Career
Mary Wings is a pioneer in the two literary fields she contributed to—lesbian comics and lesbian mystery novels. Her work is driven generally by the desire to discuss underrepresented topics that are relevant to her personal life. Initially, she did not intend to publish any of her work. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Comics
Wings was not originally a cartoonist or part of the 1970s underground comix movement when she created her first comic book, Come Out Comix. This comic book was created in response to Trina Robbins' comic in Wimmen's Comix #1, "Sandy Comes Out" — the first comic about lesbians. [5] [10] Wings was angered by "Sandy Comes Out," believing that the complex process of coming out was misrepresented by Robbins, a straight woman. She wrote Come Out Comix in seven days. [5] [6] [7] Wings self-published Come Out Comix, printing copies in the basement of a karate studio. [10] [7] The plot of this comic book focuses on the character Maggi, who is coming to terms with her lesbian identity and finding a lover in the process. [11] Come Out Comix is influenced by the author's own experience of coming out. [8] Wings is also attributed with creating the first homosexual non-erotic comic book because comic books pre-dating Wings often fetishized any homosexual themes. [6]
Wings later published two other comic books, Dyke Shorts and Are Your Highs Getting You Down?. The latter, Are Your Highs Getting You Down, was funded by a California Arts Council grant in 1979, tackled the growing issue of drug addiction and abuse. [5] [12] She also contributed to Howard Cruse's publication, Gay Comix. She wrote comic strips for issue numbers one and two. [10] [13] [14]
Her comics became very popular in the lesbian community. [6] [7] Rather than simply including lesbian characters in her comics, she addressed themes specific to the community such as coming out, [11] [15] artificial insemination, [16] discovering your parents' homosexuality, [7] and writing lesbians into history. [10] [14] Because of her open addressing of homosexuality, her comic books were controversial. Notably, a shipment of her books were seized at the border of Canada due to the content. [7]
Novels
Although Wings started her career in comics, she later longed to create more complex plot lines, leading her to pursue fiction through novels rather than comics. [8]
Lesbian detective fiction first appeared in 1984 in response to the decline of the coming out story and the assertion of lesbian identity as separate from feminist theory. Wings was one of the originators of lesbian detective fiction, publishing her first mystery novel, She Came Too Late, in England in 1986 and the United States in 1988. [2] [9] She Came Too Late was a success and gave Wings notoriety as the book appeared for seven weeks on the London City Limits Bestseller List and won Best Novel of the Year in the 1986 Reader's Poll. [2] She later wrote four other mysteries starring the same lesbian detective, Emma Victor.
Wings's only stand alone novel, Divine Victim, is a lesbian mystery-thriller that won the 1994 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery. [17] [18]
Current projects
For the first time in over 30 years, Wings is working on a new comics project entitled Old. She is creating this comic in response to the lack of content appealing to people her age. She also hopes to fight stigmas related to ageism. Her comic may include paper doll cut-outs reminiscent of early comics for women. [6] [7] [8]
Wings is also currently very active, discussing her pioneering work at comics events, in news articles, and on podcasts. [6] [7] [8]
