Shary Flenniken (born 1950) is an American editor-writer-illustrator and underground

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

. After joining the burgeoning underground comics movement in the early 1970s, she became a prominent contributor to '' National Lampoon'' and was one of the editors of the magazine for two years. Flenniken is widely recognized as an influential figure in the integration of

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

concerns into underground comics. Her best-known creation is the comic strip ''Trots and Bonnie'', a no-holds-barred satire of the adult world seen through the eyes of the naïve girl of the title and her talking dog (and their worldly-wise, precocious friend Pepsi); these three main characters are all sex-obsessed, and the two girls are in eighth grade, i.e. the final year of

Junior High Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

. Available in a 1989 French edition entitled ''Sexe & Amour'' for many years, an American edition was not released until 2021; it provides much cultural context. Despite the sometimes raunchy subject matter, it is illustrated in the vein of early comic strip artists like

Clare Briggs Clare A. Briggs (August 5, 1875 – January 3, 1930) was an early American comic strip artist who rose to fame in 1904 with his strip ''A. Piker Clerk''. Briggs was best known for his later comic strips ''When a Feller Needs a Friend'', ''Ain't It ...

and

H. T. Webster Harold Tucker Webster (September 21, 1885 – September 22, 1952) was an American cartoonist known for '' The Timid Soul'', ''Bridge'', ''Life's Darkest Moments'' and others in his syndicated series which ran from the 1920s into the 1950s. Because ...

Biography

Shary Flenniken grew up in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, where she studied at a commercial art school.

Air Pirates

In 1970, Flenniken was living in Seattle. In late summer that year she attended the

Sky River Rock Festival The Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair was a historic rock festival first held on a raspberry farm on the Skykomish River outside Sultan, Washington, Sultan, Washington (state), Washington. The 1968 rock festival was held between ...

, producing a daily Sky River newsletter on a mimeograph machine. She met

Bobby London Robert London (born June 29, 1950) is an American underground comix and mainstream comics artist. His style evokes the work of early American cartoonists such as George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett and Elzie Crisler Segar. Biography As a child, Lond ...

Dan O'Neill Dan O'Neill (born April 21, 1942) is an American underground cartoonist, creator of the syndicated comic strip ''Odd Bodkins'' and founder of the underground comics collective the Air Pirates. Education O'Neill attended the University of S ...

, and Ted Richards at the media booth,RINGGENBERG, S.C
"Bobby London and the Air Pirates Follies,"
''Comix Art & Graffix Gallery'' (5-12-98). and before the festival was over the four of them produced a four-page tabloid comic, ''Sky River Funnies'', mostly drawn by London. After the festival, Flenniken returned to Seattle where she did graphics for the

Seattle Liberation Front The Seattle Liberation Front, or SLF, was a radical anti-Vietnam War movement, based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. The group, founded by the University of Washington visiting philosophy professor and political activist Michael L ...

's brief-lived underground newspaper, ''

Sabot Sabot may refer to: * Sabot (firearms), disposable supportive device used in gunpowder ammunitions to fit/patch around a sub-caliber projectile * Sabot (shoe), a type of wooden shoe People * Dick Sabot (1944–2005), American economist and bus ...

''. She moved to San Francisco in 1971, where she joined the

Air Pirates The Air Pirates were a group of cartoonists who created two issues of an underground comic called ''Air Pirates Funnies'' in 1971, leading to a famous lawsuit by Walt Disney Productions. Founded by Dan O'Neill, the group also included Bobby Lon ...

collective. Flenniken was a marginal contributor to the Air Pirates, and the only member not to be sued for their

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

parodies.

''National Lampoon''

Flenniken and London were recruited by

Michel Choquette Michel Choquette (born March 14, 1938) is a Canadian humorist who has written for print, for television and for film, and a comedian who has performed for television. Life and career Choquette was born March 14, 1938, in Montreal, Quebec to a Fren ...

, an editor of ''National Lampoon'', where Flenniken's ''Trots and Bonnie'' appeared from 1972 to 1990. Flenniken was an editor of ''National Lampoon'' from 1979 to 1981, recruited many of the magazine's best-known cartoonists during that time, and co-wrote the screenplay of '' National Lampoon Goes to the Movies''.

Other work

Flenniken edited ''Seattle Laughs: Comic Stories about Seattle'' (Homestead, 1994), and she continues to freelance from Seattle. In addition to contributions to

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

Paradox Press Paradox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andy Helfer, Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton, the imprint was renamed. Paradox was best known for pu ...

anthologies, her work has appeared in '' Mad'', ''

Premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

'', '' Details'', ''

The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.Graphic Classics ''Graphic Classics'' is a comic book anthology series published by Eureka Productions of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. ''Graphic Classics'' features adaptations of literary classics by authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan ...

'' series, praised by ''School Library Journal'' and ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' for its adaptations of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the Ma ...

and other authors.

Personal life

Flenniken and Air Pirates co-founder

were married in the early-to-mid 1970s.Boyd
Flenniken interview
''The Comics Journal'' #146 (Nov. 1991): "We were up here from 1973 ’til ’76. We broke up and Bobby went back to New York." Her second marriage was with the late Bruce Jay Paskow of the band

Washington Squares The Washington Squares were a neo-beatnik folk revival music group. Modeled after early 1960s groups like The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, the group was named after New York City's Washington Square Park, emblematic of Greenwich Villag ...

. After the couple wed in 1987, they moved two years later from Manhattan to Seattle, where they were together for six years until Paskow's death in 1995.

Books

*''Drought Chic'' (self-published, 1977) *''Shary Flenniken's Sketch Book'' (self-published, 1977) *''Sexe & Amour'' (éd. Spécial USA, 1989) — French edition *''Trots and Bonnie'' (S.I. Comics, 1990) — French edition *''Seattle Laughs: Comic Stories about Seattle'' (Homestead Book Co., 1994) *''Trots and Bonnie'' (New York Review Comics, 2021) Illustrations in books by others: *''Nice Guys Sleep Alone: Dating in the Difficult Eighties'' (Dell, 1986) — written by

Bruce Feirstein Bruce Feirstein (born 1956) is an American screenwriter and humorist, best known for his contributions to the James Bond series and his best-selling humor books, including '' Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'' and ''Nice Guys Sleep Alone''. ''Real Men D ...

*''Eastside Eats: Including Bellevue, Kirkland, & Redmond'' (Homestead Book Co., 1988) — written by Kim & Sunny Baker *''How to Live Without Electricity—and Like It'' (Breakout Productions, 1997) — written by Anita Evangelista *''When a Man Loves a Walnut'' (Simon & Schuster, 1997) — written by Gavin Edwards *''Blood-Lust Chickens and Renegade Sheep: A First Timer's Guide to Country Living'' (Loompanics Unlimited, 1999) — written by Nick & Anita Evangelista *''

Graphic Classics ''Graphic Classics'' is a comic book anthology series published by Eureka Productions of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. ''Graphic Classics'' features adaptations of literary classics by authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan ...

: O. Henry'' (Eureka Productions, 2005) *''Graphic Classics: Mark Twain'' (Eureka Productions, 2007)

References

External links

*
personal website (Shary Flenniken Is a Slave to Her Pets)Video Interview with Shary Flenniken – Crossroads Road

Flenniken's Rear Admiral father and growing up

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Flenniken's "Trots and Bonnie" and the National Lampoon.

Flenniken's "Trots and Bonnie" French collection

Flenniken's current projects

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flenniken, Shary 1950 births American comic strip cartoonists American women comic strip cartoonists American satirists American women satirists American humorists American women humorists American satirical comics writers American satirical comics artists American feminists American female comics writers American female comics artists Inkpot Award winners Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Underground cartoonists National Lampoon people