Inside The Hilarious, Brilliant, Messy World Of Roberta Gregory’s ‘Bitchy’

Image from screen of Bitchy: The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken by Roberta Gregory, published by Fantagraphics Books, 2026.

Art by Roberta Gregory

Roberta Gregory wasn’t looking to create a classical erstwhile she knocked retired the first “Bitchy Bitch” communicative for rumor #6 of Graphic Story Monthly (Fantagraphics) successful 1990. But complete much than 30 years, the irascible Midge McCracken transcended her “date from hell” joke origins to go 1 of the foundational feminist independent comics and the belief antecedent for a procreation of unapologetically dislikable comedic female anti-heroes.

Midge’s communicative unfurled successful 8-page increments successful Naughty Bits, a periodical comic from Fantagraphics anthologizing Gregory’s work, which ran 40 issues from 1991-2004. While Naughty Bits focused connected the breadth of Gregory’s interests, including autobiographical, portion of life and experimental stories, Midge grabbed the spotlight, spawning respective waste and acquisition collections, a queer-themed spinoff Butchy Bitch, and moreover an animated bid that ran successful the early 2000s connected the Oxygen cablegram network.

Now Fantagraphics has collected the full saga successful a deluxe caller edition, Bitchy: The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken (2026). For the first time, Gregory has arranged the stories successful chronological bid of Midge’s life, starting from her puerility and adolescence earlier moving into her messy adulthood, catastrophic activity life, toxic friendships and soul-crushing workplace.

In a telephone question and reply past week, Gregory said she realized arsenic she was putting each the stories together for the book that they formed the communicative of a complete life, moreover though she was initially conscionable focused connected telling one-off joke stories. “I asked myself, what happens if you put them each successful consecutive, chronological order, and it really useful retired beautiful well,” she said.

Gregory said that she began doing the Bitchy stories arsenic a lighthearted complement to the different activity she was publishing successful Naughty Bits, arsenic a measurement to capable pages arsenic she juggled time jobs and different life obligations. Several stories in, she realized Midge was starting to create into a existent characteristic and needed a backstory to explicate immoderate of her troublesome behavior.

“I really didn’t want to support doing stories astir a cranky bitch having bad activity and each that,” she said, “So successful rumor 6, I showed her arsenic a teen and getting knocked up and having to get an forbidden abortion successful Mexico. I did a communicative astir her childhood. And that’s erstwhile she started fleshing retired arsenic a existent person.”

Gregory says passim her profession arsenic a cartoonist, which began successful the days of underground comix in the 1970s, she gravitated toward stories and subjects that weren’t being told elsewhere. “People weren’t really doing stories astir the intersexual maltreatment of children aliases forbidden abortion,” she said. “I thought, ok, I’ll dress up these absorbing stories for myself and for Naughty Bits, and it benignant of worked out. They started getting retired into the world for group to find and publication successful the 1990s.”

Gregory says she drew inspiration from her ain upbringing. “I grew up surrounded by Republicans and didn’t really person a wide family, truthful I’m utilized to dealing pinch group I person thing successful communal with, but still request to get on with. Maybe that helped.”

Midge’s enduring spot is being wholly retired of f’s to springiness and careening done each business for illustration a demolition derby. Gregory drew her arsenic mean, menacing, and thoroughly indifferent to male-centric standards of beauty and decorum. “On 1 cover, I drew her lying connected the formation successful a bikini pinch a tampon drawstring hanging out,” she said.

Midge is little a “flawed protagonist” than a grotesque successful the style of the underground comix contented of the 1960s. Her anger, lust, racism, selfishness and resentment are exaggerated into comic types, akin to what underground icons for illustration Robert Crumb aliases Gilbert Shelton did. But Gregory did them 1 amended by employing these tropes connected female-centric topics astatine a clip erstwhile moreover “alternative” cartoonists didn’t deliberation women were tin of doing “in-your-face, exaggerated comics.”

“It was a comic featuring a woman, by a woman, pinch really funny exaggerated worldly that group don’t want to talk about,” she said. “I did it because it was the benignant of activity I wanted to see.”

Bitchy is not only bully gag humor, it is powerful satire. Through Midge’s eyes, Gregory laid discarded to the casual cruelty, cattiness, sexism and narcissism of 90s workplace culture, dating, family relationships, female friendships, consumerism and more. While immoderate of the references are dated, the sources of joke stay painfully relevant.

Gregory says she has her doubts astir whether today’s civilization would beryllium arsenic knowing of deliberately problematic and abrasive material, but echoes of Bitchy can beryllium recovered each complete Millennial and Gen-Z entertainment, including 2010s-era “messy female antihero” bid for illustration Lena Dunham’s Girls, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Gretchen (Aya Cash) from You’re the Worst.

Naughty Bits ended successful 2005 and Gregory’s activity has appeared sporadically successful different outlets. She says she is presently moving connected a schematic curriculum vitae of Clara Schumann and various different projects. Though having Bitchy in people successful specified a complete and deluxe version is simply a dainty for fans, it risks distorting Gregory’s larger bequest and value successful comics, including her pioneering underground activity successful the 70s, being the first cartoonist to bring queer themes into “wimmin’s comix,” and immoderate of the much superior and much tightly-drawn strips that appeared successful Naughty Bits alongside the wide joke of Midge and her pals.

Gregory said location has been immoderate talk of a Butchy Bitch postulation and a broader retrospective, but she is presently focused connected her upcoming projects and keeping up her health.

Bitchy: The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken was published successful June, 2026 by Fantagraphics Books.