Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age (World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction Series)

The history of comics has centered almost exclusively on men. Comics historians largely describe the medium as one built by men telling tales about male protagonists, neglecting the many ways in which women fought for legitimacy on the page and in publishers’ studios. Despite this male-dominated focus, women played vital roles in the early history of comics. The story of how comic books were born and how they evolved changes dramatically when women like June Tarpé Mills and Lily Renée are placed at the center rather than at the margins of this history, and when characters such as the Black Cat, Patsy Walker, and Señorita Rio are analyzed. __Comic Book Women__ offers a feminist history of the golden age of comics, revising our understanding of how numerous genres emerged and upending narratives of how male auteurs built their careers. Considering issues of race, gender, and sexuality, the authors examine crime, horror, jungle, romance, science fiction, superhero, and Western comics to unpack the cultural and industrial consequences of how women were represented across a wide range of titles by publishers like DC, Timely, Fiction House, and others. This revisionist history reclaims the forgotten work done by women in the comics industry and reinserts female creators and characters into the canon of comics history. "The Golden Age of Comics (roughly the late 1930s through the 1950s) saw the birth and rapid growth of the industry, but unfortunately and unsurprisingly the role of women was often problematic during this period. Few women creators worked in comics, and those that did frequently worked anonymously or under pseudonyms and were subject to workplace harassment and discrimination. Similarly, female characters were often poorly presented and framed in a sexualized fashion. Although some elements of this history have been told piecemeal there hasn't yet been a comprehensive look at women in comics during this period. Brunet and Davis examine female creators and characters across a broad range of genres to create a historical narrative of representation and culture that goes beyond previous scholarship"-- Provided by publisher