Catherine yronwode
Encyclopedia
Catherine "Cat" Yronwode ( or "catherine yronwode", born Catherine Anna Manfredi on May 12, 1947) is an American
writer
, editor
, graphic designer, typesetter, publisher, and practitioner of folk magic with an extensive career in the comic book
industry.
from Germany
, a writer, and a cousin of the composer Franz Reizenstein
. She grew up in Berkeley
and Santa Monica
, and traveling abroad. She made window signs for the Cabale Creamery (a folk music
coffeehouse
in Berkeley) while still in high school. She attended Shimer College
in Illinois
as an early entrant
, but dropped out. Returning to Berkeley, she sold the Berkeley Barb
underground newspaper on the streets and catalogued rare books for her parents' bookstore, then took her leave of urban life. From 1965 through 1980 she lived as a rural back-to-the-land hippie
in various places, including Tolstoy Peace Farm, an anarchist commune
in Washington, the Equitable Farm commune in Mendocino County, and the Garden of Joy Blues commune in Oregon County, Missouri
.
fanzines. During the 1960s, she was a member of the Bay Area Astrologers Group, co-writing its weekly astrology column for the underground newspaper San Francisco Express Times / Good Times. She produced record reviews on a freelance basis for the nascent Rolling Stone
magazine, and short articles on low-tech living for the Whole Earth Catalog
and Country Women magazine. With her mother Liselotte Glozer, she co-wrote and hand-lettered the faux-medieval cookbook
, My Lady's Closet Opened and the Secret of Baking Revealed by Two Gentlewomen (Glozer's Booksellers, 1969). During the 1990s, she was a staff editor and contributor to Organic Gardening Magazine. The California Gardener's Book of Lists (Taylor, 1998) is one of her books on gardening
. Other subjects she has covered for various magazines include collectible
s, popular culture
, rural acoustic blues
music, early rock'n'roll, and sex magick.
She met her former partner, Peter Paskin, in 1967 and they invented their last name "Yronwode", pronounced "Ironwood", in 1969. She prefers her name to be styled in lower case, as "catherine yronwode." While living at Equitable Farm, Peter and Catherine were interviewed at length by Rolling Stone magazine for an article on hippie anarchist communes. The couple had two children: Cicely (who was born in 1970 and died of SIDS the same year) and Althaea, born in 1971. In 1972, the Yronwodes relocated to The Garden of Joy Blues commune in the Missouri
Ozarks
. In 1976, Catherine and Peter Yronwode broke up.
In 1980, Yronwode worked as an editor for Ken Pierce Publishing, editing and writing introductions to a line of comic strip
reprint books, including titles such as Modesty Blaise
by Peter O'Donnell
and Jim Holdaway
, Mike Hammer
by Mickey Spillane
, and The Phantom
by Lee Falk
.
She also began a long-running column titled "Fit to Print" for the Comics Buyer's Guide
. The column was widely read and gave her a gatekeeper
role in comics. Beanworld creator Larry Marder
credits her positive review therein for the title's success. Similarly, when Dan Brereton
received a poor review from Yronwode for an early project, he felt his "promising career in comics was over". The column, and her work with the APA-I
comic-book indexing cooperative, led to freelance editing jobs at Kitchen Sink Press
, an important early alternative comics imprint. She wrote The Art of Will Eisner in 1981, an overview of the work of seminal cartoonist Will Eisner
, and continued to write books for Kitchen Sink for several years.
In 1982 she began a partnership with Dean Mullaney, who with his brother Jan had co-founded Eclipse Enterprises
, a comic book and graphic novel
publisher, in 1976. With Yronwode as editor-in-chief during a period of expanding attention to the art form, Eclipse published many innovative works and championed creators' rights in a field which at the time barely respected them. During her tenure, Eclipse published super hero titles including Miracleman
by Alan Moore
and Neil Gaiman
, The Rocketeer
by Dave Stevens
, and Zot!
by Scott McCloud
. and also brought out graphic novels featuring opera
adaptations, such as The Magic Flute
by P. Craig Russell
and classic children's literature such as The Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
. Yronwode won an Inkpot Award in 1983.
In 1985, Yronwode and cartoonist Trina Robbins
co-wrote the Eclipse book Women and the Comics, on the history of female comic-strip and comic-book creators. As the first book on this subject, its publication was covered in the mainstream press in addition to the fan press.
During the 1980s, Eclipse brought out a new line of non-fiction, non-sports trading cards, edited by Yronwode. Controversial political subjects such as the Iran-Contra scandal, the Savings and Loan crisis
, the AIDS
epidemic, and the Kennedy Assassination, as well as true crime
accounts of serial killers, mass murder
ers, the mafia
, and organized crime
were covered in these card sets, and Yronwode was widely interviewed in the media about her role in their creation.
Mullaney and Yronwode were married in 1987 and filed for divorce in 1993, after which point Yronwode no longer worked for the company or owned shares in it; Eclipse ceased publication in 1994 and shortly thereafter filed for bankruptcy
.
During her career as a comic book editor and publisher, Yronwode was involved in three free expression court cases. In the Michael Correa case that led to the founding of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
, Yronwode was an expert witness for the defense. In 1992, the convicted serial killer
Kenneth Bianchi, one-half of the pair known as "The Hillside Strangler", sued Yronwode for 8.5 million dollars for causing an image of his face, which he claimed was his trademark
, to be depicted on a trading card. The case was dismissed when the judge opined that if Bianchi had been using his face as a trademark when he was killing women, he would not have tried to hide it from the police; therefore his face was not his trademark. Also in 1992, Eclipse was a plaintiff when Nassau County, New York
seized a crime-themed trading card series they had published under a county ordinance prohibiting sales of certain trading cards to minors. The case, in which Yronwode testified and the ACLU provided Eclipse's representation, reached the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
, where the ordinance was overturned.
Yronwode lives on an old farmstead in rural Forestville, California
in "tantric partnership" with Tyagi Nagasiva (now Nagasiva Bryan W Yronwode), whom she met in 1998 and married in 2000. Both Yronwodes worked in the production department of Claypool Comics
until that company ceased print publication in 2007.
Yronwode has also written extensively on magic
, sacred architecture and folklore
subjects, particularly the worldwide use of charms and talismans and the system of African American
folk magic called hoodoo.
Since 1996, she has run the website luckymojo.com, covering magic, occult
ism, sex magick, and folklore subjects. She is the co-proprietor, with Nagasiva, of an occult shop, spiritual supply manufactory, and book publishing firm, The Lucky Mojo Curio Company, for which she has produced work as a graphic artist of labels for spiritual supplies and written books on folk magic and religious topics. Extensive interviews with both of the Yronwodes can be found in Christine Wicker's survey of early 21st century magical practitioners, Not in Kansas Anymore and in Carolyn Morrow Long's academic history of 20th century occult shops, Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
, graphic designer, typesetter, publisher, and practitioner of folk magic with an extensive career in the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
industry.
Early life
Yronwode was born in San Francisco to "bohemian/academic parents". Her father, Joseph Manfredi, was a Sicilian American abstract artist; her mother, Liselotte Erlanger, was an Ashkenazi Jewish refugeeRefugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, a writer, and a cousin of the composer Franz Reizenstein
Franz Reizenstein
Franz Theodor Reizenstein was a German-born British composer and concert pianist. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his career there, including teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music and Boston University, as well as performing.-Life and work:Franz...
. She grew up in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, and traveling abroad. She made window signs for the Cabale Creamery (a folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
in Berkeley) while still in high school. She attended Shimer College
Shimer College
Shimer College is a very small, private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Founded by Frances Wood Shimer in 1853 in the frontier town of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, it was a women's school for most of its first century. It joined with the University of...
in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
as an early entrant
Early entrance at Shimer College
The early entrance program at Shimer College, known at different times as the Early Entrant Program and Early Entrance Program, is a program that allows high school students to go to college early. Early entrants at Shimer are admitted as regular college students after completing at least two...
, but dropped out. Returning to Berkeley, she sold the Berkeley Barb
Berkeley Barb
The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, from 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects as the anti-war and civil-rights movements as well as the...
underground newspaper on the streets and catalogued rare books for her parents' bookstore, then took her leave of urban life. From 1965 through 1980 she lived as a rural back-to-the-land hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
in various places, including Tolstoy Peace Farm, an anarchist commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
in Washington, the Equitable Farm commune in Mendocino County, and the Garden of Joy Blues commune in Oregon County, Missouri
Oregon County, Missouri
Oregon County is a county located in South Central Missouri in the United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the county's population was 10,344. A 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 10,264. Its county seat is Alton...
.
Career
A freelance writer for many years, Yronwode has been published in a number of fields. She began writing while in her teens, contributing to science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
fanzines. During the 1960s, she was a member of the Bay Area Astrologers Group, co-writing its weekly astrology column for the underground newspaper San Francisco Express Times / Good Times. She produced record reviews on a freelance basis for the nascent Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, and short articles on low-tech living for the Whole Earth Catalog
Whole Earth Catalog
The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
and Country Women magazine. With her mother Liselotte Glozer, she co-wrote and hand-lettered the faux-medieval cookbook
Cookbook
A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...
, My Lady's Closet Opened and the Secret of Baking Revealed by Two Gentlewomen (Glozer's Booksellers, 1969). During the 1990s, she was a staff editor and contributor to Organic Gardening Magazine. The California Gardener's Book of Lists (Taylor, 1998) is one of her books on gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
. Other subjects she has covered for various magazines include collectible
Collectible
A collectable or collectible is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector . There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old...
s, popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, rural acoustic blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music, early rock'n'roll, and sex magick.
She met her former partner, Peter Paskin, in 1967 and they invented their last name "Yronwode", pronounced "Ironwood", in 1969. She prefers her name to be styled in lower case, as "catherine yronwode." While living at Equitable Farm, Peter and Catherine were interviewed at length by Rolling Stone magazine for an article on hippie anarchist communes. The couple had two children: Cicely (who was born in 1970 and died of SIDS the same year) and Althaea, born in 1971. In 1972, the Yronwodes relocated to The Garden of Joy Blues commune in the Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
Ozarks
The Ozarks
The Ozarks are a physiographic and geologic highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas...
. In 1976, Catherine and Peter Yronwode broke up.
In 1980, Yronwode worked as an editor for Ken Pierce Publishing, editing and writing introductions to a line of comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
reprint books, including titles such as Modesty Blaise
Modesty Blaise
Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin...
by Peter O'Donnell
Peter O'Donnell
Peter O'Donnell was a British writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of Modesty Blaise, a female action hero/undercover trouble-shooter/enforcer...
and Jim Holdaway
Jim Holdaway
Jim Holdaway was a British illustrator, who was famous for his illustrations of numerous comic strips. His most famous contributions was to the Modesty Blaise comics written by Peter O'Donnell.-Art career:...
, Mike Hammer
Mike Hammer
Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...
by Mickey Spillane
Mickey Spillane
Frank Morrison Spillane , better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally...
, and The Phantom
The Phantom
The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.The Phantom is...
by Lee Falk
Lee Falk
Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross , was an American writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity attracted over a hundred million readers every day...
.
She also began a long-running column titled "Fit to Print" for the Comics Buyer's Guide
Comics Buyer's Guide
Comics Buyer's Guide , established in 1971, is the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry...
. The column was widely read and gave her a gatekeeper
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper or gatekeeping may refer to:* Gatekeeper , a professional boxer who is considered a test for aspiring boxers* Gatekeeping , a person or organization who manages or constrains a flow of knowledge...
role in comics. Beanworld creator Larry Marder
Larry Marder
Larry Marder is an American cartoonist and writer, best known as the creator of comic book Tales of the Beanworld, which began as an "essentially self-published title" in 1984.-Early life:...
credits her positive review therein for the title's success. Similarly, when Dan Brereton
Dan Brereton
Dan Brereton is an American professional writer and illustrator who has produced notable work in the comic book field.-Biography:...
received a poor review from Yronwode for an early project, he felt his "promising career in comics was over". The column, and her work with the APA-I
Amateur press association
An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
comic-book indexing cooperative, led to freelance editing jobs at Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...
, an important early alternative comics imprint. She wrote The Art of Will Eisner in 1981, an overview of the work of seminal cartoonist Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, and continued to write books for Kitchen Sink for several years.
In 1982 she began a partnership with Dean Mullaney, who with his brother Jan had co-founded Eclipse Enterprises
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
, a comic book and graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
publisher, in 1976. With Yronwode as editor-in-chief during a period of expanding attention to the art form, Eclipse published many innovative works and championed creators' rights in a field which at the time barely respected them. During her tenure, Eclipse published super hero titles including Miracleman
Miracleman
Marvelman, also known as Miracleman for trademark reasons in his American reprints and story continuation, is a fictional comic book superhero created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & Son. Originally intended as a United Kingdom home-grown substitute for the American...
by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer is a superhero created by writer/illustrator Dave Stevens. The character first appeared in 1982 and is a homage to the Saturday matinee heroes of the 1930s and 1940s....
by Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...
, and Zot!
Zot!
Zot! is a comic book created by Scott McCloud in 1984 and published by Eclipse Comics until 1990 as a lighthearted alternative to the darker and more violent comics that predominated the industry during that period. There were a total of 36 issues, with the first ten in color and the remainder in...
by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
. and also brought out graphic novels featuring opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
adaptations, such as The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
by P. Craig Russell
P. Craig Russell
Philip Craig Russell , also known as P. Craig Russell, is an American comic book writer, artist, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards...
and classic children's literature such as The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
. Yronwode won an Inkpot Award in 1983.
In 1985, Yronwode and cartoonist Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
co-wrote the Eclipse book Women and the Comics, on the history of female comic-strip and comic-book creators. As the first book on this subject, its publication was covered in the mainstream press in addition to the fan press.
During the 1980s, Eclipse brought out a new line of non-fiction, non-sports trading cards, edited by Yronwode. Controversial political subjects such as the Iran-Contra scandal, the Savings and Loan crisis
Savings and Loan crisis
The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of about 747 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States...
, the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
epidemic, and the Kennedy Assassination, as well as true crime
True crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
accounts of serial killers, mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
ers, the mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, and organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
were covered in these card sets, and Yronwode was widely interviewed in the media about her role in their creation.
Mullaney and Yronwode were married in 1987 and filed for divorce in 1993, after which point Yronwode no longer worked for the company or owned shares in it; Eclipse ceased publication in 1994 and shortly thereafter filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
.
During her career as a comic book editor and publisher, Yronwode was involved in three free expression court cases. In the Michael Correa case that led to the founding of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a United States non-profit organization created in 1986 to protect the First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers covering legal expenses....
, Yronwode was an expert witness for the defense. In 1992, the convicted serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Kenneth Bianchi, one-half of the pair known as "The Hillside Strangler", sued Yronwode for 8.5 million dollars for causing an image of his face, which he claimed was his trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
, to be depicted on a trading card. The case was dismissed when the judge opined that if Bianchi had been using his face as a trademark when he was killing women, he would not have tried to hide it from the police; therefore his face was not his trademark. Also in 1992, Eclipse was a plaintiff when Nassau County, New York
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
seized a crime-themed trading card series they had published under a county ordinance prohibiting sales of certain trading cards to minors. The case, in which Yronwode testified and the ACLU provided Eclipse's representation, reached the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
, where the ordinance was overturned.
Yronwode lives on an old farmstead in rural Forestville, California
Forestville, California
Forestville is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town came into existence during the late 1860s and was originally named Forrestville, after one its founders, but the spelling long ago became standardized with one "r". The population was 3,293 at the 2010...
in "tantric partnership" with Tyagi Nagasiva (now Nagasiva Bryan W Yronwode), whom she met in 1998 and married in 2000. Both Yronwodes worked in the production department of Claypool Comics
Claypool Comics
Claypool Comics is an American comic book publishing company created in 1993, known for publishing such titles as Peter David's Soulsearchers and Company and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark comics, as well as Richard Howell's Deadbeats and, , Phantom of Fear City...
until that company ceased print publication in 2007.
Yronwode has also written extensively on magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, sacred architecture and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
subjects, particularly the worldwide use of charms and talismans and the system of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
folk magic called hoodoo.
Since 1996, she has run the website luckymojo.com, covering magic, occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
ism, sex magick, and folklore subjects. She is the co-proprietor, with Nagasiva, of an occult shop, spiritual supply manufactory, and book publishing firm, The Lucky Mojo Curio Company, for which she has produced work as a graphic artist of labels for spiritual supplies and written books on folk magic and religious topics. Extensive interviews with both of the Yronwodes can be found in Christine Wicker's survey of early 21st century magical practitioners, Not in Kansas Anymore and in Carolyn Morrow Long's academic history of 20th century occult shops, Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce