Go Girl! #1
[Image Comics $3.50 US $5.60 CAN]
Written by Trina Robbins / Illustrated by Anne Timmons
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With Go Girl!, Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons have set out to create a “girl friendly comic.” We’re introduced to Lindsay, a seemingly typical teen with two not so minor exceptions-her mom used to be a super-hero called Go-Go Girl and Lindsay has inherited her mother’s power of flight. The story in Go Girl! introduces us to Lindsay and presents the origin of Go Girl.

Lindsay decides to follow in her mom’s footsteps when her friend, Haseena, is kidnapped by a nutty old lady who wants to blackmail Haseena’s lawyer father into influencing his client to plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit. The old lady and her nasty son framed the poor man and they want him to go to jail for the murder so they can be off the hook.

Robbins makes sure Lindsay isn’t an automatic success, however. Lindsay’s heart is in the right place when she tries to rescue Haseena and do some good old-fashioned super heroics but she doesn’t have the experience and almost botches the whole thing.

The art suits the tone of the story. The heroines aren’t outrageously endowed and the teenage girls look the part. Some of Timmons figures can look a little stiff and awkward but I’m sure with more issues under her belt the art will improve. She illustrates action capably and the panel placement is simple enough that a first-time comic reader shouldn’t be too confused.

Go Girl! #1 was cute and is definitely a comic you could give to that adolescent girl in your life. However, I’m not real sure they would come back for more issues after seeing the $3.50 US price tag. This issue had 21 pages of story, 4 pin-ups and 7 ads. I believe Go Girl! was first solicited as a color comic and a colorist is listed in the credits. Orders were low and it was re-solicited as a black and white comic. Unfortunately for us they forgot to lower the price. I can’t see many new comic fans being enticed to shell out $3.50 for such a thin comic.

Trina Robbins has a long history in comics and I want to applaud her concern that there aren’t more “girl friendly” comics out there. But as someone who has been a girl for 34 years now I can safely say I’ve always managed to find comics that I liked. Would I have liked Go Girl! if I had read it back when I was twelve years old? I don’t know. Maybe. I did enjoy reading the Archie super-heroes (Pureheart the Powerful, Superteen, Captain Hero, etc.) and it reminded me an awful lot of those.

If you can’t find this on your local comic shop’s shelves and would like to give it a try, write to Go Girl!, 1982 15^th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114. You can also visit the Image Comics web site at www.imagecomics.com.