GLITZ 2 GO

by Diane Noomin

Glitz-2-Go finally collects nearly 40 years of comics stories by Diane Noomin, best-known for her work as cartoonist and editor of the women comics anthology Twisted Sisters. Noomin s career in underground comix began in 1972 and included appearances in Wimmen s Comix, Young Lust, Short Order, Arcade, Real Girl, Lemme Outta Here, El Perfecto, True Glitz, Aftershock, Mind Riot, Titters, and Weirdo. Glitz-2-Go stars Noomin s signature character, DiDi Glitz, the frustrated middle-aged glamour-puss and anxiety-ridden suburban Sisyphus. All of her stories, beginning with her debut Restless Reverie in 1974 s Family Fun Comics, are finally back in print for the first time in over 30 years. Noomin was a pioneer in the emergence of women cartoonists in the 1970s. Along with cartoonist and co-editor Aline Kominsky-Crumb, she edited and contributed to Twisted Sisters Comics in its original incarnation as an underground comic book in 1976, and in the early 1990s edited the celebrated collections Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art and its sequel Twisted Sisters: Drawing the Line, featuring the work of a generation of women cartoonists. Like many women who wrote and drew underground and alternative comix in the 70s, Noomin s contribution to the form has been unjustly overlooked. This book goes toward rectifying that by collecting all of Noomin s best comics as well as spotlighting Noomin s other creative outlets such as reproducing set and costume designs and cast photos of I d Rather Be Doing Something Else: The DiDi Glitz Story, performed by the women s theatre company, Les Nickelettes in San Francisco in 1980 and photos of a larger-than-life DiDi papier-mache sculpture of DiDi that Noomin did for San Francisco s Little Frankenstein Gallery in 1994. Fantagraphics has been at the forefront of preserving the best comics by the groundbreaking underground generation of cartoonists who revolutionized the form in the 60s and 70s. Glitz-2-Go is the first solo collection by Diane Noomin.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Jewish, Art

180 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about Noomin in "Graphic Details" and I'm so glad I got "Glitz-2-Go" out of the library. It's a lot to handle in terms of grotesque-ness and the humor can be bleak, but also it's refreshing to read a contemporary female graphic artists who is a fore-mother to many of today's graphic memoirists and novelists. Noomin's work is narratively sharp and has subversive qualities. A lot of it is fictional, but the emotional truth underlying it feels very real. The Didi comics are great existential comedy, a sit-com really (that wouldn't have been clean or upbeat enough for TV). There's a quote on the cover about Noomin's work by Aline Kominsky Crumb; "Her visual universe is so kitch, so stupefyingly overdone, something like a mixture of LIberace, Joan Rivers and Jackie Mason--Graceland on the Borscht Belt." And there are touches of Crumb in here, too. Perhaps both Crumbs.

Speaking of which, I've also got "Drawn Together" by both Crumbs out of the library, and "The Great Women Cartoonist" by Trina Robbins.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This deserves a bigger reprint. Diane Noomin’s panels are packed full of kitsch maximalism and a lot of text, but this anthology about 2/3 as big as the originals. You can find full-sized versions in the Wimmen’s Comix collection or the Twisted Sister trades, but those are either out-of-print or an expensive collector’s box set. Still, it’s nice to have them all for $20. She’s one of the greats

[Shoshanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly liked this book OK. The Didi-isms got a little tiring. What I needed to keep in mind is that Didi is not Diane and Diane is not Didi. Diane Noomin, I'd like to know more about. My favorite comics, in fact, were the ones that featured both Didi AND Diane, where we got to see the relationship between the comics author and her character. I also really liked the introduction. There were two, one by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and one by the author. They gave a little insight into the world of Wimmin's Comix and how they left to form Twisted Sisters after two issues. In the end, funny satire of the superficial midcentury Long Island materialistic middle class Jewish world (I'm Jewish so I don't mind pointing that out. This is not the world I grew up in, but my dad's childhood was closer to this, also living in the suburbs on the East Coast).

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important collection of comix by one of underground comix's most important but underappreciated figures. The title suggests this is a "collected" works volume, but it is not entirely clear to me that that is the case, and I am not sufficiently familiar with Noomin's work to be able to tell. Nevertheless, this is a remarkable, if non-chronological (I have that) collection of her work, most of which features her DiDi Glitz character, a sort of quasi-alter-ego (Noomin even played the character in a film in which DiDi and Zippy get it on). Noomin is, to me, most effective when she is playing with comics conventions (perhaps predictably, romance comics take a drubbing here) or being more realistic (exceptinos noted), such as in the story about her traumatic experiences with miscarriages (she still works DiDi in, though). The few "Brillo 'n' Burma" strips, about anthropomorphic bears, are also delightful anti-comics (I especially love that Brillo shaves and has a moustache). A mixed bag, perhaps inevitably--some strips don't really land--but nevertheless essential for anyone interested in the comix underground, and especially in the women who were a big and still underappreciated part of it.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was the longest 144 pages I've ever read especially because a few dozen weren't even story!

Yet: IT WAS DELICIOUSLY DIVINE! HYSTERICAL!

The term "drinkie winkie" was used so many times that it made me cringe. When it kept up, I wanted to do unspeakable things to DiDi with the each word molded into her beloved "rubberware"... don't look at me that way she would love it.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, but I didn't love it.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

1 of the greatest cartoonists ever.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I’d known of her earlier.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed it for the most part, "the most part" meaning "the parts not including bestiality". Gross as hell.

[Oriana]

thx as always to Tuck for the tip!