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Women in Comics

Iconic Characters and Influential Creators from the 1890s to Today

Coming Soon

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Contributors

By Susan Kirtley, Ph.D

By Nhora Lucia Serrano

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Oct 6, 2026
Page Count
400 pages
Publisher
Black Dog & Leventhal
ISBN-13
9798894141329

Price

$50.00

Price

$63.00 CAD

Format

Hardcover

Format:

Hardcover $50.00 $63.00 CAD

Preorder from Retailers:

  • Amazon
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The first in-depth look at the important role women have played in comics history, from the late nineteenth century to today, with a focus on both female cartoonists and female characters.

From iconic characters including Lois Lane, Catwoman, Lady Penelope, and Adèle Blanc-Sec to legendary creators such as Nell Brinkley, Jackie Ormes, Marjane Satrapi, Marguerite Abouet, Riyoko Ikeda, ND Stevenson, and Alison Bechdel, Women in Comics is the first-ever global history of women in comics. Spanning the period from the late nineteenth century and the rise of newspaper comics and editorial cartoons through twentieth-century comic strips, trade issues, and early graphic novels to twenty-first-century comics in digital and print form, the book is structured around six key archetypes: the Patriot, the Working Woman, the Socialite, the Fashionista, the Reporter, and the Spy. It shows the ebb and flow of these core archetypes over time and the gradual inclusion of multicultural and LGBTQ+ influences. Illustrated throughout with archival images, some never-before-seen, Women in Comics is a must have book of essential comics history for all fans of the genre. 

Genre:

  • Fiction
  • Comics & Graphic Novels
  • Feminist

Susan E. Kirtley is the Professor of English and Director of Comics Studies at Portland State University. She is the author of the Eisner-winning Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass and coeditor of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comics. Her book Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips was the 2022 Charles Hatfield Prizewinner for the best book in Comics Studies. She is currently the editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society. She lives in Portland, OR.

Nhora Lucía Serrano is the Director of Academic Technology, Teaching, and Research Services at Hamilton College. She is the guest editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society special issue "Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas" (Vol. 9, Issue 3, Fall 2025), which includes her authored introduction and peer-reviewed scholarly essay, “Drawn from Clay: Mexican Cerámica, Material Culture, and Bilingual Visual Modernism in Gus Arriola’s Gordo.” She curated the bilingual exhibit “Depicting Mexico and Modernism: Gordo by/de Gus Arriola” (2024) at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University Libraries. Serrano is also the editor of Immigrants and Comics: Graphic Spaces of Remembrance, Transaction, and Mimesis, coeditor of the Wilfrid Laurier University Press book series Crossing Lines: Transcultural/Transnational Comics Studies, and coeditor of Curious Collectors, Collected Curiosities: An Interdisciplinary Study. Her essays have appeared in The Oxford Handbook of Comic Studies, MLA Approaches to Teaching Orhan Pamuk, MLA Approaches to Teaching Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, X-Tra Contemporary Art Quarterly, Museological Review, and other publications. She lives in Clinton, NY.
 

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Susan Kirtley, Ph.D

About the Author

Susan E. Kirtley is the Professor of English and Director of Comics Studies at Portland State University. She is the author of the Eisner-winning Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass and coeditor of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comics. Her book Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips was the 2022 Charles Hatfield Prizewinner for the best book in Comics Studies. She is currently the editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society. She lives in Portland, OR.

Nhora Lucía Serrano is the Director of Academic Technology, Teaching, and Research Services at Hamilton College. She is the guest editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society special issue “Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas” (Vol. 9, Issue 3, Fall 2025), which includes her authored introduction and peer-reviewed scholarly essay, “Drawn from Clay: Mexican Cerámica, Material Culture, and Bilingual Visual Modernism in Gus Arriola’s Gordo.” She curated the bilingual exhibit “Depicting Mexico and Modernism: Gordo by/de Gus Arriola” (2024) at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University Libraries. Serrano is also the editor of Immigrants and Comics: Graphic Spaces of Remembrance, Transaction, and Mimesis, coeditor of the Wilfrid Laurier University Press book series Crossing Lines: Transcultural/Transnational Comics Studies, and coeditor of Curious Collectors, Collected Curiosities: An Interdisciplinary Study. Her essays have appeared in The Oxford Handbook of Comic Studies, MLA Approaches to Teaching Orhan Pamuk, MLA Approaches to Teaching Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, X-Tra Contemporary Art Quarterly, Museological Review, and other publications. She lives in Clinton, NY.
 

Learn more about this author

Nhora Lucia Serrano

About the Author

Learn more about this author

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