STOP THE PRESSES. RED ALERT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I have new Intel from the world of comic books, and this is it:

In the 1940’s, there was a superheroine named, I shit you not, Pussy Katnip.

Pussy Katnip had a voluptuous human body and a cat’s head, which I can only imagine caused a lot of kids in the 1940’s to grow up with some very confused sexual ideas. Here’s a description of her from Mike Madrid’s excellent book, Divas, Dames, and Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics:

There were a lot of funny animal characters in Golden Age Comics, but not many sexy ones. Pussy Katnip was the exception. This sultry feline was the proprietress of a café in Mut-Town, where she also entertained the crowd as a torch singer. A pack of criminal weasels and foxes was always cooking up trouble for Pussy, forcing her to take the law into her own…paws. Drinking a cocktail of the mysterious “Katnip Kizz” would result in a wild “katfit” after which Pussy transformed into a “crime-fighting feline” possessing superior strength, intelligence, detective skills and clairvoyance.

The gloriously named Pussy Katnip is one of many heroines that Mike Madrid brings to our attention in his book. This book focuses on comics during the Golden Age of the 1940s. During this time, most comics were published as anthologies – so for very little money you got a spy story, a superhero story, a set of jokes – basically, a bunch of genres mixed together. There were dozens of publishers and the medium was so new that writers threw all kinds of stories out there just to see what would take off. Combined with the fact that during WWII women had expanded roles in the workplace and the fact that comics had not yet become segregated into “boy comics” (superheroes) and “girl comics” (romance), this created a perfect environment for some really incredible female heroines. Some lasted for several years, others for only a few issues, but they all kicked some serious ass.

The format of this book is the same as the format to Madrid’s equally excellent Vixens, Vamps, and Vipers. The book has four main sections, “Women at War,” “Mystery Women,” “Daring Dames,” “20^th Century Goddesses,” and “Warriors and Queens.” Each section has a short essay that talks about these particular archetypes and the roles they played in Golden Age Comics, and then it has short descriptions of some examples of heroines, followed by sample issues of the comics themselves.

My personal favorites are Pat Parker, War Nurse, who fought the Axis with her international team of Girl Commandos, and Jill Trent, Science Sleuth. Jill did not have a male love interest, but she did have a female sidekick who she was sometimes seen sharing a bed with. Of Jill, Madrid notes, “The series may have been forward thinking in more ways than one.”

For sheer wish fulfillment, you cannot top Maureen Marine. Check out her description and tell me that your ten-year-old self doesn’t thrill to this, which only lacks a pony to achieve perfect bliss:

Young Maureen thought it would be fun to stow away on her father’s fishing boat, never dreaming a Nazi U-boat might sink it. Father Neptune rescues the drowned girl and transforms her into a water breather. He then takes Maureen to Atlantis, where she is crowned queen of the undersea kingdom. There’ll be no competition for the title of prettiest girl under the sea since Maureen is the sole female in an all-male population. Even godly father Neptune must bow to the authority of the girl ruler.

In the example issue of Maureen Marine, she rides into battle on the back of a sea turtle. Be still, my ten-year-old heart.

Not all the heroines were clean-cut patriots like Pat or ingénues like Maureen. There were hard-boiled private detectives and women with magical powers who rule the jungle (alas, with SO MUCH RACISM) and women who were circus performers. Wonder Woman and Lois Lane debuted during this time, but Wonder Woman was not the only Amazon running around and Lois was far from the only reporter. You name it, women characters were doing it.

I gave Vixens, Vamps, and Vipers an A, but I’m giving this book an enthusiastic B+. The reason for the lower grade is that the Vixens book (which was written after Divas) has more detailed and thoughtful analysis than Divas. I still loved Divas, and I learned from it, but it didn’t address history, gender roles, or issues about race or sexuality in as much depth as the Vixens book did.

In general, however, this book is a must for comic book fans and for people with an interest in how women are portrayed in the arts and in pop culture. It’s informative, it challenges assumptions, and, above all, it’s just so much fun.