HOLLANDER, Nicole

Born 25 April 1939, Chicago, Illinois

Daughter of Henry and Shirley Mazur Garrison; married Paul Hollander, 1962 (divorced)

One of the few female cartoonists whose work has been featured in comic pages throughout the U.S., Nicole Hollander is best known for the comic strip Sylvia. Complete with her trademark feather boa, cigarette, and open-heeled bedroom slippers, Sylvia first began appearing in Hollander's work in 1979 when her first collection of cartoons, I'm in Training to Be Tall and Blonde was released by St. Martin's Press.

Sylvia has changed the way women are portrayed in mainstream comic strips. Sylvia, a fiftyish wisecracking woman, scrutinizes politics and society from her bathtub, her easy chair, a barroom stool, or lunch table. Her foils are conventional Beth Ellen, her lunch partner; Harry, the cynical bartender; Rita, her patient, health-conscious daughter; and her all-knowing pets. Rita's father is away; where and why varies. She casts a critical eye on most men and on the occasional female such as conservative spokeswoman Phyllis Schlafly.

Although newspaper editors were wary of publishing this hefty woman in bathrobe, backless mules, and dyed hair, the public recognized a folk heroine. Unlike other women in comics, Sylvia is neither glamorous nor upwardly mobile. Her wardrobe is limited, her tastes tend to pizza and beer, and her politics are liberal; she casts a jaundiced eye on the world and says so in 10 words or less. Sylvia is not an analyst; she is an observer and commentator. In one strip, a television announcer notes: "Studies show that women with 'sexy names' like Dawn and Cheryl are less likely to be promoted to managerial jobs than women with names like…" "Bill or Roger," Sylvia comments from the bar stool.

The strip's characters also include a cast of Cops who have their own sets of rules and fly about the country trying to inflict them on other people; a fairy godmother, who anticipates women's needs; Gernif the Venusian, who questions the habits of earth people; bright-eyed Patty Murphy, a fallible television commentator; Alien Lover, a sensitive male; the Devil, who bargains for souls; angels who determine who will enter heaven based on their behavior in the neighborhood supermarket and taste in movies; and Grunella, a fortune-teller whose crystal ball forecast can change to accommodate the listener. Sylvia's cats, who do not speak, but listen, think, write, and act, play a large role. In 1992 Hollander published a book of their advice to cat owners, Everything Here Is Mine: An Unhelpful Guide to Cat Behavior.

Hollander was educated in Chicago public schools. She received a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois (1960) and an M.F.A. from Boston University (1966). Growing up in a working-class Chicago neighborhood where the women had all the funny lines, she learned to read, she says, because she wanted to read the comics. As an adolescent, Hollander realized the comics were not relevant to her life because they were written by men and filled with male characters. Her first comic strip was published in Spokeswoman, a national feminist newsletter. The mainstream press resisted: men held decisionmaking positions in most newspapers and Sylvia was too feminist, too outrageous; she did not speak to or for the male point of view.

As feminist humor began to command a wider audience, St. Martin's Press printed the first book of Sylvia cartoons in 1979 and continued as her publisher until 1991. Hollander was first syndicated by the Toronto Syndicate in 1979 and by Field Syndications in 1981. She has been self-syndicated since then, doing both administrative and creative work for the strip. In the late 1980s Sylvia appeared in over 50 newspapers.

Hollander was given a national Wonder Woman Award in 1983, an honor given to women over 40 who have advanced the cause of women. In 1985 she received a Yale University Chubb Fellowship for Public Service. Hollander was one of four cartoonists featured in the film Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Women Cartoonists by Pamela Briggs. Sylvia's Real Good Advice, a musical comedy, first performed in 1991 in Chicago, won a 1991 Joseph Jefferson Award and a Chicago After Dark Award.

Hollander remains a keen observer and commentator. In recent years, she has taken a break from putting out books about Sylvia and issued books with a cat focus. As illustrator, Hollander's projects included 101 Reason Why a Cat is Better Than a Man (1992), Women Who Love Cats Too Much (1995), 101 Reasons Why Cats Make Great Kids (1996), and 101 More Reasons Why a Cat is Better Than a Man (1997). With author Allia Zobel, Hollander offers irreverent advice for the cat lover in all of us. Hollander expounded on her own inscrutable felines' impeccable taste in My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big-Boned (1998). Her cats think too much, hypnotize their owners, plot dastardly deeds but get distracted, and are obsessed with food, food, food.

But Hollander has not forgotten the acerbic and often feminist humor that created her passionate readers. In Female Problems: An Unhelpful Guide (1995) and Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch (1997), she provides provocative and funny commentary on being female. Female Problems offers reflections and cartoons on visits to gynecologists, hair problems, and identifying with the Evil Queen rather than Snow White. Getting in Touch recognizes that the Inner Bitch is the Bette Davis in every woman—that integral, powerful part which often goes unrecognized. Hollander writes for the woman who wants to laugh out loud and speak her mind.

Other Works:

Hi, This Is Sylvia; Ma, Can I Be a Feminist and Still Like Men? (1980). That Woman Must Be on Drugs (1981). My Weight Is Always Perfect for My Height—Which Varies (1982). Mercy, It's the Revolution and I'm in My Bathrobe (1982). Sylvia on Sundays (1983). O.K., Thinner Thighs for Everyone (1984). Never Tell Your Mother This Dream (1985). The Whole Enchilada (1986). Never Take Your Cat to a Salad Bar (1987). You Can't Take It with You, So Eat It Now (1989). Tales from the Planet Sylvia (1990). Everything I Learned About the Rat Race I Learned from My Cat (1999). Also: yearly calendars, the Sylvia Book of Days, mugs, dolls, and greeting cards.

Bibliography:

Alley, P. W., "Hokinson and Hollander: Female Cartoonists and American Culture," in Women's Comic Visions (1991). Cantarow, E., "Don't Throw Away That Old Diaphram," in Mother Jones (June-July, 1987). O' Sullivan, J., The Great American Comic Strip: One Hundred Years of Cartoon Art (1990). Walker, N., and Zita Dresner, eds., Redressing the Balance: American Women's Literary Humor from Colonial Times to the 1980s (1988).