By Mike Madrid ($16.95)
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“Mike Madrid is doing God’s work. . . . [making] accessible a lost, heady land of female adventure.”—ComicsAlliance
“These ‘lost’ [characters] are now found—to the delight of comic book lovers everywhere.”—Stan Lee
“Lovers of comics and strong women everywhere thank you, Mike Madrid!” —Trina Robbins, author of Pretty in Ink: Women Cartoonists 1896–2013
“Madrid continues a mission celebrating strong women of comics and rediscovering lost adventures. You can sense his love and knowledge of the genre in every chapter. He is the Professor of Comics Cool.” —ComicsBlend
“Portray[s] women who were wickedly smart, independent, diverse, outspoken, and had consciously chosen a life of evil. . . . Accompanied by Madrid’s well-researched commentary, this fascinating collection provides much food for thought.” —ForeWord Reviews
“This is mandatory reading for any fan of comics. It expertly explains the roles of women villains and how they lead the way for the femme fatales that fans love to cheer and boo today. I can’t imagine any scholarly collection of comics being complete without this book. Overall grade: A”—SciFiPulse.Net
“Mike Madrid may know more about women in comics than anyone else alive….Despite the lament of many a parent that comic books are a waste of time, Madrid demonstrates through a close reading, that some of the most basic issues of society are featured in graphic format….Look for Vixens, Vamps and Vipers and enjoy, if secretly, learning something profound about human nature.”— Sects and Violence in the Ancient World
“I recommend reading this stand-alone (for all you villain-fans out there), or with Madrid’s other two books Divas, Dames & Daredevils and The Supergirls….and I, for one, hope that seeing some of these ‘lost’ Golden Age mean queens will inspire a new generation of evil–evil women–pushing past the rules and complacency of society, because I want to read more.”—Sequential Tart
“As with Madrid’s other works, Vixens, Vamps & Vipers is not merely an anthology of classic reprints, but is packed with well-researched introductions and intelligent commentaries and character introductions.” —J.C. Macek III, Pop Matters
Between the covers of Vixens, Vamps & Vipers, fans will rediscover the original bad girls of comics—as seductive and full of surprises as they were when the comic book industry was born. From an early incarnation of the infamous Black Widow to He-She, dubbed by io9 as “the most unsung comic book villain ever,” Mike Madrid resurrects twenty-five glorious evildoers in fully repro- duced comics and explores the ways they both transcend and become ensnared in a web of cultural stereotypes. These women may have been overlooked in the annals of history, but—like their superheroine counterparts in Divas, Dames & Daredevils—their influence, on popular culture and the archenemies that thrill us today, is unmistakable.
Mike Madrid is the author of Divas, Dames & Daredevils, a ComicsAlliance and ComicsBlend Best Book of the Year, and The Supergirls, an NPR “Best Book To Share With Your Friends” and American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Project Notable Book. A San Francisco native and lifelong fan of comic books and popular culture, Madrid also appears in the documentary Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.
- Watch Mike Madrid discuss Divas, Dames & Daredevils, the companion volume to Vixens, Vamps, & Vipers, on KATU-TV’s AM Northwest: http://bit.ly/HdMrrA; and read interviews with him at the San Francisco Chronicle http://bit.ly/1bDYtlV; DC Women Kicking Ass http://bit.ly/19VpqSm; Sequential Tart: http://bit.ly/18Sqwlx; and Literary Ashland: http://bit.ly/1fFjmni
- Check out Mike Madrid’s slideshow of the “10 Most Bada** Comic Book Heroines” at the Huffington Post: http://huff.to/16dhmzE
- Find out why Mike Madrid left his job as creative director for the Gap to champion the “superhero women so often forced to sit on the sidelines” (via the San Francisco Chronicle): http://bit.ly/104GLaF and learn more about his research into the evolution of superheroines (via Collectors Weekly): http://bit.ly/cTIuSd
- Take a tour through Mike Madrid’s office at Like Fire, an Open Letters Monthly blog: http://bit.ly/6HBhkg; and discover what’s on his nightstand at Shelf Awareness: http://bit.ly/19RuN9d
- Watch Mike Madrid discuss the rise and fall of Wonder Women at Books Inc. http://bit.ly/HByd9 and find out more about Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines on PBS:http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/wonder-women/
- Visit Mike Madrid’s website: www.heaven4heroes.com
Vixens, Vamps & Vipers: Lost Villainesses of Golden Age Comics
Trade Paperback Original ISBN: 978-1-935259-27-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-935259-28-2 (color)
$16.95 / 256 pages / October 2014