Diane Noomin


Diane Robin Noomin was an American comics artist associated with the underground comics movement. She is best known for her character DiDi Glitz, who addresses transgressive social issues such as feminism, female masturbation, body image, and miscarriages.
Noomin was the editor of the anthology series Twisted Sisters, and published comix stories in many underground titles, including Wimmen's Comix, Young Lust, Arcade, and Weirdo. She also did theatrical work, creating a stage adaptation of DiDi Glitz.

Early life and career

Noomin was born the elder of two sisters in Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York City to non-observant Jewish parents. The family moved to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1952, and then back to Canarsie in 1960. She attended The High [School of Music & Art], Brooklyn College, and the Pratt Institute.
Noomin's first comics work was published in 1973 in Wimmen's Comix #2, and soon after had stories in Young Lust and El Perfecto. The first DiDi Glitz story, "Restless Reverie", appeared in Short Order Comix #2. Noomin's work appeared in all seven issues of Arcade, co-edited by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman.
In 1975, Noomin and Aline Kominsky left the Wimmen's Comix collective due to internal conflicts that were both aesthetic and political. Kominsky and Noomin put together a 36-page one-shot issue of Twisted Sisters in 1976, published by Last Gasp, which featured their own humorous and "self-deprecating" stories and art.
In 1978, Noomin edited the Print Mint one-shot Lemme Outa Here, a comics collection of stories of life in mid-century American suburbs, featuring Noomin, Michael McMillan, Robert Armstrong, Griffith, Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Mark Beyer, and M. K. Brown.
In 1980, Noomin collaborated with Les Nickelettes, a San Francisco-based women's theater group, to produce a musical comedy based on DiDi Glitz. I'd Rather Be Doing Something Else — The DiDi Glitz Story featured Noomin's costumes and scenery, and sets by Deitch, Paul Mavrides, and Griffith. A cabaret version of the show, titled Anarchy in High Heels, was later performed at New York City's Westbeth Artists Community.
In 1984, after a ten-year hiatus, Noomin returned to the pages of Wimmen's Comix; her work appeared in almost every issue from that point forward. She was also a regular contributor to Weirdo from 1985–1993.
In 1991, Noomin edited and put together a 260-page trade paperback anthology which she called Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art, featuring the work of herself, Kominsky-Crumb, and 13 other female cartoonists, including many former Wimmen's Comix contributors. All the work in the collection had been previously published, most of it in anthologies such as Weirdo and Wimmen's Comix. The success of that book led to Kitchen Sink Press publishing a four-issue Twisted Sisters Comix limited series in 1994, also edited by Noomin, with each issue featuring 44 pages of new comics by a number of female contributors. The limited series was subsequently collected in 1995 as Twisted Sisters, vol. 2: Drawing the Line.

Personal life and death

Noomin's first marriage was to photographer Alan Newman; it lasted four years. Her pen name, "Noomin", was derived from her original married name.
Noomin was long involved with cartoonist Bill Griffith, whom she first met at a New Year's Eve party in San Francisco in 1972. She and Griffith lived together in San Francisco from 1972 to 1998, first in an apartment on Fair Oaks Street, and then their own house on 25th Street in Diamond Heights. They were married in Las Vegas in 1980. They lived together in Hadlyme, Connecticut, where they moved in 1998 after many years in San Francisco.
She died from uterine cancer on September 1, 2022 at the age of 75. A memorial service, hosted by the School of Visual Arts, was held for Noomin on November 10; speakers included Griffith, Art Spiegelman, Phoebe Gloeckner, Hillary Chute, Jennifer Camper, and others.
In July 2023, she was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame for her body of work.

Awards

Noomin was presented with an Inkpot Award in 1992.
The Twisted Sisters anthologies were nominated for Eisner Awards for Best Anthology in 1992 and 1995.

Books and solo works

DiDi Glitz

  • "Restless Reverie", Short Order Comix #2 — later collected in Titters: the First Collection of Humor by Women.
  • "She Chose Crime", Wimmen's Comix #4.
  • "Bottoms Up!", Young Lust #4.
  • "Bingo Bondage", Arcade, the Comics Revue #1.
  • "A Bitter Pill", Arcade #2.
  • "DiDi 'n Bunch in Hot Air", Twisted Sisters.
  • "The Fabulous World of DiDi Glitz", Twisted Sisters.
  • "DiDi Glitz and the 3 Bears", Arcade #5.
  • "A Perfectly Divine Vision with DiDi Glitz", Arcade #6.
  • "I'd Rather Be Doing Something Else", Lemme Outa Here!: Growing Up Inside the American Dream.
  • "Stupid Cupid", Young Lust #6.
  • "Mix & Match", After/Shock: Bulletins from Ground Zero.
  • "Utterly Private Eye", Wimmen's Comix #9.
  • "Puttin' On the Glitz", Weirdo #13.
  • "DiDi Has an Orgasm", Weirdo #17.
  • "Glitz to Go", Weirdo #18.
  • "Glitz Tips", Wimmen's Comix #11.
  • "A Blonde Grows in Brooklyn", Wimmen's Comics #12.
  • "Don't Ask", Wimmen's Comix #14.
  • "I Had to Advertise for Love", Young Lust #7.
  • "Lesbo-a-Go-Go with DiDi Glitz", Real Girl #1.
  • "I Married a Hypochondriac", Wimmin's Comics #17.
  • "Lava My Life", Young Lust #8.
  • "Baby Talk: A Tale of 4 Miscarriages", Twisted Sisters #4.
  • "Back to the Bagel Belt, with DiDi Glitz", Weirdo #28.

    Other stories

  • "Home Agin", Wimmen's Comix #2.
  • "The Agony and the Ecstasy of a Shayna Madel", Wimmen's Comix #3.
  • "The Happy Couple Take Acid, or, Higamous, Hogamous, Love is Lobotomous", El Perfecto Comics.
  • "Frozen Creeps in Space", Arcade #3.
  • "Brillo 'n Burma", Arcade #4.
  • "Some of My Best Friends Are", Arcade #7.
  • "Rubberware", Wimmen's Comix #10.
  • "Bare Despair", Weirdo #16.
  • "What Big Girls are Made Of", Weirdo #18.
  • Cover and paper dolls illustration, "Puttin' on the Glitz", Wimmen's Comix #11.
  • "Coming of Age in Canarsie", Wimmen's Comix #15.
  • "Meet Marvin Mensch", Wimmen's Comix #16.
  • "The C Word", CHOICES.
  • "From Jawbreakers to Lawbreaker", Mind Riot: Coming of Age in Comix.
  • "I Was a Red Diaper Baby".

    Editor

  • — contributors included Noomin, Griffith, Michael McMillan, Robert Armstrong, Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Mark Beyer, and Mary K. Brown
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