Skip to content
Home/ Killer Bodies: The Rise and Fall of Bad Girl Comics
Killer Bodies: The Rise and Fall of Bad Girl Comics

Killer Bodies: The Rise and Fall of Bad Girl Comics

by Crawford, Joseph
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9781978841970

Killer Bodies offers a history of the single most critically derided subgenre in American superhero comics: the "bad girl" comics of the 1990s, which chronicled the blood-soaked adventures of barely dressed and improbably proportioned action heroines for an audience of adolescent boys. While not in any way attempting to rehabilitate the genre, which for the most part amply deserved its reputation as sexist and borderline pornographic, this book situates it within its original cultural context, as the result of a matrix of influences that included third-wave feminism, neopaganism, "girl power," the rise of the internet, the growing popularity of manga, supermodel beauty ideals, and the mainstreaming of pornography. It explores why and how the figure of the antiheroic, physically aggressive, sexually objectified heroine arose within American comics culture, and the commercial and ideological factors that led to the genre's rapid rise and equally rapid decline amidst the crisis-racked comics industry of the mid-1990s.

About the author

Product details

Pub dateDec 9, 2025
ISBN-101978841973
ISBN-139781978841970
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-09-07 19:55
$142.95
In stock soon — order now to reserve your copy
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Comics & Graphic Novels
See all
Comics & Media: A Special Issue of Critical Inquiry
<b>An exploration of the past, present, and future of comics from a gathering of top-tier critics</b> <p/> The twenty-first century has seen the medium of comics reach unprecedented heights of critical acclaim and commercial success<i>. Comics & Media</i> reflects that, bringing together an amazing array of contributors--creators and critics alike--to discuss the state, future, and potential of the medium. <br> Loaded with full-color reproductions of work by such legends as R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, and Lynda Barry, the book addresses the place of comics in both a contemporary and historical context. Essays by such high-profile figures as Tom Gunning, N. Katherine Hayles, Patrick Jagoda, and W. J. T. Mitchell address a stunning range of topics, including the place of comics in the history of aesthetics, changes to popular art forms, digital humanities, and ongoing tensions between new and old media. The result is a substantial step forward for our understanding of what comics are and can be, and the growing place they hold in our culture. <br>
$19.02
Graphic Witness: Five Wordless Graphic Novels by Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Giacomo Patri, Erich Gla
Walker, George A
$27.99
"How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?": Women and Jewish American Identity in Contemporary Graphic
Oksman, Tahneer
$150.45
How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?: Women and Jewish American Identity in Contemporary Graphic M
Oksman, Tahneer
$37.26
PathoGraphics: Narrative, Aesthetics, Contention, Community
<p>A collection of essays exploring how fiction, life-writing, and comics portray illness, medical treatment, and disability. </p><p/>
$130.76
Pathographics: Narrative, Aesthetics, Contention, Community
Pathographics: Narrative, Aesthetics, Contention, Community
$38.36