Rating: 
Summary: A cotton candy book: cute, pink and you'll get a stomachache
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This is a beautiful book and very informative about the world of women's and girls comics. I learned a lot, and had a bit of deja vu as it went over the Betty and Veronica comix and Katy Keene stuff I used to read. The color illustrations are great! I wish though, that it covered some of the _shojo_ (girl) comics scene in Japan which I think is really important.
Rating:
Summary: A great read, but lacking a little something
Review: 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.
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