“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 . Advance Praise for Vixens, Vamps & Vipers “Madrid continues a mission celebrating strong women of comics and rediscovering lost adventures. You can sense his love and knowledge of the genre in every chapter. He is the Professor of Comics Cool.” — ComicsBlend “Portray[s] women who were wickedly smart, independent, diverse, outspoken, and had consciously chosen a life of evil. . . . Accompanied by Madrid’s well-researched commentary, this fascinating collection provides much food for thought.” — ForeWord Reviews "The heroines in Divas, Dames & Daredevils were exciting and intriguing, it’s true, but my heart is still pounding over some of these very bad Vixens, Vamps & Vipers . Sometimes it just feels good to be bad." — GeekGirlCon "This is mandatory reading for any fan of comics. It expertly explains the roles of women villains and how they lead the way for the femme fatales that fans love to cheer and boo today. I can’t imagine any scholarly collection of comics being complete without this book. Overall grade: A"— SciFiPulse.Net "Mike Madrid may know more about women in comics than anyone else alive."— Sects and Violence in the Ancient World Select Praise for Mike Madrid “These ‘lost’ [characters] are now found—to the delight of comic book lovers everywhere.” — STAN LEE “Lovers of comics and strong women everywhere thank you, Mike Madrid!” — TRINA ROBBINS , author of Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896–2013 “Madrid’s meticulous and passionate research provides a window into a seemingly lost herstory of patriotism, bravery, and progressive ways of thinking about female agency and adventure.” — JENNIFER K. STULLER , author of Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology “Mike Madrid is doing God’s work. . . . mak[ing] accessible a lost, heady land of female adventure.” — ComicsAlliance “[Madrid’s] engaging, conversational language is as readable as the truly dazzling comics. He has endeavored to unearth the forgotten, and what he found is ultimately unforgettable.” — BUST Magazine “Sharp and lively . . . [Madrid] clearly loves this stuff. And he’s enough of a historian to be able to trace the ways in which the portrayal of sirens and supergirls has echoed society’s ever-changing feelings about women and sex.” — Entertainment Weekly “Exciting and fraught with danger . . . Madrid presents the cream of a very ripe crop of empowered comic book [characters] and introduces them quite eloquently.” — Library Journal “Provide[s] fantastic documentation of how many female characters were created during this era—some with surprisingly progressive personalities and stories to boot . . . Wholly enjoyable.” — Publishers Weekly “We can’t talk about feminism in comics without talking about Mike Madrid.” — ForeWord Reviews “Serious and astute . . . elaborating on history and establishing the zeitgeist perfectly . . . Highly recommended for comics fans and historians alike, these ‘rarely anthologized’ stories are excellent for giving girls of any age positive comic book role models to look up to.” — PopMatters “As the mother of several daughters, I’m always on the lookout for books with strong female characters. . . . Madrid’s historical commentary [is] the most fascinating part. These forgotten pieces of our past hold valuable insights into what is possible, and desirable, for our future.” — San Francisco & Sacramento Book Reviews “Entertaining, insightful and lovingly crafted . . . Madrid has an encyclopedic knowled