#superdames

Who is Betty Bates, you ask? Why, only the original Single Female Lawyer! (...maybe, who even knows.) A literal and figurative butt-kicking attorney from the Golden Age of Comics, she made her debut in Hit Comics #4, published by Quality Comics in the fall of 1940, where she remained a fixture until the title’s cancellation in the summer of 1950. That’s right, almost a full decade of a badass “Lady-at-Law”, at a time when many law schools still didn’t admit women, and many glass ceilings to various prestigious legal positions had yet to be broken. Betty Bates even became a district attorney several years before Charlotte Smallwood became the first female DA in New York state in 1949!

Now, I know what you’re thinking--where can I read her comics??

You’re actually pretty lucky, because her stories are in the public domain and most of them are freely available on the internet, and there have been some stories reprinted here and there. But at the same time, no one’s ever done a full-blown restoration project, and even her first appearance is only available online as a blurry microfiche scan.

Well, it just so happens I own a copy of her first appearance, and have been working on restoring it off-and-on for over a year! And for all that effort, I have finally completed----one page. To be fair, I had been planning a whole digital and print collection, in both issues and trade and so had been working on multiple pages at a time. While the srs bsns reprint project is still the ultimate goal, I decided I was more likely to actually get something done if I posted it online as I went. So page 1 is going up right after this post does, and subsequent pages are planned for every other week (because I am hella anal about what I believe Golden Age restorations “should” look like). 

If any of this sounds up your alley, welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy it! And since even obscure Golden Age comics don’t come cheap, consider tossing a few bucks at my ko-fi? If you want the chance to watch me livestream my actual restoration process, a $5/post (or max $50/mo.) pledge to my Patreon--also covering my main blog @ladiesmakingcomics--unlocks that perk.

The modest debut of Betty Bates, Lady-at-Law. Story and art by Bob Powell. Hit Comics #4, Quality Comics, October 1940.

If you’re curious, here’s what the raw scan looks like.

First learned of the character Tomboy from Superdames.

Did the 1st (top) collection of loose sketches at the beginning of May. Followed a few days later by the one next to the random sketch of the guy and more recently the leaping forward punching picture (which is missing a bandage of sort). Now it looks like Superdames is doing for Tomboy what they did for Jill Trent Science Sleuth. As such, did a pic of Tomboy receiving some “aw shucks” thanks and appreciation from the local law. Because that is just the sort of relationship she has with the community.

Jill Trent: Absolutely Positively (2014)

The contest entry I made for the Superdames Comics Contest. This is what led to my very first published work in the Geekie Award nominated Jill Trent: Science Sleuth # 1.

Story by D.M. Higgins