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Way back in Men of Mystery #100, we did a special ALL-FEMALE compilation of costumed and super-types from the Golden Age of comics, and it proved quite popular with AC readers. As comprehensive and spectacular as it was, it still DIDN’T cover ALL of the 1940’s superheroines published by long-defunct comic houses, and that always bothered us. Even then, we knew we HAD to do another volume, covering the heroines we couldn’t fit in MOM #100. The time is NOW, and THIS is IT: Men of Mystery #113 is another special “Women of Mystery” issue, covering all the Golden Age heroines you’ve never heard of !! The PURPLE TIGRESS may sound (and even look) like a vine-swinging jungle girl, but she’s actually a caped, urban crimefighter that Fox Features introduced in the late 1940s. while they were having success with characters like PHANTOM LADY and RULAH. Quality Comics churned out a bunch of high-end costumed super-doers AND “good girl” art characters, but there’s one with a lovely foot in BOTH genres that we’ll bet you never heard of- MARGO the MAGICIAN. You’ll see her exploits in MOM #113. The BLACK ORCHID ( the ORIGINAL one from the ’40s, not to be confused with the later DC Comics heroine) was a vigilante glamor-girl that used a variety of plant-based chemical weapons to hold bad guys at bay, from one of the smaller publishers of the day, Continental. Among the many guises that the leggy MISS ESPIONAGE used was a string mask that apparently hid her identity (though little else) as she strutted through appearances in Power Comics in the latter 1040s. DIANA the HUNTRESS was a distaff version of the mythological demi-god(des) come to Earth type, who used bow and arrow(among other things) to dispatch evil-doers in the back pages of The Yellowjacket, from the company that would eventually become Charlton. SPIDER-WOMAN was a one-shot from Harry “A” Chesler publications that appeared in Major Victory Comics #1. It turns out that SHE is more spider than woman. If you want to know what that means, buy MOM #113!! NELVANA was a major heroine in Canadian comic books but made ONE appearance here in the ‘States in the first issue of a book called Super Duper. We’ll be reprinting that in this historic tome. MADAME STRANGE was- well, STRANGE; but a pretty interesting heroine who stalked through the pages of three issues of Great Comics in 1941. We have reprinted ONE MADAME STRANGE episode before; MOM #113 will contain the other two previously-unreprinted stories. We’ll also throw in a couple of obscure heroines we have also featured once or twice before, including another early episode of Hillman’s BLACK ANGEL, and Quality’s female “take” on The FACE, The SPIDER WIDOW. And, if we can locate some missing pages, we’ll also include MAGGA the MAGNIFICENT; a strange reworking of what was originally intended as a GREEN LAMA story that had the lead character “reshaped” into a super-powered, flying WOMAN in a green costume!! All that and more; 140 big black and white all-girl, all-heroine, full-story vintage reprints within a full-color cover. saddle stitched and standard size, for $29.95; Men of Mystery #113, from AC Comics, coming in September 2019
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