Друзья Лулу: Организация женщин в индустрии комиксов

American organization that promoted the participation of women in the comic book industry

The Friends of Lulu (FoL) were a non profit, to 2011. Membership was open to all persons. Friends of Lulu additionally sponsored the Lulu Awards and administered the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame. The organization took its name from Little Lulu, the comic strip character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell in 1935. In the comics, Lulu often tries to break into the boys' clubhouse, where girls aren't allowed.

In the early 1990s, comic book professionals Trina Robbins, Heidi MacDonald, Deni Loubert, Anina Bennett, Liz Schiller, and Jackie Estrada banded together to share frustrations, information and aspirations for women in the male dominated comics industry — at that point, there were roughly "20 women writing and drawing [professionally] amid hundreds of male counterparts ;" furthermore, "90% to 95% of comics readers [were] male." The first informal Friends of Lulu meeting — a brunch at the 1993 edition of WonderCon, in Oakland, California — was attended by Robbins, MacDonald, Loubert, Bennett, Schiller, and Estrada. Friends of Lulu was officially formed in 1994; co founder Trina Robbins recalls that a Cherry Poptart lookalike contest sponsored by Comic Con International was the "last straw" that inspired the creation of the organization. FoL began as an amateur press association which lasted three issues. The Friends of Lulu logo was created by MacDonald. (The organization continued the tradition of electing board members during Comic Con for many subsequent years.) The organization published a newsletter called Lulu's Clubhouse, which it distributed to members. Various FoL regional chapters were formed, some of which produced minicomics to promote Friends of Lulu. (in conjunction with the Alternative Press Expo); the Lulu Awards were presented at that year's San Diego Comic Con. 1997 also saw the publication of How to Get Girls (Into Your Store), a guide for comics shop retailers on how to make their stores more female friendly. The guide was edited by Deni Loubert. In 2003, the organization published an anthology entitled Broad Appeal.

In the spring of 2006, in the wake of revelations of a sexual assault that happened at a 2005 comic convention, FoL vice president Ronée Garcia Bourgeois announced the creation of a Friends of Lulu Women's Empowerment Fund. The fund was "intended to give victims of sexual assault or harassment in a comics industry context the strength to fight back legally if not physically." However, the empowerment fund "was judged by its administrators to have been insufficiently thought through and it was soon abandoned," with FoL forced to return all donations. The public failure of the Empowerment Fund was difficult for Friends of Lulu, and by the fall of 2007, the presidency of the organization was vacant. In September 2007, Valerie D'Orazio volunteered to fill the empty president of the national board of directors of Friends of Lulu. By the summer of 2010, FoL's future was uncertain, with D'Orazio announcing she planned to step down as president at the end of the year. In August 2010, an interim Board of Directors was reestablished. In June 2011, the IRS revoked the organization's tax exempt status as a non profit "for failing to file an annual information return or notice with the IRS for three consecutive years." The group ceased operations shortly afterwards.

The Lulu Awards, presented annually at Comic Con International in San Diego, California (1997 to 2007), MoCCA Festival in New York City (2008 to 2009), and the Long Beach Comic Con in Long Beach, New York (2010) bestowed the Lulu of the Year trophy for overall work; with additional awards, variously over the years, including the Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent; the Volunteer of the Year Award; the Women of Distinction Award; the Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid Friendly Work; Best Female Character; and induction into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.