Mary Fleener

Mary Fleener was born on September 14, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. She is an alternative comics artist, writer, and musician best known for her distinctive "cubismo" drawing style, which blends cubist aesthetics with influences from ancient Egyptian art and classic newspaper strips by Chester Gould, Otto Soglow, and Al Capp. Encouraged by Robert Crumb and Robert Armstrong, Fleener published her first work, *Hoodoo*, about Zora Neale Hurston, in 1988. She followed with the semi-autobiographical series *Slutburger* and the anthology *Life of the Party* (1996). Her work has appeared in *Twisted Sisters Comics*, *Rip Off Comix*, and her own *Fleener* and *Chicken Slacks*. A member of the rock band The Wigbillies, she has exhibited at galleries including La Luz de Jesus and LACE, and was included in the 2020 exhibit *Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back* at the Society of Illustrators. Fleener lives and works in Encinitas, California.