In an age when fans take to social media to save comic books starring female heroes it’s amazing to think back to a time when strong women packed the pages of comics.
Divas, Dames and Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics takes you back to an age of extraordinary women fighting evil as reporters, fighter pilots, detectives, masked vigilantes and super-powered goddesses.
Mike Madrid (The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy and the History of Comic Book Heroines) devotes a chapter to the different styles of female heroes that populated comics anthologies of the 1940’s. You may know Wonder Woman or Sheena, Queen of the Jungle but Madrid introduces you to other fantastic women of the era.
From Nazi fighting nurses to costumed vigilantes to all-powerful warrior queens, Madrid introduces these “lost” heroes followed by actual stories from the by-gone era of anthology comics. You can sense the passion and knowledge for the heroines in a book that’s lovingly crafted and compiled.
Lois Lane is getting the big screen treatment again in “Man of Steel” and that’s why I particular loved the Daring Dames chapter devoted to tough, resourceful career women like reporter Penny Wright, Lady at Law Betty Bates, Science Sleuth Jill Trent and private eye Calamity Jane.
Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics is an entertaining, insightful, fun salute to these courageous women from the past. You feel like a friend at the comics shop is sharing a whole new world to you. You’ll want to share this pop history collection, too.
Here’s a link to buy. And I recommend Mike Madrid’s previous book: The Supergirls. Mike will be appearing at Geek Girl Con, October 19th and 20th, 2013 in Seattle. To learn more about Mike Madrid and his books visit Heaven4Heroes.com.
By Editor