Vixens, Vamps & Vipers: Lost Villainesses of Golden Age Comics

Mike Madrid is doing God’s work… . mak[ing] accessible a lost, heady land of female adventure. -ComicsAlliance

Between the covers of Vixens, Vamps & Vipers, fans will rediscover the original bad girls of comics-as fierce and full of surprises as they were when the comic book industry was born. From murderous Madame Doom to He-She, dubbed by io9 as the most unsung comic book villain ever, Mike Madrid resurrects twenty-two glorious evildoers in fully reproduced comics and explores the ways they both transcend and become ensnared in a web of cultural stereotypes.

Among the deadly femme fatales, ruthless jungle queens, devious secret agents, double-dealing criminal masterminds, and gender-bending con artists are some of the very first women of color in comics. 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.