AMAZON ART #9

As long as my last post touched on female characters who regularly abused male ones for the sake of laughs, I ought to cite one of the most prevalent "anime amazons," Sakura of NARUTO, who is given to slugging the title character.

To be sure, there is some degree of "equal time," as when Sakura has a one-on-one with her foremost female rival Ino;

The series also gives a certain amount of attention to an equally violent "mature woman," name of Tsunade, who belongs to a character-type one rarely sees in American or European comics.

AMAZON ART #8

Since today I also did a piece about the manga GIRLS BRAVO on my critique-blog THE ARCHETYPAL ARCHIVE, I might as well show a few scenes here in which the series' resident "tough girl" kicks some ass.

AMAZON ART #7

The short-lived 1970s backup series ROSE AND THE THORN-- featuring a schizophrenic superheroine-- never went on to great fame, and even later attempts to reboot the character came to little. However, in its time it did benefit from strong art, often by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

AMAZON ART #6

I had to post this cover from BLACK CAT #9 because it references one of the interior features of the comic itself: lessons in which the titular heroine demonstrated various martial-arts moves for the delectation of the readers-- and to the irate condemnation of Frederic Wertham.

AMAZON ART #5

On television Supergirl has been enjoying something of a comeback, but I have to say that she doesn't have the best record regarding comic-book covers.

That said, here's one of the better ones to involve conflict between the "Maid of Steel" and her paternalistic cousin:

AMAZON ART #4

GCD tentatively identifies this cover-- one of the more suspenseful images to spring out of the multitudinous "jungle girl" comics-genre-- as the work of classic-EC artist Jack Kamen.

Tiger Girl's adventures weren't up to the thrills of the original j-girl Sheena, but she did have one attribute that was probably unique: she had a mixed racial heritage, being half-Indian, half-Caucasian. Yo be sure, the only scene in which Tiger Girl's Indian father is seen depicts him with white skin, so it's a bit of a "give with one hand, take away with the other" situation. But at least this whip-wielding amazon wasn't an exact duplicate of every other female vine-swinger out there.

AMAZON ART #3

A page of nice Robin Ator interior art, from the short-lived 1980s B&W comic, which I covered in greater detail here.