Joyce Farmer launched the underground comix series Tits & Clits with Lyn Chevli in 1972. Smart, satirical, and controversial, the series took a subversive look at women’s bodies and sexuality. Picked up by Last Gasp after a self-published debut, it sold over 100,000 copies and has been praised by famous cartoonists (including R. Crumb) and more recently by scholars of comics culture for being a seminal building block in the genre.
Her graphic novel Special Exits (Fantagraphics, 2010), nominated for an Eisner Award, was inspired by her personal experience of years providing care for her parents and watching and helping them care for theirs.
Farmer’s work has been exhibited in locations as far apart as San Francisco, CA, and Lucca, Italy. She has contributed to many other comics, including Itchy Planet, Mama! Dramas, Wimmen’s Comix, Zero-Zero, and Best Comics of the Decade.
She attended the Art Center College of Design to study advertising design and graduated from the University of California-Irvine in 1971 with a BA in Classical Languages. In addition to her work as a cartoonist, Farmer owned her own Bail Bond agency, from which she recently retired.