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Lora Fountain

Lora Fountain is a American comic book writer, artist, and literary agent. She is of Irish, Welsh, and English descent.

Early Life and Career in Comics

Lora Fountain is a American comic book writer, artist, and literary agent. She is of Irish, Welsh, and English descent. She has artists in her family and grew up drawing as well as reading comic books in the Sunday paper. However, Fountain has stated that she never created her own comics as a child. She attended and graduated from UCLA in 1971 and soon became her career in comics. While at UCLA, she met Gilbert Shelton, whose comics she had read in the LA Free Press. A few months later, they fell in love and moved in together.

After graduating from UCLA, Lora Fountain moved to San Francisco in the fall of 1971 and immersed herself in the underground comics scene of the early 70’s. San Francisco was the epicenter of underground comix, and it was there that she met Trina Robbins, Aline Kominsky, and Diane Noomin, with whom she collaborated in "Wimmen's Comix. It was at this time they created Wimmen’s Comix. Fountain describes Wimmen’s Comix as a space that allowed for female writers and artists to be able to tell stories in a male-dominated world. She was included in the original first issues and it was there that she created the comic A Teenage Abortion.

Fountain's work for Wimmen's Comix includes the following:

"A Teenage Abortion", published in "Wimmen’s Comix" #1, 1972

“Movin’ to the Country”, published in “Wimmen’s Comix”, 1973

“Facts o’ Life Funnies” (1972), (editing + participation)

“Fertile Fanny” from “Facts o’ Life Funnies” (1972)

“Dr. Reuben Ruined My Sex Life”, in Manhunt #1, The Print Mint, July 1973 (5 p.).

A Teenage Abortion

A Teenage Abortion was originally written and published by Lora Fountain in 1972. It was featured in the first publication of Wimmen's Comix. The story follows a young girl in high school who finds out she is pregnant. With no support, the young girl must find money to get an abortion and hide it from everyone as well. The comic speaks to reproductive rights in the United States at the time. The comic has been republished a number of times and is still relevant to this day. Fountain’s inspiration for this story came from her time as a volunteer sex education counselor while she was attending UCLA. It has been considered one of her more well-known works amongst readers. She also states that she was involved in the abortion rights movement of the early 1970's, and notes this as an inspiration for the comic.

Career in Comics ctd., Film, and Social Movements

Lora Fountain started creating videos after discovering that writing and drawing comic books were not her strong suits. She went on to make a short film about medical malpractice benefits, as well as two instructional videos about pregnancy and childbirth, one in Spanish and the other in English, with the added feature of depicting a black family.

Lora Fountain called the Glide Foundation and begged them to allow her to edit an instructional comic book on sex education after discovering there was no interesting educational funding available. Lora Fountain has worked as a volunteer sex education counsellor at LA Free Clinic and the Venice Youth Clinic. She also took part in the anti-war movement and the first ecological action groups.

Current Life

Lora Fountain and Gilbert Shelton left San Francisco in 1979. They moved to Barcelona, Spain in 1980 and moved to France in 1984. Since 1985, Lora Fountain has been living in Paris. She founded the Lora Fountain & Associates Literary Agency, which represents authors of literature and comic books for children and adults.