Lee Marrs

Lee Marrs is best known for her comic book series, "The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp". Created from 1973 to 1978, it chronicles the Candide-like journey of a young girl to get laid amid the turbulent 1960’s San Francisco. The framework of discovery allowed Marrs to comment on both the eternal concerns of all youth and the trends and fads of the day. Today it is a window into the late ‘60s culture. Funny, insightful and honest, it is a cult classic.

Work

Underground comics

Marrs was a frequent contributor to underground comics and one of the “founding mommies” of the Wimmen’s Comix collective. She provided stories for "Wet Satin", "Manhunt", "El Perfecto" and "Gates of Heaven". Her parodies – often substituting lesbians in place of heterosexual figures – in the long-running "Gay Comics" livened that title’s pages.

As one of Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach regulars, she expanded her writing and art style to include serious fantasy fiction in “Stark’s Quest” (1977-79), a study in ESP, politics, and social engineering. From this body of work, “Waters of Requital” (1977) is especially powerful.

Using the more illustrative of styles, she created short futuristic graphic tales for "Heavy Metal" magazine, "Epics Illustrated" and "Imagine" magazine. Of these stories, “Freeways” (1979) stands out as a mute, moving testimony to inspiration and rebellion.

Mainstream comics

Marrs had a mainstream comics career at the same time - one of the few comic book creators to do so. She was introduced to the DC editor, Joe Orlando by Tex Blaisdell, an artist she had worked for on "Prince Valiant" and "Lil’ Orphan Annie". After a start with DC’s "Plop", "Weird Mystery" and "House of Secrets", she created “Crazy Lady” (1975), a series about growing up female for Marvel’s "Crazy" magazine. But most of her mainstream comics work was as a writer, in "Wonder Woman : Annual 1989", "Viking Glory: the Viking Prince" (1991), and "Zatanna: Come Together" (1993).

She captured the adventurous tone and humor exactly right for Dark Horse’s series "Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold" (1994) and "Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix" (1995), stories drawn exquisitely by Leo Duranona. In the foreword to "Viking Glory", comics genius Will Eisner said “Marrs is a 1982 Inkpot Award winner with a substantial experience in animation. This is evident from the kinetic movement of the characters her plot ordains.” The same could be said for the Indiana Jones tales.

For Blackthorne Publishing, she created "Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos, a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" parody.

Animation

Indeed Marrs has had another career, that of an animation director – parallel to her comics work. An Emmy Award-winning art director, she has run Lee Marrs Artwork, a digital design & animation company for many years. The company’s slogan : “Serving the Cosmos Since 1972”.

She pioneered in 2D digital animation in the early 1980s, Her clients have included Disney/ABC, Apple Computer, IBM, Time Warner Inc., Children's Television Workshop, Nickelodeon, Electronic Arts, and MTV.