Rachel Pollack Passed Away at 77

Sad news to report today as Rachel Pollack, famous science fiction author, comic book writer, and trans activist has passed away at the age of 77 after a long battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. In a statement by her wife Zoe Matoff on Pollack’s Facebook Page is as follows:

“I am sad to tell you that our beloved Rachel Pollack passed so peacefully and beautifully today at about 12:45 p.m. after a touching ceremony called Hand to Heart,” her wife wrote in a social media post. “I know that Rachel will continue to be a Light in this world and in the next. She will continue to inspire so many of our beloved Tarot community, the Science Fiction and Fantasy community, the Comics community, and the Transgender community for whom she shared so much respect and care. We have felt and cherished your love and prayers over the past months and years as Rachel experienced so many health challenges. We are One.” – Zoe Matoff

Pollack was best known for the books she wrote such as Salvador Dali’s Tarot, Unquenchable Fire, Godmother Night, and The Body of the Goddess, which that have been nominated for and won numerous awards such as Arthur C. Clarke Award, World Fantasy Award, James Tiptree Jr. Award Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature, Nebula Award, and Mythopoeic Award.

In terms of comic book writing, she took over Doom Patrol after Grant Morrison’s legendary run on the comic and her run on the book was very important and impactful in comics. Pollack was responsible for introducing DC Comics’ first trans superhero with Kate Godwin / Coagula during her run writing Doom Patrol. She also brought up topics in comics such as menstruation, sexual identity, and transsexuality which were very rare topics that were on the pages of comics at the time.

Many of Pollack’s friends and fellow authors left heartfelt messages all over social media and Neil Gaiman tweeted: