Bitchy Bitch in Naughty Bits #19 (April 1996).
Roberta Gregory is an American cartoonist, best-known for her humorous cult comic 'Bitchy Bitch' (1990- ), about a highly irritable, malicious female office employee and her colorful colleagues and relatives. Gregory started out in the feminist and LGBTQ comics press, writing history as one of the very first female artists to publish her own independent comic book, 'Dynamite Damsels' (1976). Her signature series 'Bitchy Bitch' became the flagship of her own long-running comic book series 'Naughty Bits' (1991-2004). The stories about the crabby Bitchy and her ongoing misery regarding work, her mother, health and her sex life, struck a chord with many readers who found it both hilarious and recognizable. Still, Gregory sometimes didn't shy away from challenging her audience with obscene but true-to-life imagery, like sex scenes and being on one's period, as well as dark and confrontational themes, like homophobia, religious fundamentalism, the anti-abortion movement and hostilities towards other gender types. Throughout her career, Roberta Gregory showcased her versatility by drawing fantasy stories ('Winging It', 1988, 1999), humor comics ('Sheila and the Unicorn', 1988), erotic relationship drama ('Artistic Licentiousness', 1991, 1994, 1997), political satire (her 'Sheep' cartoons since 1988), biopics and autobiographical, diary-style comics ('True Cat Toons', 2006- ).
Early life
Roberta Gregory was born in 1953 as the daughter of Bob Gregory, a Disney comic artist for Dell and Gold Key. Interviewed by Betsy Gomez for CBLDF (29 March 2017), she recalled sometimes helping her father with thinking up dialogue for his stories, which she described as "good training". She loved drawing from a young age, already adding speech balloons to all the animals she scribbled on paper. Gregory also stapled little comic books together, selling them to relatives for 10 cents a piece. She was able to sell one particularly page-heavy booklet for a dollar. Long before she ever entered kindergarten, little Roberta was already able to read. Many kids considered her weird, since she was a girl who liked classical music and spent hours drawing entire comic books in her room. Most of her early comics haven't survived, but in several interviews, Gregory reassured everybody it wasn't a big loss, since most were "badly-drawn and poorly written." Her earliest graphic influences were Carl Barks' 'Donald Duck' and 'Uncle Scrooge' stories, Hank Ketcham's 'Dennis the Menace', Sheldon Mayer's 'Sugar and Spike', John Stanley's 'Little Lulu' and Mad Magazine. Gregory didn't let herself be discouraged by her observation that most comic artists were male. The only work by a female cartoonist she had seen as a child was by Marie Severin, and she was vaguely aware of the cartoonist Marge who had created 'Little Lulu'.
Roberta Gregory on her childhood with comic books, in Naughty Bits #30 (November 1999).
When Gregory studied at California State University in Long Beach (1971-1974), she discovered underground comix, being particularly impressed with the Trina Robbins-initiated Wimmen's Comix (especially the work of Aline Kominsky and Diane Noomin) and Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli's Tits 'n' Clits. In the 2017 Betsy Gomez interview, Gregory explained her excitement: "They had stories by women; they were sometimes real life stories. And they had all different styles of drawing, that's what's really exciting because a lot of these superhero comics the artists all looked like they were trying to draw like each other, and all of a sudden you could just draw anything, and I just found that really, really encouraging and enlightening." Later in her career, Gregory also expressed her admiration for Peter Bagge, Donna Barr, Jeremy Dennis, the Hernandez Brothers, Terry LaBan, Joe Matt and Joe Sacco.
Roberta Gregory on her early comics work, from Naughty Bits #30 (November 1999).
Early comics
During her college years, Roberta Gregory drew her own underground comix for the campus magazine Uncle Jam, edited by future comic artist Phil Yeh, and the Women's Resource Center newsletter. Her earliest comic strip for these titles was 'Frieda the Feminist' (1974), starring her first recurring character Frieda Phelps. Gregory recalled on her website: "When I first started drawing comics, friends and acquaintances would ask me who a character was "supposed" to be, as though I was not able to make up someone on my own. It began to annoy me, (and I also felt bad for the people who were being mistaken for my characters) so I just started drawing versions of myself. I guess if you are an artist it makes sense. In retrospect, the people asking the annoying questions were obviously not creative people themselves or they wouldn't have had to ask me that. But then I would not have an amusing little story about why such a wide variety of my characters look like me. People even tell me they think Bitchy looks like me - but art is that way, a mirror to project oneself upon. So, who knows."
In the previously mentioned interview with Betsy Gomez, Gregory recalled finding out that Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli's publishing company Nanny Goat Productions, was actually located in Laguna Beach, not very far south from where she was living. When she drove down there, Farmer and Chevli were very encouraging and even allowed her to publish in Tits 'n' Clits' issues #3 (February 1977) and #4 (December 1977). Another story by her, 'A Modern Romance' (1974), was printed in Wimmen's Comix issue #4. Other comics by her ran in the bisexual newsletter North Bi Northwest and a lesbian quarterly, named Dyke.
'Frieda the Feminist', from Uncle Jam (1974).
Interviewed by Jo Eadie for bicommunitynews.co.uk (10 November 1995), Gregory remembered: "All the guys in the '70s were trying to be like Robert Crumb or Gilbert Shelton: look, we're smoking dope, we're drawing women with their tits hanging out - but the women's comics were real stories about their lives. Men ask why women write stories about their lives: it's because we have lives." 'A Modern Romance', for instance, was Gregory's parody of the bland and insipid romance stories her partner at the time used to read in a magazine that actually carried the title A Modern Romance. She only put it into a lesbian context since this topic hadn't been explored much yet. There was Mary Wings' self-published 'Come Out Comix' (1973), and Trina Robbins had made a brave and well-intended attempt in the first issue of Wimmen's Comix ('Sandy Comes Out'), but Gregory could tell it was written and drawn by a heterosexual. Nevertheless, interviewed by Anne Rubenstein for Comics Journal (issue #168, May 1994), Gregory reflected that the parody element in 'A Modern Romance' was probably lost on anyone unfamiliar with the source material, making it come out as just "an incredibly bad, embarrassing lesbian love story."
'Protecting Yer Morals' (Wimmen's Comix #7, December 1976).
Dynamite Damsels
Although Roberta Gregory now had a foothold in Wimmen's Comix, the publication featured contributions by so many artists that most were limited to only one or two pages per issue. On top of that, Gregory's new story 'Feminist Funnies' was rejected by editor Terry Richards on the grounds that it was "too similar" to her previous contribution. Gregory, on the other hand, saw no real comparisons between the two tales, except that both featured lesbians. It motivated her to publish a comic book on her own account, so she could at least write and draw what she wanted, without any concern about page amount. Still, interviewed by Anne Rubenstein for Comics Journal (issue #168, May 1994) , Gregory recalled that one printer in Orange County was shocked by the content, merely because it dealt with lesbians, and forbade her to ever print anything with them again.
From: 'Dynamite Damsels' (1976).
Gregory's first comic book, 'Dynamite Damsels' (August 1976) hit the market when she was barely 23 years old. The semi-autobiographical comic not only offered the rejected comic strip 'Feminist Funnies', but also more short stories starring her character Frieda Phelps. Some tales in 'Dynamite Damsels' were tongue-in-cheek parodies, such as the superheroine Superdyke, who fights male chauvinists and gay bashers. Gregory had drawn more than 17 pages about 'Superdyke', but eventually only used three in her 'Dynamite Damsels' book. Other stories in the comic book were more realistic and dramatic, featuring Frieda and her friends trying to defy sexism, queer bashers and living up to the expectations of the feminist movement. In a particularly moving moment, Frieda comes out the proverbial closet and discovers she's still accepted by her female friends.
Appearing in a print run of 10,000, Gregory sold many copies of 'Dynamite Damsels' through Last Gasp and a network of women's bookstores by offering them a purchase price of six dollars for ten issues. Much to her surprise, she received a lot of positive feedback from men too, making her more intent to make comics aimed at all demographics. When Gregory published 'Dynamite Damsels' at age 23, she was one of the first female cartoonists to self-publish a full-length comic book, a notable predecessor was Mary Wings, who released 'Come Out Comix' in 1973 at age 24.
Cover for Gay Comix #14 (1991).
Gay Comix
In the meantime, Roberta Gregory continued to contribute to Wimmen's Comix until the tenth issue in 1984. Out of all the comic book series Gregory contributed to, she felt most at home in Howard Cruse's Gay Comix. Launched in September 1980, she was a mainstay in almost every issue. Cruse wanted equal representation from men and women and since the bisexual Gregory was one of the few (available) female LGBTQ creators at the time, she was allowed to draw as many stories she wanted. It gave her the freedom to experiment. Her first story featured a lesbian mother. Her second, 'Unnatural Desires', had a straight woman having lesbian sex and a lesbian having sex with a man, both deciding that sexual orientation doesn't matter all that much. In the previously mentioned 2017 interview by Betsy Gomez, Gregory remembered: "I was having a lot of fun with the Gay Comix stories because I was involved with the LGBT community, and I knew somebody that was an alcoholic so I wrote a story about an alcoholic. I had bisexual experiences, so I wrote a story where two women were kind of not terribly glued to their sexuality. I was living with a transgender person, so I did like a transgender themed story." In her 1994 Comics Journal interview, Gregory said that she also made a story about suicide, after her girlfriend ended her life in 1982.
Winging It
In 1987 and 1998, Gregory released two issues of 'Winging It', originally a spin-off of a story she wrote for Gay Comix. The plot revolves around a woman, Lupe Contreras, who attempts suicide, but instead meets a mysterious angel-like figure from another dimension, Arichel. However, Arichel is no spiritual guide. She is basically as clueless and lost as Lupe. As the plot progresses, Lupe and Arichel stumble upon even more beings from different dimensions. Many are androgynous, making the reader wonder whether they are male or female. Gregory intended 'Winging It' as a commentary on people who always want to pigeonhole somebody's sexual identity, something she experienced firsthand throughout her entire life. The first and the second volume of 'Winging It' were published several years in between, explaining the very different graphic look. On her website, Gregory said she once gave a copy of 'Winging It' to the legendary French comic book author Jean Giraud, AKA Moebius, who later tracked her down to tell her that he really enjoyed it and felt it was "full of wisdom."
'Sheila and the Unicorn'.
Sheila and the Unicorn
Interviewed by Anne Rubenstein for Comics Journal #168, Gregory said that while her parents didn't mind her artistic career, they were less supportive about the content. They also felt it would be better if she had a successful newspaper comic instead of drawing low-selling alternative comics. In 1988, Gregory made an attempt at a three-panel gag comic, 'Sheila and the Unicorn', about a young woman named Sheila, who finds a magical unicorn in her house. Gregory picked this fantasy animal since she had always been good at drawing horses. Despite the whimsical-sounding title, the gags are ironic and metafictional. Sheila is very apathetic and prefers to laze about in front of her TV set. Even the presence of this mythological one-horned horse is nothing special to her. When the animal tries to give her wise advice, do something good for mankind or invites her to ride along for a "magical" adventure, Sheila just shrugs it off. Gregory named the character after all the Sheila's she ever knew in her life and, according to her, "were often very unfortunate (...): it DOES kind of make you wonder." Adding upon the ironic deconstruction of a typical fantasy comic, she deliberately gave the unicorn the most average name possible: Joe.
On her website, Gregory recalled it was a genuine challenge to keep up the three-panels-with-a-punchline format. After a while, the comic evolved more into an ongoing narrative about dysfunctional relationships, which she eventually rounded off. Many fans regard 'Sheila and the Unicorn' a personal favorite and are often surprised that it never ran as a newspaper comic anywhere. But on her website, Gregory said she was never too keen on writing "unicorn-and-crabby-lady gags for the rest of my life", so she never contacted any syndicate: "Much of the time when I see daily newspaper strips, it seems as though the creator is really "reacting" to create a daily gag or just dragging a tired joke out for a week or so to meet deadline and I do feel for them. And if any "controversial" subject matter comes up, readers threaten to cancel their subscription. If you've seen my work on this website, you'll know I wouldn't last very long in the papers." Despite this "missed opportunity", 'Sheila and the Unicorn' was important, since it featured a cynical female protagonist who can be regarded as a mild embryonical version of her signature character Bitchy Bitch. In 1988, all episodes were collected in book format under Gregory's Solo Productions imprint.
'Sheep Thrills' (1992).
Sheep comics
One of Gregory's longest-running, but irregularly appearing feature series are her numerous 'Sheep' gag comics. They debuted in 1988 in Comics F/X, a tabloid paper co-published by her and Edd Vick. The protagonists are anthropomorphic sheep who act like metaphorical "sheep" in the sense that they have a simple-minded herd mentality. Gregory has used these woolly ovines to comment on many seemingly never-ending political-social debates. Interviewed by The Comics Journal, she described them as "pretty satisfying because I could really deal with immediate issues through the medium of these little fluffy creatures with beady eyes and no mouths."
Front cover of Naughty Bits #13 (July 1994), and back cover of Naughty Bits #14 (October 1994).
Naughty Bits
In the fall of 1988, Gregory - who lived in L.A. at the time - was invited to a comic convention at the Seattle Center. She instantly liked the city and its people and considered moving there. An opportunity arose when publishing company Fantagraphics moved their business from Los Angeles to Seattle and issued an application for a production assistant. Gregory took her chance and got the job, moving to the city of her dreams afterwards. At Fantagraphics, she was able to launch her own comic book series, 'Naughty Bits' (March 1991-July 2004). With 40 issues appearing regularly for a period of 13 years time, it became one of the longest-running alternative comic titles and the longest by a female creator. However, Gregory has cited Donna Barr's 'The Desert Peach' (1988-2001) and Colleen Doran's epic space opera 'A Distant Soil' (1983- ) as important predecessors. Still, Gregory's achievement is impressive considering the fact that she has always juggled her entire comics career with a variety of day jobs, including working in a grain elevator, at a marine biology lab, a book store, for a medical trade journal publisher, doing marketing research and part-time maintenance for the McCaw Hall, home of the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet.
'Crazy Bitches', from Naughty Bits #1 (March 1991).
While Gregory drew stories about all sorts of topics, the flagship of 'Naughty Bits' was the highly popular comic character 'Bitchy Bitch'. Each new volume featured also featured Gregory in a short introduction comic, welcoming her readers, providing them with updates and what they could expect in the next pages. Other comics in Naughty Bits were also autobiographical, for instance her several accounts of road trips. In her story about attending comic festivals in Spain and Portugal, for instance, she visualized encounters with comic legends Mauricio de Sousa and Victor de la Fuente (Naughty Bits #39). Other comics recounted memories of cats she used to own (and would later develop into her ongoing comic 'True Cat Toons'). For issues #29 and #40, Gregory drew a two-parter comic, 'Bye Bye Daddy', about her father Bob Gregory and his slow decline from Alzheimer's disease before his death. Some features in Naughty Bits were also biopics about remarkable people, like American diarist Opal Whiteley and painters Remedios Varo and Louis Wain, presented as either text comics, with narration under the images, or as an illustrated text.
'About Opal' (Naughty Bits #33, December 2000), biographical text comic about Opal Whiteley.
Gregory also offered room in Naughty Bits for other writers and cartoonists: Donna Barr, Sarah Bell, Maggie Bloodstone, Robert Boyd, Mark Campos, Susan Catherine, Jeremy Dennis, Kris Dresen, Dennis Eichhorn, Joyce Farmer, Ellen Forney, Leanne Franson, Theresa Henry, Lee Kennedy, Robert Kirby, Patty Leidy, J. Little, John Lustig, Carrie McNinch, Pat Moriarty, Christine Olsen, Nina Paley, Rhea Patton, Amy Sacks, Bruce Taylor, Sal Trapani, Robert Triptow and Carrie Whitney. International artists also made contributions, namely Maaike Hartjes from the Netherlands, the Australian Carolyn Ridsdale and the Canadian Colin Upton.
Introductory comic from Naughty Bits #2 (June 1991).
Bitchy Bitch
The longevity of Gregory's 'Naughty Bits' was mostly driven by the overwhelming success of her signature feature 'Bitchy Bitch', about a disgruntled middle-aged woman, whose nickname is a pun on Harvey Comics' 'Richie Rich', but actually goes through life as Midge McCracken. Midge the bitch is a bitter office worker, whose life is an ongoing series of irritations and misfortune. She hates it when she is on her period. The men in her life are disappointing sleazeballs or awkward softies. Her oblivious mother and grandmother always want to drag her to church and give her useless junk as presents. Bitchy constantly boils with anger and frustration. She hates having to rise in the morning, get stuck in traffic and having to endure her obnoxious co-workers. Sometimes she keeps her sarcastic thoughts and fantasies about torturing them merely to herself, but she often reaches a point when she explodes with fury and starts spewing an unfiltered tirade. Her only satisfaction comes from laughing at other people's misfortune, taking hot baths and masturbating with the use of dildos, vibrators or plain old cucumbers.
Bitchy Bitch was present in Naughty Bits' very first issue (March 1991), but the character actually originated in the three-page story 'War of the Muses' in Graphic Story Monthly #6 (Fantagraphics, June 1990). In this short tale, Gregory commented on the eternal dilemma of following one's personal artistic aspirations while still trying to reach a wide audience. Depicting both sides of her personality, her cat drawings please everybody, while a character expressing nothing but fury and rage (Bitchy Bitch) is more daring, but also off-putting to general audiences. At the time, Gregory regarded Bitchy as a throwaway character to illustrate this point. However, she reused her in her 1990 mini comic 'Yours Truly', made for the San Diego Comic Con, in a story titled 'Bitchy Goes to Fantagraphics' (later reprinted in Naughty Bits issue #1), where the character serves as an alter ego, getting angry over the ongoing workload and deadline pressure. At the time, Gregory worked for Fantagraphics' paste-up department and was preoccupied with their anthology series of Robert Crumb's work, 'The Complete Crumb Comics'. Although she liked Crumb's work, the seemingly endless display of women being violated and degraded really got on her nerves. In 'Crazy Bitches', the opening story of the first Naughty Bits issue, Gregory and her female friends reverse roles and confront a man who defends Crumb's women-unfriendly narratives with the stinger that "women have no sense of humor". They tie him up, rape him, bite off his penis, stuff the organ in his mouth and then shit on him. As shocking as this gender reversal is, Gregory's loose graphic style makes it all hilariously over the top. Interviewed by Betsy Gomez (2017), she credited Crumb, because, in her opinion, he got away with most of his offensive stuff because he used a "cute" drawing style. But she also used her more scratchy, cartoony drawing style as a reaction against all the crudely-drawn and tiresome nihilistic punk comics that were in vogue. Another strong inspiration was Peter Bagge's 'Neat Stuff' and 'Hate', whose expressive characterisations influenced Bitchy Bitch's temper tantrums deeply, especially Bagge's side character Girly Girl.
'Bitchy Bitch Gets Laid' (Naughty Bits #1, June 1991).
For Naughty Bits' first issue, Gregory had already prepared a story about a random woman going on the worst possible date ever, but one editor felt the comedy didn't quite gel. As a result, Gregory decided to cast Bitchy Bitch in the role, since she had more personality and her general unlikeability made the ordeal she went through more hilarious and deserved. Much to her surprise, the story ('Bitchy Bitch Gets Laid') received such a positive reception that Fantagraphics quickly requested more 'Bitchy Bitch' tales. At first, Gregory felt conflicted. She didn't like Bitchy and had no intention of ever using her again. But several readers actually wrote to her that they identified with this constantly aggravated wrench. To add insult to injury, the artist's previous comics had met with lacklustre reception, despite all her effort and elaborate artwork. And now this loosely drawn story built around a simple gimmick and running gag suddenly struck a chord.
Eventually, Gregory warmed up to Bitchy Bitch, because, as she put it: "There's no 'wrong' way to draw her." For each story, she barely uses preliminary sketches, giving the comic an un-selfconscious spontaneity not found in her other work. Bitchy is sometimes depicted with a mouth partially leaving her face, shark-like teeth, less or more fingers and body parts without permanent proportions (especially during wild "takes"). In the 1995 interview by Jo Eadie for bicommunitynews.co.uk, Gregory elaborated: "You look at a lot of comics – even strip cartoons – and the men can be drawn goofy, but the women always look sexy and pretty. Even in sex comics, the women are always gorgeous, but the man can look like a troll. So with Bitchy Bitch, I'm drawing her the way most women feel. Most women wake up in the morning and they'll see Bitchy Bitch - their boobs are like this, and they have sores on them, and you feel hairs growing out of places hairs aren't supposed to grow. She's on the surface very feminine - always wears a dress, (...) high heels, wouldn't go out of the house without her make-up: put it all together and she is almost repellant. It's so much fun!" In the same interview, Gregory said: "You get your period, and you feel like you're just going to leak through – you do leak through! Women get this every month, and I think it's so much fun to see how men just blanch when they see this. Women look at it and they laugh, and men cringe: to me that's fun. If something makes you uncomfortable – well, you poke it and see what oozes out of it".
'Bitchy Bitch' (Naughty Bits #13, July 1994).
Gregory built her own little universe around Bitchy. At work, Bitchy is bossed around by her strict and domineering supervisor Pam. Her second supervisor, Sylvia, is the sheer opposite of Bitchy: an idealistic, cheery woman who always tries to think positive and see the best in everyone. Another colleague, Marcie, is a Christian zealot who speaks with a US southern accent. She is overly panicky about anybody or anything not in line with her interpretation of the Bible. Marcie therefore tries to convert and warn everybody, including Barb, an old school mate of Bitchy who is a lesbian. Naturally, Bitch can't stand any of them, which leads to hilarious interactions, colorful profanities and wild reactions. For Gregory, the character became an ideal way to vent all her anger and frustrations about real-life nuisances. Some topical, most quite timeless. And since Bitchy is an anti-hero, she can be subjected to an endless inspiration of misguided decisions and horrible events.
Abortion scene from Naughty Bits #8 (February 1993).
While Gregory could have been content with just making Bitchy a modern-day female version of A.D. Condo's 'Everett True', with new irritating targets as the only variety, she actually went for a different, more experimental, even controversial route. In several issues, she imagined what Bitchy's childhood, puberty and college years must have been like. In issue #27, she even put her cast in a medieval setting. This provided Gregory with an opportunity to make more atmospheric tales, with room for character development. Readers learn that Bitchy grew up with racist, conventional parents, was bullied at school, hung around with the wrong friends and underwent several traumatic experiences. Gregory dared to deal with controversial subject matter, such as Bitchy getting pregnant unwanted and being forced to have an illegal backstreet abortion. In other stories, Marcie's zealousness against LGBTQ colleagues is criticized and satirized. Through these more ambitious stories, Bitchy unfolded as a more three-dimensional, pitiful personality. She has her own vulnerabilities and insecurities and lacks the self-awareness to realize some of her troubles are self-inflicted. While she hates her life, she makes no effort to change it. And yet, despite these heavy-handed topics, the stories never lose Gregory's witty sense of humor.
Many readers have wondered whether 'Bitchy Bitch' is autobiographical, but Gregory has always denied it, summarizing her own life as a "rather uneventful existence" (interview by Geek Vibes Nation, 15 July 2026). For instance, when she drew Bitchy's teenage years in the 1960s, she did research about the hippie subculture, since she hadn't experienced it firsthand. And the notorious issue in which Bitchy undergoes a backstreet abortion was based on anecdotes from other women. Gregory also took the time to explain to readers in detail about the dangerous circumstances in which these abortions used to be performed. In other issues of Naughty Bits, Gregory focused on the private lives of side characters like Sylvia or Marcie. In some, like issue #20, she even took the risk of not including Bitchy at all.
Bitchy Bitch on the cover of Naughty Bits #8 (February 1993).
Bitchy Bitch: success
'Bitchy Bitch' easily became a cult comic. Weekly episodes ran in The New York Press, The Seattle Weekly and the Portland Willamette Week. It has been translated into French, German, Spanish ('El Putón'), Swedish and even Chinese. While Gregory sometimes had to endure letters from angry or offended readers, mostly from people who accused her of "pushing a feminist/lesbian agenda" or couldn't deal with some of the "vulgar" humor, they were a sheer minority. In Göteborg, Sweden, she caused a short-lived media stir when an 11-year old boy borrowed a 'Bitchy Bitch' book from the library, which resulted in parents registering an official complaint about giving children access to such "pornography". Gregory wrote about this event in Naughty Bits #37: "Imagine, my stuff even frightens (some) people in Sweden!" In March 1995, Gregory's comic was adapted for the stage in Seattle, with actress Maggie Bloodstone performing Bitchy. The character was also animated in the series 'X-Chromosome' (2001), produced by Cinemaria and broadcast on the Oxygen Network. A spin-off, 'Life's A Bitch' (2003-2004), also ran on Oxygen and the Canadian Comedy Network. Gregory also had a cloth doll made of the character.
German-language version of the very first 'Bitchy Bitch' story.
An early compilation, 'Life's A Bitch!' (Fantagraphics, 2005), had a foreword by Trina Robbins. In 2026, Gregory announced a complete compilation of all 'Bitchy Bitch' comics by Fantagraphics. The book was printed in India and was set to sail to the US on a cargo vessel, when its journey was halted by the Iranian-American War. It was even reported that on 15 March the ship was hit by a missile in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman. This was later debunked, as the print run had remained in India. Still, Iran's closing of the Strait delayed the book's arrival in the USA for months, after it had shipped the long way past the Cape of Good Hope. On 21 July 2026, 'Bitchy! The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken' got its long overdue release. The book's afterword was written by comics critic Helen Chazan.
Bitchy Butch in Naughty Bits #22 (March 1997).
Bitchy Butch
Gregory also created a lesbian counterpart of Bitchy Bitch, presented as her cousin and nicknamed "Bitchy Butch". Just like her, Butch is cranky and confrontational, getting worked up about homophobes, misrepresentation of lesbians in the media, but also the self-important militant behavior of some people in the LGBTQ community. Sometimes, though, Butch also overreacts because she thinks others mock or disrespect her, even if they clearly aren't. Or when she is on her period. Originally, Gregory created Butch for an anthology by a lesbian cartoonist - it is often speculated that this was Alison Bechdel, but Gregory has denied this. However, this cartoonist felt it was an atrocious lesbian stereotype and rejected her from publication. In a furious letter to Gregory, she flat-out questioned whether she was "a real dyke at all?" Gregory replied that in her definition (borrowed from a quote in a fan letter), a dyke is a woman "not dependent on men (or other women) for her emotional, physical, mental, financial or general well-being." The cartoonist in question wrote back that in her definition, it applied to somebody with "exclusive sexual and emotional relationships with biological females only". Gregory had the last word by writing that she didn't fit that definition and "the vast majority of the other contributors" neither, "although I'm sure you won't subject them to the same third-degree that you just inflicted on me."
All this ironic "bitching" eventually led to Bitchy Butch making her debut in another publication: Gay Comix #15 (Spring, 1992). She also appeared in Diva, Dykes Delight, and Gregory's own Naughty Bits. In Naughty Bits #23, Gregory delved into Butch's back story, giving a more sympathetic portrayal and explanations for her personality. It turns out she has an adorable soft spot for cats and lesbian country singer k.d. lang. In 1999, the book compilation 'Bitchy Butch: World's Angriest Dyke' was released by Fantagraphics.
'Artistic Licentiousness' #1 (1991).
Artistic Licentiousness
At the request of Michael Dowers of Starhead Comix, Gregory made an adult erotic comic book series, 'Artistic Licentiousness' (1991, 1994, 1997). She did her job so well that the book was banned in the United Kingdom for being sexually explicit. All while 'Artistic Licentiousness' isn't pornography, but an intriguing character study about six people whose lives intertwine. Denise McDermott is a lesbian who is in an "on-off" relationship with Tish, a woman with unexpected mood swings. In her spare time, Denise writes stories and has fantasies and dreams involving centaurs and satyrs. Kevin is a single comic artist who draws fantasy comics, but has never been in a relationship. Jennifer is in a relationship with Mitch, who is a jerk taking advantage of his partners. Throughout the story, Denise and Kevin explore their sexual orientations.
The first volume was published by Starhead Comix in May 1991, but the other two were brought out in 1994 and 1997 on Gregory's own account, so she could benefit more from it financially. She originally wanted to release it all in one volume, but to avoid letting her fans wait, she brought the second installment out earlier. A disadvantage of working so long on the story was that Gregory was no longer satisfied with it. As she reflected in the foreword to the third volume: "(..) Some of the subject matter that seemed so exciting back in 1992 now seems embarrassingly trite. But the story is now no longer hanging precariously." Gregory also said that she still enjoyed working on it, but that it was time to move on to other projects.
'Artistic Licentiousness' #1 (1994).
True Cat Toons
A "true cat" lover, Gregory has always enjoyed the company of fluffy felines. She has also given workshops on how to draw cats. In her very first comic, 'Frieda the Feminist', cats were already included. In 1999, one of her pets, Muffy, died from health issues. To cope with her grief and cherish the fond memories, she drew the story 'Bye-Bye Muffy' (1999), which was well-received by readers and even nominated for an Eisner Award for "Best Short Story". In 2006, Gregory launched a full-blown series, 'True Cat Toons', featuring anecdotes about her and other people's cats. Originally launched to raise funds to pay her cat's medical bills, she invited fellow cat owners to send in stories of their own, which she would then adapt into short comics.
On her website, Gregory explained: "Over decades of being owned by cats, I came to feel as if my kitties were intelligent beings who were trying to communicate with me, and I was just too clueless to understand them. At last I think I have picked up a bit of feline knowledge and would love to give back to kitties and their people. As far as I'm concerned, everyone living with a cat (or several) is an amateur cat behavioral scientist who, I have found, is usually eager to share their insights with the world. And I love drawing these stories, too!"
'True Cat Toons'.
Follow Your Art
In 2011, Gregory released 'Follow Your Art: Roberta's Comic Trips' (Landis Review, 2011). The book features anecdotes about all her voyages, mostly related to her comics career, like invitations to conventions and expos. Each trip is presented in comic strip format.
Mother Mountain
Like many artists who have to combine their creative urges with daytime jobs and other weekly necessities, Roberta Gregory has several projects in the works, including a biographical novel about composer Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann. The longest-running is 'Mother Mountain' which, as of 2026, has been in development hell for over 30 years. She has described it as a saga about a mountain and the way people perceive it from below, with some loving it, depending on it, worshipping it or defending it at all costs ("far too high a cost"). Above all, it's a story about how people do not always see the same thing when they look at something. Elements of 'Mother Mountain' have seeped into other comics of hers, most notably 'Winging It', but an early attempt to turn the project into a graphic novel reached a dead end. After a while, Gregory felt her drawing style simply looked "off" and decided to rewrite 'The Mountain' as traditional prose novels instead. Once she only had to focus on words, writing went far more effortless.
Roberta Gregory's story for 'Choices: A Pro Choice Benefit Comic' (1990).
Graphic contributions
Roberta Gregory had often expressed her social consciousness in her work. She was one of many artists to contribute to 'Strip AIDS USA' (Last Gasp, 1988), a collective comic book of which the profits went to AIDS research, and the pro-abortion collective comic book, 'Choices: A Pro Choice Benefit Comic' (1990). She drew a short story for The True North II (Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund, 1991) and to support PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in 'Born to Be Wild' (Eclipse, 1991). She also contributed to a collective comic book to resist Christian fundamentalists trying to push anti-LGBT laws: 'Hands Off!' (Ward Sutton Productions, 1994). In 1995, she was one of several artists to contribute to the comic book supplement with the CD 'Free to Fight' (1995), featuring music and lectures on the subject of self-defense for women. Gregory also wrote a special 'Bitchy Bitch' story for 'Unknown Quantities' (Funny Valentine, 1999), a collective comic book of which the profits went to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Gregory also drew a two-pager for Diane Noomin's 'Drawing Power: Women's Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival: A Comics Anthology' (Abrams, 2019).
Gregory also drew more straightforward comics about a variety of topics for several collective comic books, among them David Greenberger's 'Duplex Planet Illustrated' (issues #1 and #4, January and August 1993), Angela Bocage's 'Real Girl' (issue #5, April 1993) and, from a script by Dennis Eichhorn, also for 'Real Smut' (issue #1, July 1992). She drew a culinary story for 'Northwest Cartoon Cookery' (Starhead Comix, 1995), a short autobiographical tale for 'Mind Riot: Coming of Age in Comix' (Simon and Schuster, April 1997) and an erotic funny animal story, 'Goat', for Shanda Fantasy Arts Spotlight (Shanda Fantasy Arts, issue #2, 1998). Gregory also made graphic contributions to 'We Told You So: Comics as Art' (Fantagraphics, December 2016). For the collective comic book 'Sketches From Outside the Margins - Stories from Seattle/King County Clinic' (2017), Gregory adapted anecdotes from patients treated in the free clinic of the Seattle/King County Health Department. Together with Stephanie Gladden, Donna Barr and Linda Medley, she drew a short biopic comic about scientist Rosalind Franklin for 'Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists' (GT Labs, 1999). In 2009, she published a short essay in the art book 'Sweet Fever: The Art of Hans Meertens' and made various personal comics for Not My Small Diary, among them about the "power of music". In 2022, she also wrote an obituary for Aline Kominsky-Crumb for The Comics Journal.
Arguably the most unusual project Gregory ever worked on was Fantagraphics' 'Aesop's Fables' (Fantagraphics, 1991), adaptations of the fables of Ancient Greek storyteller Aesop, written and drawn by a variety of comic creators. Working with scriptwriter Charles Santino, she illustrated 'The Miller, His Son, And The Donkey' (Aesop's Fables, issue #2) and 'The Ox And The Frogs' (Aesop's Fables, issue #3), while also designing the cover of issue #3.
'The Eagle, the Cat, and the Sow' (The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature: The World’s Greatest Kids’ Lit as Comics and Visuals, 2014).
Recognition
Roberta Gregory has received an Inkpot Award (1994), Toonie Award (1998) and, for 'A Bitch Is Born', a Haxtur Award (2003). In 2006, she was inducted into the Lulu Award Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
Legacy and influence
While Roberta Gregory is often named a lesbian comic author, she is actually bisexual and was in a longtime relationship with Bruce Taylor (1947-2022), a science fiction writer known as "Mr. Magic Realism", who was also a therapist and meditation counselor at Harborview Medical Center. However, she always resisted the simplistic "one-or-the-other" labelling, liking men just as much as women. The same complexity can also be found in her work, where straight and gay characters often interact and experiment outside of their sexual orientation. In some of her works, they are drawn so androgynous that readers can no longer tell whether they are male or female, hetero or homosexual. Likewise, Gregory doesn't follow the "good or bad" dichotomy so often found in comics. Her characters can be obnoxious in one scene, but draw empathy from the reader in another. Sometimes one feels genuinely sorry for Bitchy and her misfortune, until she suddenly spews foul-mouthed racist generalisations and starts pranking other people for no other reason than envy or vengeance. Gregory empathizes with women, feminists and people from LGBTQ community, but doesn't romanticize them either, portraying them just as critically and humorously as anybody else.
Drawing from the Lambiek guest book, made by Roberta Gregory during her May 1995 visit to Amsterdam.
All these elements have contributed to Roberta Gregory's cult status. Despite a steady, versatile career and loyal following, she is often forgotten, overlooked or ignored in articles or books about alternative comic artists. Since she is associated with the LGBTQ scene, people often pigeonhole her as an "LGBTQ comic artist", while, ironically enough, even in that niche she is sometimes excluded, because she doesn't limit herself to just drawing about lesbian topics. For readers in need of clarity or "likeable role models" in her comics, this makes her work difficult to classify and, to some, offensive. In many interviews, Gregory has stated that she often works against deadlines, which helps her letting ideas unfold, being just as surprised where her characters will take her. This unpredictability is another of Gregory's greatest qualities.
In the United States, Roberta Gregory has influenced Diane DiMassa, Mary Fleener and Susan Mills. She also received admiration from veteran artists like the Hernandez Brothers, Barb Rausch, Dave Sim and Wayno. In The Netherlands, she was an influence on Maia Matches, Margreet de Heer and Barbara Stok.
Self-portrait from 2010.