This comic book series and now the paperback version is just what girls the world over needed! Realistic body images of young teen girls and reasonable adolescent ideas about their world. I'm really pleased with what I've read from Trina Robbins. She's retained the knowledge and experience from raising her own daughter and put it into her storylines so well! I see myself with my own 2 daughters in some of what Lindsay says to her mom in some of the episodes! It's so uncanny! And the artwork from Anne Timmons is exceptional! Her capture of an 'Eartha Kitt' version of the catwoman in issue #5 was so delightfully humorous, it brought us parents into the enjoyment of these stories! I wish more parents knew about this great series for their daughters and I plan on trying my best to spread the word. Take a copy of this comic book to your child's school and introduce it to some of your favorite teachers so they can show it to their female students and maybe even the boys will enjoy it!
My 15-yr-old daughter is also enjoying reading the stories about Lindsay and perusing the artwork, and she gets a real kick out of the paperdolls and costumes done on the back cover! She's even tried her own hand at drawing 'Go Girl!'

When can we see issue #6?

What a wonderful contribution to the genre: a girl-friendly superhero comic with a terrific heroine (with a Super Mom--in every sense of the word), fine story lines, and wonderful illustrations! The fashion pages remind of the Katy Keene comics I loved as a girl. When my 11-year-old daughter read this (in a single sitting), she demanded to know when a second volume would come out! Ann and Trina--go girls!

Robbins/Timmons book, GoGirl is just the tonic for your budding superstar daughter! I found this book fun, the artwork terrific, and amidst all the super shennagans are found some very realistic adolescent conditions that all young girls regardless of their super-strengths are bound to encounter!: peer pressure, role-modeling, parent-child relations, self-image, the whole gamut, kind of like a modern day Nancy Drew who can FLY! Oh, and by-the-way, did I tell you she's carrying on her MOTHER's fine superheroine tradition? Go figure. Go get this book. Go now. Do not pass go and do not pass this one by. Your kid will love it. Mine did.

An international cast of bad girl goddesses star in this irreverent treatment of mythology. Isis from Egypt, Osmotar from Finland, Freya of the Norse Gods, Maeve of Ireland, Judith and Jezebel from the Middle East, Lilith from the Garden of Eden, and Kali from India are among the featured players in Trina Robbins' collection.

The overarching theme that Trina Robbins puts forth in her arch, humorous stories about these goddesses is assertive females. Well, she's a feminist so that's no surprise, but they form a different perspective compared to the traditional way goddesses in mythology are portrayed.

Here's an example of her biting humor when she tells of Elisha telling Jehu he could be king. "Guess what? Jehovah just told me that you can be the next king of Israel. All you have to do is slay that sl-- Jezebel and her grandson. Jehu went, 'Cool,' and gathered an army to invade the palace. Today we call this a military coup, but Jehu simply insisted that God was on his side."

On extraordinary feats performed by Osmotar (how she created the various creatures) and Kannaki (how she destroyed the city), Robbins accurately writes: "Warning: do not try this at home."

In most stories, there is a small postscript telling of similar situations or an expansion of the theme. For example, after telling Lilith's story, Robbins explains that Lilith was left out of the Bible because, guess which sex wrote the Old Testament? One guess, and it isn't women. Also, guess what sanitized story evolved out of Freya and the dwarves who owned the diamond necklace she wanted so bad? Hint: can you sing, "Hi ho!"?

Oh, and for those of you wondering who Pele is as in Tori Amos's Boys For Pele album, you'll find that answer here.

Definitely not on the scholarly side, but maybe this book will get people without a previous inkling about these goddesses to find out more about them. Those familiar with them will get a laugh. Maybe.

Wonderful collection of the old Goddess mythological stories told in a (like totally) modern way. Very uplifting and fun to read.

This was my first book by Trina, and I absolutely loved it! She offers her own unique take on the often misrepresented or just plain forgot about "bad" girls of the ancient world.

I first read this book at the age of 16, the age our heroine Jane is in this story; it was almost eerie the way I identified with the character. Even after 16 years I still consider this my favorite book of all time. The story is beautifully written to the very last line. The characters of Jane and Silver are painted so realistically that you can believe this poingnant love story actually happened.This book also puts an emotional element into the sci-fi genre that is usually not there. Tanith Lee is my favorite author; many of her volumes are in my personal library, and I believe "The Silver Metal Lover" is the apogee of her writing career.

At a self-conscious 14, I was embarrassed borrowing a love story about a girl and a robot from the school library. That this book became one of the very few books to make me ache inside and bring me to the brink of tears even 13 years and 20 rereadings later is a testimony to Tanith Lee's skill as a writer. There are so many wonderful elements in this book: her eerily beautiful future Earth (especially Jane's mother's house in the clouds), the characters (Clovis is glorious), and the sensitive depiction of Jane and how falling in love with Silver changes her life. This book, written in the first person, is so well-written that it sounds convincingly like a sheltered 16 year old girl yet never patronises her emotions. The Silver Metal Lover will always be one of my all time favorite books.

Before I started reading this book, I expected it to be an amusing and maybe kinky sci-fi romance. The more I read, the more I was impressed not only with the well-written love story, but also with the heart-warmingly poetic writing, and most of all with the thought-provoking philosophical themes that lie just beneath the surface.

This book raises ideas about what the personality of a perfect human might be like. Silver is programmed to act human, but he is not programmed for negative emotions such as pain, fear, or anger. His kindness and eternal patience help Jane, the highly sensitive and sometimes paranoid protagonist, to come to grips with her life and her attitudes. Tanith Lee blurs the line between humans and robots, giving insight by comparison on what makes humans tick and what potential we have to better ourselves.

Though this book is not as well-known as many fantasy classics, I consider it right up there with the best. If you enjoy fantasy or science fiction that has an interesting storyline *and* some deep meaning, do yourself a favor and read this book.

I'm an artist and i bought this book for script ideas to help me practice. This book is a good idea but a bad follow through. The only problem is I wish that they'd used better comic books as examples. I've never heard of over half of the comics in this book (A man called AX?)but if you don't care about that then it's alright.

This is a great text that takes you through the creative process of several unique writing styles. The variety of script and drawings from a host of authors, really made this book encouraging to the aspiring comic writer. I'm looking forward to getting Panel Two when it comes out.

It seems like such an obvious good idea.
It's a wonderful glimpse into the creative process.

Just received it last night, and I'm already half through it. I haven't done that since I was eleven and got Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Not that this book has any similarity to that one. This is not a how to book. Its a more intimate, than any instructional book. Its a similar difference in experience to watching a biography to reading someones private correspondence. The presentation adds to the feeling as well.

Better than seeing pencils, better than watching a demo, or hearing someone try to explain the creative process. You actually see it and are part of it because this is what the artist sees, while he is in the process.

As a comic book fan for years and creative hopeful (which I believe is a large part of the intended audience), I hope this is first in a long line.
Great job, thanks Mr. Gertler.

This is a big, fun, overview of women cartoonists from about 1895 to now. It would make a great gift. Lots of full-color reproductions of the work and some quotes from the artists make this a great introduction for anyone interested in women artists. That being said, it is really kind of a "coffee table" book in that the text is secondary. There is no analysis, just a chronological introduction of each artist, and the nature of the book requires that the author can only briefly mention incredibly important cartoonists like Alison Bechdel in a sentence, or not even mention Roz Chast at all. Still, you can't do everything in one book, and some people would not be interested in heavy reading. This book should serve as an excellent appetizer for those who will seek out more about these talented women, and to check out more writing by Trina Robbins.

Trina Robbins puts her years of both comic professionalism and comic fandom to effective use in her survey of The Great Women Super Heroes. She begins in the Golden Age and ends in the mid-90's and is quite thorough. The concentration of the book is on the heroines of the golden age which should be interesting for most readers as this will be the least familiar period to many of them (and readers of other comic book histories will be surprised that there were so many women heroes fighting the good fight). The section that is the most fun, though, is the discussion of the silver age and the recent period as the author allows herself a little more room for editorializing rather than simply surveying and Ms. Robbins opinions are always worth the wait. This area could even be expanded to into a book in its own right. The book is amply and appropriately illustrated. This is a great book for anyone interested in comic books and their checkered history of portraying women. But most of all it is a fun, breezy read.

This book is poor. It suffers from an overdose of "hip", cloying design and a severe lack of info and worthwhile opinions. The author does not look critically at any comics but seems the attitude of "I used to like Archie, uh...girl comics forever!". Info about individual comics is limited to plot descriptions. It reminded me of the local newspaper's "Kids Reviews"..."I liked this comic because she came out! Awesome! And there's girls in it!". The examples from comics could have been selected to better match the content, instead she seemed to be flaunting her collection ("this comic had a print run of forty! And I own one!"). It was a "design" issue, but many pages were half white space, which could have been filled with interesting clips from comics. Also, certain passages were in enormous letters of a different color and typeface, and looked as though they were not part of the text, which made for a confusing, choppy read. The author talks about herself far too much. She was a comic artist in the '70's and there is a very amusing couple of paragraphs where a higher-up criticizes a comic of hers about a young girl coming out. Her reaction: "Geez!" Many important girl comics were excluded. (Some may disagree but I thought it was awful that "The Sandman", with so many powerful, clear-thinking women was left out.) In short, this book is for people who need to buy things to affirm their hipness. For a good book on comics, read _Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels_ by Roger Sabin, which includes any useful info from this book plus coverage of many wonderful comics.

Subtitled "A History of [Female] Comics from Teens to Zines", this colorful and attractive book attempts to chronologically plot the development of "girl" comics from 1941 into the '90s. Stuffed with page and cover reproductions, this is a history in which girl's consumed more comics than boys until the 1960s, ranging from preteen fare like Archie to more advanced romance and morality tale comics. In the '60s superheroes began to dominate the market, and the mainstream female comic largely faded into the background. Thus, the late '60s gave rise to "underground" women's comics scene that blossomed in conjunction with the feminist movement. Which eventually begat the full on "grrrlz" comics of the '90s.

This makes for fairly quick and simple reading under Robbins' pen, although one that could use a great deal more perspective and analysis. She is more interested in documenting the names or artists, and the plotlines of various comics than she is in a broader discussion of what it all means. She does touch on it from time to time, but these are more interjections (often a little whiny in tone) than a coherent theme. As with most Chronicle books, the production (design, layout, color, quality of reproductions) is outstanding. It's a breezy overview of the subject, but hardly a comprehensive history. I also found myself wishing for information on women's comics from other countries, for comparison.

Where the comic world is oriented toward men, Robbins brings to light the females of the books in a refreshing way. Beginning in the 1940s with the pretty and innocent young heroines like Patsy Walker and Susie Q. Smith, spanning all the way to today's hard edged grrls like Artbabe, Maggie and Hopy, a lot happened from then until today! There is a lot of obscure and interesting information scattered throughout the book, from zines to Deep Girl to Mystery Date to Strangers in Paradise, and you'll definitely come away knowing much more than you started with.

A great deal of this book is Robbins' opinions and not just straight information about girls comics, which is to be expected from a seasoned author, but more information would have been nice. I was also surprised that there was no word of Dave Mack's female-centered crime drama, KABUKI.

Overall, the book is highly entertaining, interesting, and a worthwhile read for any comic fan looking to see where the women were while the superheroes were out beating up Lex Luthor.

Tender Murderers ' Women who kill by Trina Robbins is a puff piece. Twenty error filled chapters written with a wink and a nudge. Robbins couldn't of picked easier murderers to write about and they have all been written about before with more detail. Her section on Dorothea Puente, the Sacramento rooming house murderer was almost fiction. She also left out tons of information on the Benders. This book is fine if you are a novice, but anyone who has read Bloodletters and Badmen by Jay Robert Nash will know more about any of the criminals than what Robbins wrote in this book.

This is a delightful read: learn all about Belle Guiness, the homesteading murderess who planted her various lonely hearts suitors all along her farm; read about Dorothy Puente, the malevolent landlord who seemed to be a benevolent caretaker of the elderly by day, murderous, mercenary monster by night; and who can forget Lizzie Borden, Bonnie Parker and Charlotte Corday?

Some of my favorites are mssing such as Caril Fugate and Myra Hindley, but by Robbins intent and design, she concentrated on women who acted alone without the influence of men. It's still a good read.

its very interesting to flip through and the pictures are all so incredible. It shows the difference between how advertising then differs from ads now. However, i have seen better, therefore the 3 stars. But buy this book if you have time because it is interesting.

A great topic, ruined by horrendous art direction, amateurish writing & editing. Schiffer seems to grind out books in any and all topics as fast as they can, instead of putting out titles that are well-researched and designed. What a shame.

What an eyeful! This is a great book for enjoying 60's and early 70's fashions and for training the eye to find scores in vintage clothing shops and maybe even thrift stores.

The main problem with this book is that it is incorrectly billed as a collector's book "with values," but the values are only half a page of general ranges for various items. Though that part is misleading, the book overall is flashy and fun and definitely worthwhile.

It is also a good basic introduction to fashion terms and the histories of various styles. The San Francisco photography puts you right in the middle of the 60s, and though some of the styles are ... well ... atrocious, there are many styles that can be modified for today's wearing without having to go for the all-out retro look. Check out this book and prepare to drool.

I can tell you from an I-Was-There perspective, that these were the street clothes girls and women were really wearing in those years. Or burned to own. (I only wish I'd had them all myself, with the exception of the paper dress). Sears catalog be damned, this is what the girls really looked like!
I also worked on a glossy influential fashion magazine (MADEMOISELLE)in the 1970s and so can distinguish from the wishful thinking of those magazines (and their advertisers) and the actual look of the time.
The real grrl models, and San Francisco setting complete the time capsule.
Great book!