Sharon Rudahl

Sharon Rudahl
Born	1947
Nationality	American
Known for	cartoonist, graphic novels, illustrator, political activism
Movement	underground comix

Sharon Rudahl (born 1947) is a Jewish American comic artist, illustrator and writer. She was one of the first female artists who contributed to the underground comix movement of the early 1970's. In 1972, she was part of the women's collective that founded Wimmen's Comix, the first on-going comic drawn exclusively by women.

Biography

Sharon Rudahl was born in 1947. She grew up in Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland and has lived in Madison, Wisconsin and San Francisco, California. She became aware of social inequalities at an early age both through racism she observed against African Americans and the segregation she experienced growing up as a Jewish American. In her teens, she began participating in civil rights marches. The focus of her career is social and political activism, primarily through the genre of comics. Early in her career, she contributed to several political publications including the underground paper Kaleidoscope, Takeover, and the San Francisco Express Times (previously named Good Times). She was also the art editor at Takeover during the 1970's.

In the early 1970's, Rudahl was one of the founders of the feminist wing of the underground comix movement. In response to the boy's club nature of the underground comix scene of the early 1970's, she joined the woman's collective that founded Wimmen's Comix, the first ongoing publication drawn exclusively by women.

In 1980, Rudahl wrote her first comic book Adventures of Crystal Night. She has also written and illustrated two graphic novel biographies, both featuring political activists. The first, A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman, explores the life of anarchist political activist and writer Emma Goldman. The second, Ballad of an American: A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson, is about the life of black activist Paul Robeson.

“I made the invaluable discovery that anyone can be powerful if they are indifferent to consequences.”

― Sharon Rudahl, A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman

Selected bibliography

• Ballad of an American: A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson (Rutgers University Press, 2020) - writer and illustrator
• A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman (The New Press, 2007) - writer and illustrator
• Adventures of Crystal Night (Kitchen Sink Press, 1980) - writer and artist
• Anarchy Comix #3 (Last Gasp,1981)
• Anarchy Comix #2 (Last Gasp,1979)
• Wimmen's Comix #1 (Last Gasp,1972)—founding member and contributor