Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors (Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You)

I wanted to let anyone who is interested in know that I made a Facebook Page for my forthcoming book.

The book itself won't available until late Summer/early Fall, but I will be sure to post publishing details, speaking engagements, reviews, and interviews both here on my blog and on Facebook.

In the meantime, here is some advance praise:

“Female heroes abound in literature, film and all walks of life, although most people don’t know that they do. Not surprising given how much they challenge the gender roles in which women and girls have historically been confined. This wonderful book shows female heroes breaking out of gender boxes left and right and illuminates new possibilities for the indomitable hero in all of us.”

Kathleen Noble, Ph.D., author of The Sound of the Silver Horn: Reclaiming the heroism in contemporary women’s lives.

"Once upon a time -- only a few years ago, actually -- women could turn on their TV sets and glory in the adventures of Buffy, Xena, Sydney Bristow, Dana Scully, and many more strong, ass-kicking women. Today there is not one show on the small screen that stars a female action hero. What happened? Comics are not much better. Aside from the occasional exception (for which we are grateful) like Birds of Prey, and women writers like Ivory Madison (The Huntress) and Gail Simone’s newly feminist interpretation of Wonder Woman, most comic book action heroines continue to be male-written and drawn creations whose breasts are bigger then their personalities.

Now along comes Jennifer Stuller, with her very entertaining book, Ink-Stained Amazons, to explore the whys and wherefores of pop culture super women, and perhaps jolt us all into demanding more and stronger women characters. Thank you, Jennifer. We need those role models!"

Trina Robbins, author of The Great American Superheroines (Palace Press, 2009)

Another Great Comics Arts Conference at WonderCon

From Wonder Con's Programming Page


"The Humanization of Weisinger's Legion of Superfluity," "Sequential Signs: Comic Art in the Gallery," "The Feminstas of Justice" — do these titles seem a bit high falutin' for a comic book convention? Well, they're the titles of a few of the presentations slated for the Comics Arts Conference, a full- fledged academic conference that takes place each year at both WonderCon and Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Founded in 1992 by Dr. Randy Duncan — of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas — and Dr. Peter Coogan — who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis — the Comics Arts Conference brings scholars and professionals together to talk about comics with the public by breaking out of the ivory tower and holding sessions during two of the nation's most influential comic book shows. This year marks the CAC's 17th annual conference at Comic-Con International and its third at WonderCon.

Headlining this year's CAC presentation at WonderCon is the legendary cartoonist and San Francisco native Trina Robbins, a special guest at the convention. Robbins will be presenting "Nell Brinkley and The Brinkley Girls," a talk on Jazz Age cartoonist and illustrator Nell Brinkley, whose glamorous, curly haired "Brinkley Girls" were a household name in the early 20th century when Brinkley was "The Queen of Comics." Robbins' talk is drawn from her Fantagraphics book The Brinkley Girls, published in January, and Robbins will be signing copies of after her talk.

Comics have been moving into the classroom and gaining ever-greater acceptance at educational institutions. This acceptance is reflected in two CAC presentations. The first is "Cross-Curricular Comics: Applying Comics in the K-8 Classroom" a workshop by middle-school teacher Liz Vizcarra that demonstrates the application of comics in the K-8 environment to meet California standards. A professional development certificate is available for teachers who attend this session. The second is from CAC co-chair Randy Duncan on his new comics studies textbook, The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, to be published in April by Continuum Books. As the first textbook on comics and graphic novels aimed at undergraduates, The Power of Comics is an exciting breakthrough in the cultural legitimization of the comics medium, and the CAC offers a first look at this important work.

Besides the classroom, comics have broken into the museum, and the CAC does as well, in a pair of talks. Fine arts scholar Kim Munson explores the importance of comics to contemporary visual culture and the central role of the 2005 Masters of Comic Art exhibit in breaking comics out of the art world's high/low debate. CAC co-chair Peter Coogan presents "Superhero Science 101," a talk originally given in conjunction with the Marvel Comics Super-Hero Science exhibition at the St. Louis Science Center. Dr. Coogan explains the science- fictional laws that operate in superhero universes, including why Bruce Banner's pants stretch so much and what we in the real world can learn from such "rubber science."

Need to bone up on your superhero history? The fifties, sixties, and seventies get a thoroughgoing review in a matched set of three presentations. California State University librarian Douglas Highsmith and University of California librarian Chuck Huber examine the superhero comics "between the Flashes" from the last appearance of the Golden Age Flash in 1950 to the first of the Silver Age Flash in 1956 — yes, there were superhero comics in the early fifties! Moving on to the 1960s, independent scholar Jeff Barbanell peers through his timescope to find the first "Marvelization" of a DC series in Jim Shooter's Legion of Super-Heroes run and his infusion of his comic book narratives with the Lee and Kirby techniques of group dynamics, hyperrealism, and cosmic context. Finally, the "ink-stained Amazon" Jennifer K. Stuller attempts to resolve the conundrum of the "feministas of justice," the superwomen of the 1970s such as Valkyrie, Diana Prince, Ms. Marvel, and Lois Lane, who presented a superficial image of feminism but continue to serve as symbols of female empowerment in the cultural imagination.

But like the world of comics, the CAC is more than superheroes. CAC presenters take on social issues that resonant with today's headlines. Indian cartoonist Gokul Gopalakrishnan (aka Gokul TG), who is a fellow of the Centre for Performance Research and Cultural Studies in South Asia, investigates the cunning exploitation of the misconception of comic strips as "harmless fun" to enable cartoonists to sidestep censorship, focusing on O. V Vijayan's Malayalam comic strip Ithiri Neramboku, Ithiri Darshanam ("Bit of Trifle, Bit of Philosophy") during the 1975–1977 State of National Emergency in India. Diana Green of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design unearths the GLBT in EC Comics and the play of these stories in the burgeoning, shifting acceptance of gay culture that began in the 1950s. And Trevor Strunk, graduate student at New York University, takes on the topic of hybrid cultures as they are expressed in Jaime Hernandez's Love and Rockets output.

With the Comics Arts Conference, WonderCon offers attendees a unique chance to dig into comics' past and present and give their brains a workout while in the midst of one the country's great comic book conventions.


(BTW - - "The Feministas of Justice" is me! - - Thanks to Hubby for the title suggestion!)

Superwomen in the Movies

On the subject of female heroes in movies and television I wanted to link to a couple of thought-provoking posts & sites.

The first is by Cindy Cooper of Blog Spot "The Bad Genious" who passionately writes about the need for women and girls to see positive heroic representations of their sex/gender to be able to grow up believing in themselves. In fact, she relates a story about spinning with her sister until dizzy and nauseated, hoping upon hope to burst into Amazonian Princesses, that echoes one I tell in my book introduction almost word for word. She also asks, and answers, the question,"So why didn’t those little girls watching superheroes grow to be a generation of women reading about superheroes?" and notes the frustrating fact that movies featuring superwomen just aren't given the same respect as those with supermen--which forces young girls to identify with either the love interest or the contemporary male heroic ideal.

Supervillainess over at "Female Comic Book Superheroes" asks female audiences an important question with What's Your Dream Superheroine Movie? (My desires include: A Modesty Blaise movie worthy of her character, a Promethea movie, a good Buffy movie, Wonder Woman, natch, and Birds of Prey.)

And Heroine Content always has thoughtful critiques of race and gender in movies and television.

Dis(mis)sing Women

Writer and Comics Herstorian, Trina Robbins, posted the following to the Women Comics Scholars List today and I'm aghast:

This is from the book, "Our Gods Wear Spandex," by Christopher Knowles,which just came out:

"Wonder Woman is by far the best-known of the superheroines, and her audience has always been predominantly male. Young girls are generally not interested in superheroes and gravitate more toward romance, humor, and teenage comics."

Anyone here contribute to discussion boards? I'd love to see this up on a women fan's discussion board and see what comments it generates.

- Trina

Snort. How does one even respond to this sort of ignorance? (Other than by writing a book of course!) THIS is why I never read comics as a teenager, I'd outgrown genres which were socially acceptable for a young girl to read and had no idea that there might be anything else out there.

Females are continually steered away from comics, and yet there's evidence that many more women have been empowered by Wonder Woman than men. It's not that "young girls generally aren't interested in superheroes" it's that superheroes we can relate to--that embody our thoughts, lives, and journeys are depressingly underrepresented.

To add to that, television is typically where female characters thrive, as women are more likely to be in the home and engaging with that medium, so complex female characters are particularly sparse in what is (fallaciously) considered a male form of entertainment.

So here are some of MY favorite comic book females, problematic as they may or may not be.










And here are links to some amazing female and feminist fans critiquing a genre that's not supposed to be for them.

Girl Wonder (And check out their Auction this month. )

Sequential Tart

When Fangirls Attack