It’s possible you haven’t heard of Jane 6EM35, half-Martian mutant who can conjure up anything she wishes for out of thin air. Nor Olga Mesmer, a superstrong half-Venusian with supernatural strength, X-ray vision and hypnotic powers. But both women were fighting aliens and supervillains even before Superman left Krypton.

They are just two of the earliest entries in Hope Nicholson’s feisty and hugely entertaining new history of American comic book heroines. The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwoman takes us from the late 1930s right up to the present day, and from the aforementioned Jane 6EM35 to the latest incarnation of Ms Marvel as a Muslim Pakistani American written by a Muslim woman (G Willow Wilson).

In the pages in between Nicholson introduces us to female spies, journalists, soldiers, private eyes and vampires who have entertained comic readers over the last 80 years. And for every Wonder Woman and Batgirl, there are a dozen characters who have been written out of comic book history.

In doing so, Nicholson also gives us an alternative vision of comic book history, both on the page and within the industry.

It’s not always a pretty picture. Institutional sexism and male objectification of the female form are the real villains of the story.  And Nicholson is not afraid of pointing it out, even when it is in the reductive female stereotypes that turn up in the much praised horror stories published by EC Comics or in the treatment of the subject of rape in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen.

But really the book’s pleasure is to be found in Nicholson’s enthusiasm for the form and her rescuing characters from obscurity.  Here she talks about the origins of the book, the characters she couldn’t bring herself to write about and why she likes Dazzler more than Diana Prince.

The Herald:

What is the origin story of The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen?

Well, I wanted to showcase the history of comics, but focusing only on female characters and highlighting a lot of female creators and fans. So overall, it is a history of comics, the major changes in sales, industry, genres over the last 70+ years, but without the same old lens of male characters (which is seen as the standard and normal). I also wanted to showcase some of my favourite characters which I'm biased to and ones that really have been completely unknown!

What emerges in Spectacular Sisterhood is a corrective to the notion that American comics are for boys and always have been. How have comics served female readers over the years and how has that changed in different eras? 

Comics have gone through a lot of various shifts in terms of female readership! At first they were catered to as much as boys, which is to say that comics (aside from the sex ones) were pretty gender neutral. Everyone likes adventures and superheroes! Then in the 1950s/60s we saw a big shift to gendered comics. Boys read war comics, girls read romance comics, etc.

The 1970s saw a shift with an increased amount of underground comics by women, as well as more discussion of women's liberation in the mainstream comics page. The 1980s were pretty good for independent comics, but I think we saw a real drop in comics that appealed to women.

And then in the 2000s we've seen a rise in all-ages content that appeals to girls, and webcomics that are pretty open to everyone. It's still pretty gendered, and we don't see many women writing or drawing action comics sadly, but at least in terms of readership, we're getting back to being on even par.

How welcoming has the comics industry been to female creators over the years?

In the 1940s, women were definitely less active in the comics industry than men, but it was still better than the following decades. The company Fiction House in particular employed many women as artists and writers - it stands out as an example of a successful publisher that didn't care about gender at all.

I personally feel the 1950s-1980s were the worst decades for female creators, going on into the 1990s. We definitely saw a dip, and it's tough to look at those years and see the low numbers of female creators.

It's definitely not because women didn't love comics, or that they aren't skilled storytellers and artists, but the recognition they were getting was few and far between. And when you see that no matter how hard you work you don't get the same nods as other artists because of your gender, or that you are constantly measured against the other female creators in some sort of "there can be only one!" content. It can be disheartening.

I often use Lee Marrs as an example, she is a brilliant underground comic artist, and did an amazing job skewering social norms with her 1970s comics, but all we ever hear of the underground comics movement is Robert Crumb, whose work was...Well, heh… Not female friendly.

The Herald:

Seniorita Rio, one of Fiction House's 1940s creations.

You’re not scared to take an axe to a couple of sacred cows. Neither EC nor Alan Moore’s Watchmen pass the grade when it comes to representations of women here. 

The women in EC horror comics were pretty two-dimensional, used often just as seducers or victims. Not terribly interesting. And Watchmen, yeah ... I have mixed feelings of the representation (which is little) in that comic. I actually do like both Silk Spectres. And I think there is benefit in showcasing that assault is a complex issue and many women stay friends with those who have abused them. Was the story skilled in this portrayal though? No, absolutely not. 

Did you ever get tired of writing about yet another scantily clad superheroine?

Nah, some of them are great! Nothing is wrong with nudity or pretty ladies. It all depends on how it is used! Some of my favourite comics I researched in the book were sex comics, like Gisele Lagace's Ménage a 3. When it's a superhero comic and the character's clothes are constantly hanging by threads though, it does make me roll my eyes. It's boring.

I have a complicated relationship with the T&A comics in the 1990s, I think that there is nothing wrong with them in small amounts, but they should have never taken over the whole industry.

Is this a golden age for women in comics both on the page and behind the scenes?

Oh no, absolutely not. Maybe soon. There's some good stuff now, but we could be better, especially within the big two (Marvel/DC). We have lots of work to do to make sure that female creators and fans aren't harassed, and that they aren't sidelined. Right now I feel that most women are still sequestered to indie and graphic novel work, which is fun stuff too, but it is still an imbalance. Marvel and DC still mostly hire white creators for example, which is tiring to see.

Are there any characters you weren’t able to include? (I was wondering about Death in Sandman or even Terry Moore’s Francine and Katchoo in Strangers in Paradise)

There's a handful that I wrote entries about that I couldn't include because they had no redeeming qualities (to me) so the write-ups were more bitter than the rest. These include Moonshine McJugs, Panda Delgado (Body Bags), and Moronica. 

 I also have a shortlist of about 350 characters I compiled while researching. Neither Death nor Terry Moore was on the list though. Not because they're not good, but I can't think of much to say about either.

In a lot of ways my list is biased, while all the characters featured do showcase something different about the industry, they also needed to have a connection to me, good or bad, so that I could write about them. Otherwise for some characters that I couldn't feel as much about, there definitely is less of an energy and analysis to my write-ups.

I think Nova Kane for me was the hardest one to cut. I loved E-Man [Charlton Comics] a lot but there were other characters I wanted to focus on for the 1980s and she was a secondary character, so not as important as a comic that was headlined by a female character which I tried to focus on.

The Herald:

Miss Fury first appeared in a newspaper strip in 1941. Created by Tarpe Mills, a former fashion designer, she fought Nazis and mob bosses throughout the 1940s

What was the most enjoyable discovery in your research?

Fiction House was definitely my favourite discovery. They were already a publisher I loved because they had a stable of really great characters across a variety of genres, but finding out how many women they hired was very cool. They're also notable for being the first publisher to hire a black creator (Matt Baker) and an openly gay woman (Marcia Snyder). So whenever people say something like "diversity is just a fad" or "it's not the fault of the past, they didn't know better", it's nice to point to a publisher in the 1940s that was pretty inclusive - and successful.

And finally, name your three favourite superwomen and why?

Oh, superheroes specifically? Well, I've always been a big, big fan of Dazzler and Scarlet Witch, and the new Ms. Marvel is great as well. I just realized they're all Marvel-centric! Well there's really only two publishers that do superheroes still, and I never connected to Wonder Woman or Starfire over at DC that much.

There is a drama, an emotional type of soap opera that is particular to Marvel Comics that always absorbed me.  I like characters who can have big tragic epic stories, but also have a core of emotional day-to-day struggles. So you see Dazzler fighting Galactus, but she still has to find a way to make rent. Scarlet Witch is destroying reality one day, and the next she's dealing with her neighbour's secret love affair. Ms. Marvel is hanging out with a teleporting giant dog, but then she is trying to figure out a way to sneak out and go to a party.

That's the core strength of superheroes, giving us adventures on two different levels, and why they've always been a compelling genre to all readers.

The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen by Hope Nicholson is published by Quirk Books tomorrow, priced £19.99. For more information, visit their website, www.quirkbooks.com.