Teenage runaway plumpie Pudge hitchhikes to San Francisco in the early 1970s with a dread secret: she is still a virgin. Desperate to solve her dilemma, she launches into the vibrant circus of urban life – street protests, self-help clinics, burglary, job hunting and midnight pizzas. Assisted by her guardian Martians and backed by her commune, she may have found her potential beau, a clueless police detective. Or maybe the delivery boy? There’s that chakra-spouting political activist with rampant pimples? But what about her fellow consciousness-raising group member Jane, she with such warm knowledgeable hands…? A feminist journey fraught with angst and anchovies.
A 2017 Eisner Award Nominee.
"At last, a funny, funky, durable complex heroine who is constantly taking a fresh and satirical look at an aspect of life that is sacred to someone. Lee Marrs has given us something that usually comes only in the best novels: a funny, tragic, personal, universal, fantasized, minutely realistic view of life that sends us on our way with a much bigger and better understanding of our own lives and the possibilities around us." – Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, co-founder of the Women’s Media Center and former sticky sweet bun addict.
"When I opened this collection I was prepared for a herstory lesson, or a trip down memory lane. But instead I encountered a radiant and utterly contemporary character—a disheveled yet sensual young woman, outwardly confused but inwardly poised, an instinctive feminist out hustling for a job, experimenting with drugs, but mainly just trying to get laid. Step aside, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, and Broad City. Pudge, Girl Blimp paved the way for all of you." – Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Dykes To Watch Out For, recipient of the Eisner Award and the 2014 MacArthur “Genius” Award.
As the first woman to work for DC Comics AND Marvel simultaneously, Lee Marrs could have been a footnote in a Swedish graphics history book. But a cantankerous mouth and sense of humor led her to the undergrounds, where she was one of the founding mommies of the Wimmen's Comix Collective. Lee's a 2017 Eisner Award Nominee & a 1982 Inkpot Award winner and she has been published in nine countries. Best known for her Pudge, Girl Blimp series, her other work includes Batman, Wonder Woman and Indiana Jones. Her Emmy Award-winning secret identity was that of Prez of Lee Marrs Artwork, an art/digital animation company, for such clients as Apple Computer, IBM, Electronic Arts, Atari, Francis Coppola's Omni Zoetrope Films, Children's Television Workshop, Nickelodeon, and MTV. Lee is retired from Berkeley City College where she was Multimedia Arts Chair, passing on sneaky, effective techniques to new generations.
142 page black and white paperback with color covers
Marrs-Books, 2016
