Pioneer of women’s comics Diane Noomin talks to Michael Kaminer about Wimmen’s Comix, Twisted Sister and her new book, “Glitz-2-Go.” The many and varied adventures of Didi Glitz — the book’s central character and Noomin’s comic alter ego of several decades — both delight and instruct.

Noomin uses Didi to combine the personal and the public in a character whose gestures are flamboyantly larger than life.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In one of the longer pieces of the early Didi comics, from Wimmen’s Comix #4, Didi discovers she’s pregnant from a butcher in Red Hook. Since he is married to someone else, she is on her own and decides to rob a bank. Adventures ensue!

By 1987, Noomin had been away from Wimmen’s Commix for a while. Issue 11 had a new editor — the talented Dori Seda — and she wanted someone new to do the cover. Noomin had never been an editor or had ever done a cover, but fashion was right up Didi’s (and therefore Noomin’s) street.

“Baby Talk: A Tale of 3 4 Miscarriages” — this compelling piece about the emotional sledgehammer of miscarriages is included in the Graphic Details exhibition. The drawings engage in Didi’s particular way with the deep, true tragedy of the event and the trauma of the event for Noomin herself is reflected in the dialogue between Noomin and Didi which ends with Didi literally dragging Noomin out of the comic.

Didi’s Priority Pie is a pie chart detailing the relative importance of different aspects of Didi’s life: from sausage-anchovy pizzas to fascinating, devastating love affairs.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount