1994
Doom Patrol:The Teiresias Wars Part Three - The Witness Trees
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintApril 5, 1994
Doom Patrol:The Teiresias Wars Part Four - The Path of Vanished Alphabets
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintMay 3, 1994
Doom Patrol:The Teiresias Wars Part Five - The Fire Sermon
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJune 7, 1994
Doom Patrol: The Dogs of Soul
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJuly 5, 1994
Doom Patrol: Two Mad Men with Foreheads and Boots
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintAugust 2, 1994
Doom Patrol: A Swaying Nipple and a Shower of Gold
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintSeptember 6, 1994
Doom Patrol: Remembrance of Lives Passed
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintOctober 4, 1994
Doom Patrol: Imagine Ari's Friends Part One - A Song for the Small Face
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintNovember 1, 1994
Doom Patrol: Imagine Ari's Friends Part Two - Gates of Light
DC Comics' Vertigo imprint1995
The Vertigo Tarot
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintDecember 6, 1994
Doom Patrol: Imagine Ari's Friends Part Three - The Cup of Knowing
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintJanuary 10, 1995
Doom Patrol: Imagine Ari's Friends Part Four - A Cry for the Great Face
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintAugust 15, 1995
New Gods: Attack on the Source!
DC ComicsSeptember 19, 1995
New Gods: The Source of the Beast!
DC ComicsOctober 17, 1995
New Gods: After the Fall
DC ComicsNovember 29, 1995
New Gods: The Flowers of Hell
DC ComicsDecember 27, 1995
New Gods: Descent into Madness!
DC ComicsJanuary 24, 1996
New Gods: Destruction of the Beast!
DC ComicsMarch 6, 1996
New Gods: The End of the Gods
DC ComicsApril 2, 1996
New Gods: Cages and Shadows
DC ComicsApril 10, 1996
New Gods: Sins of the Fathers
DC ComicsMay 15, 1996
New Gods: The Lord of Destruction
DC ComicsJune 12, 1996
New Gods: Sacrifice of the Gods
DC ComicsJuly 10, 1996
New Gods: Restoration
DC ComicsNovember 20, 1996
Time Breakers Part One: Lives of Our Time
DC Comics' Helix imprintDecember 18, 1996
Time Breakers Part Two: Mind Out of Time
DC Comics' Helix imprintJanuary 15, 1997
Time Breakers Part Three: Again and Again Time
DC Comics' Helix imprintFebruary 19, 1997
Time Breakers Part Four: Change for a Time
DC Comics' Helix imprintMarch 19, 1997
Time Breakers Part Five: The Day Has Come to Time
DC Comics' Helix imprintMay 19, 1998
Tomahawk
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintSeptember 23, 2015
Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade Act Two
DC Comics' Vertigo imprintFebruary 6, 2018
July 14, 2018
November 28, 2018
Ligelia: An Unauthorized Adaptation
Ahoy! ComicsOctober 2, 2019
October 29, 2019
December 23, 2020
The Mystery of Marie Roget
Ahoy! ComicsJune 7, 2022
Never-Ending Party #1
ComixologyJuly 5, 2022
Never-Ending Party #2
ComixologyAugust 2, 2022
Never-Ending Party #3
ComixologySeptember 6, 2022
Never-Ending Party #4
ComixologyOctober 4, 2022
Never-Ending Party #5
Comixology

## Trivia

1. ↑ Anderson, J. (2022, June 15). DC’s first transgender superhero returns in DC Pride 2022. *DC*. https://comicbook.com/dc/news/dc-first-transgender-superhero-coagula-return-dc-pride-2022/
2. ↑ Dueben, A. (2022, May 23). *“One Of The Things They Definitely Are Is Queer": An Interview With Rachel Pollack - The Comics Journal*. The Comics Journal. https://www.tcj.com/one-of-the-things-they-definitely-are-is-queer-an-interview-with-rachel-pollack/
3. ↑ Martin, B. (2019). Welcome Back, My Friends, To the Show That Never Ends: The Returns of the New Gods. *Back Issue*, *104*.
4. ↑ Gabriel, D. A. (1995). The Power and The Passion: An Interview with Rachel Pollack. *TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism*, *9*.