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Female Comic Book SuperheroesA Chapbook by Jeannine Hall Gailey This short collection of lyrical and often humorous poems, Jeannine Hall Gailey's first, marries pop culture icons with classical mythology and fairy tale lore to portray the conflicts and ambiguities of contemporary women. Praise for Female Comic Book SuperheroesKudos to Jeannine Hall Gailey, whose new chapbook is Female Comic Book
Superheroes. I read it cover to cover the other
day, and it is just a hoot. Humor balanced by pathos, pop culture references
balanced by classic references. And her pantheon of Superheroes! I admire
how she has brought them all in: from Greek and Celtic mythology; to comic
book and video game warriors; to Catholic school girls and Eve;
Shakespeare’s Ophelia; even a giant Lichtenstein painting's pixilated
character. Well done! My favorite: "Persephone and the Prince Meet Over
Drinks." The power in the lines "so what if . . . my prince/is prince of
nothing but darkness?/I knew what I was doing." These women can all seen as
facets of an archetype, different aspects of the eternal Feminine, and this
holds the chapbook together quite nicely. Jeannine, you put the HER in HERO. More Praise for Female Comic Book Superheroes"...Gailey's comic book and video game women aren't just amusing
caricatures; frequently, there is a beautiful and delicate pathos to
them. This is especially true in "Spy Girls," in which Gailey tells of
sexy secret agents who can leap into helicopters after being
"temporarily blinded with acid spray" yet secretly long to be "one more
girl…whose purse is not full of explosives"; and "Wonder Woman Dreams of
the Amazon," a truly touching look at the "red-white-and-blue" bustiered
heroine and her tortured relationship with her absent parents. In a
sense, Gailey's character studies of these modern folkloric icons are
almost as nuanced as those in Robert Browning's dramatic monologues." Pricing and AvailabilityPublished by Pudding House Press and retailing for $8.95, Female Comic Book Superheroes is available at select Northwest bookstores, such as Seattle’s Open Books and Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor Book Company. I no longer have any copies of Female Comic Book Superheroes for sale, but many of the poems in this collection are also available in my first full-length collection, Becoming the Villainess. An Excerpt, from the title poem:"Female Comic Book Superheroes are always fighting evil in a thong, |