WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT MONTH – THE DOMINO LADY: First Female Super-Hero!

Posted on by The Beard

THE DOMINO LADY

The First and still one of the best!

The Domino Lady is a masked pulp super-hero who first appeared in the May 1936 issue of the pulp magazine Saucy Romantic Adventures. This makes her history’s first female super-hero.

The Domino Lady’s stories were all published under the house name “Lars Anderson” which was owned by the publisher Fiction Magazines. The author’s real identity is unknown.

The Domino Lady is the only female costumed pulp hero to star in her own series. In those days females were rarely headliners. Maybe the fact that Domino Lady came out of the “spicy” pulps is part of the reason why. The more traditional pulp publishers seem to have had restrictions on how females were to be used. Not so with the “spicy” pulps. For example, in the first couple of stories she has to change into her costume before going into action – in the villain’s own home! Meaning there was a chance she could get caught undressed or only partially dressed. There was a reason they were called “spicy” pulps.

Ellen Patrick is much more than a University of California, Berkeley-educated socialite – she leads a double life as The Domino Lady. When District Attorney Owen Patrick is murdered, his daughter Ellen puts on a domino mask and as The Domino Lady and sets out to avenge him. She arms herself with three weapons – a .45 caliber pistol, a syringe with a powerful knockout serum, and her breathtaking beauty. The last one may be her greatest weapon. She often uses her looks to distract and entrance her opponents, or at least it leads them to underestimating her. In any event her wiles allowed her to outwit her opponents – unless her opponent was a female. You can’t have everything. The Domino Lady belonged to the Robin Hood school of heroing. She steals for her targets, donating most of it to charity while keeping a chunk for herself. After all a girl has to eat. Invariably she would leave behind a calling card with the words, “Compliments of the Domino Lady.”

In the 1930s The Domino Lady appeared in six stories published by Fiction Magazines. They are:

  1. The Domino Lady Collects (Saucy Romantic Adventures, May 1936)
  2. The Domino Lady Doubles Back (Saucy Romantic Adventures, June 1936)
  3. The Domino Lady’s Handicap (Saucy Romantic Adventures, July 1936)
  4. Emeralds Aboard (Saucy Romantic Adventures, August 1936)
  5. Black Legion (Saucy Romantic Adventures, October 1936)
  6. The Domino Lady’s Double (Mystery Adventure Magazine, November 1936)

Reprints of the six original stories have been made. Pulp Collector Press’ Pulp Review from 1992 has one. Also Compliments of the Domino Lady by Bold Venture Press with a cover by Jim Steranko and an article by Will Murray on who was the author Lars Anderson.

The Domino Lady character is in the public domain and because of that there has been a great deal of use of her in recent times.

  • Eros Comix: published a series of Domino Lady comics written by Ron Wilber that were then reprinted in 1995.
  • Moonstone Books: 2009 saw a collection of new stories set in the 1930s and edited by Lori Gentile. Many stories saw The Domino Lady team up with other characters such as The Phantom and Sherlock Holmes. They also launched a comic book by Nancy Holder with art by Steve Bryant.

Domino Lady and my favorite female private eye Honey West

The Domino Lady and The Shadow

The Domino Lady and Sherlock Holmes

The Domino Lady, The Golden Amazon, and The Veil

The Domino Lady and The Spider – Master of Men. But not the master of women.

The Domino Lady and The Green Lama – watch where you put your hand buddy.

The Domino Lady and The Black Bat

The Domino Lady, Bulletgirl, and The Lady In Red

  • Airship 27: In 2015 published a collection of stories by Tim Bruckner, Kevin Findley, Greg Hatcher, and Gene Moyers. The art was by James Lyle. They followed that with a second volume by Kevin Findley, Brad Mengel, Gene Moyers, and Robert Ricci. In 2019 there was a third volume by Adam Mudman Bezecny, Gene Moyers, Brad Mengel, and Samantha Lienhard.
  • Bold Venture Press: in 2017 and 2018 they gave us a two-part story by Rich Harvey.

The AudioComics Company announced in 2011 that they would produce a Domino Lady series. The first episode was written by Rich Harvey, directed by Lance Roger, and starred Karen Stilwell. It was released exclusively on an Mp3 digital download and is available on iTunes.

I didn’t emphasize this before but I am going to do so now. The Domino Lady is the FIRST female super-hero. As such she gets all my respect. Now I get that she has no super-powers but super-heroes don’t have to have super-powers. Batman has no powers. Green Arrow has no powers. Hawkeye has no powers. Neither has Zorro, The Green Hornet, or Iron Man for that matter (the power is in his suit). The Domino Lady has an action name, a costume, weapons, and a secret identity. Plus she kicks butt! She is a super-hero and having debuted in 1936 she pre-dates all the other female heroes.

Popular opinion has it that Sheena – Queen of the Jungle was the first female super-hero because she came out in 1938. Nope, sorry jungle lady my girl Domino Lady got you beat by two years.

Prior to this there were female sidekicks. Flash Gordon had Dale Arden. Buck Rogers had Wilma Deering. The Shadow had Margo Lane. But none of them are super-heroes. They may be female characters involved in the action but that is all. My girl Ellen is still the first.

I’ll admit that my love affair with her began only recently. She first appeared in 1936 and that is a tad before my time. I am not that old. I first came across her when Moonstone Books began publishing new stories about her and I fell in love. How can you not fall in love with a female super-hero that uses sex as a weapon? Holy Mackerel! I had to keep reminding myself that she debuted in the 1930s. Talk about being totally liberated!

Now I will freely admit that her outfit is a bit outlandish for super-heroing – she wears a white dress with high heels. But Marvel’s Blonde Phantom was dressed the same way and she kicked butt for years. And let me point out that DC’s Black Canary has been operating for decades in high heels.

When she first came out The Domino Lady only had six original stories. But man is she popular now! As proof take a look at how many companies are now telling her stories and how many other characters she is teaming up with. When you team-up with Sherlock Holmes you have hit the big time. 

Okay guys it has to be totally obvious I am going to give The Domino Lady a high recommendation. But allow me to break it up into two parts.

  • First, I recommend you check out the stuff done by Moonstone Books, Airship 27, Bold Venture Press and all the rest. I fully expect you will fall in love with her the same way I did.
  • Second, now go track down the original pulp stories from the 1930s. You can find one of the collections. Then you will see for yourself why The Domino Lady deserves all our respect and affection.

Okay mi gente it is time for me to say adios. It has been fun sharing my thoughts and feelings with you and I always love the time we spend together. As we all ride off into the sunset I’d like to leave you with some words of wisdom that my Uncle Freddie used to tell me. As I was leaving the house he would say to me, “Be good, and if you can’t be good then be careful.” See ya!

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Published by The Beard

I’m Eliseo Figueroa Jr. and you’re not. I was born in Saint Francis hospital across the street from Saint Mary’s Park in the Bronx. I was born there because that was where my mother was and I wanted to be near her. My parents came from Puerto Rico and moved to New York City when they were kids. My dad spoke fluent English – with an accent – but he’d had a stint in the army and had mastered the language. However, he needed a little work on reading and so everyday on the way to work he would buy a comic book and read it on the subway. In those days they were ten cents, a quick read, you could fold them and put them in your pocket, and when you finished you threw them away. Back home my mom would tell my dad to read me a story to put me to sleep. My dad had no desire whatsoever to read me any of my baby books so he read me one of his comic books instead. While other kids dreamed of Mother Goose, the Old Lady who lived in a shoe, or Little Red Riding Hood, I dreamt of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And this went on for years. When I got older I asked him to give me the comic books. At that point he stopped throwing them out and I had a comic book collection even though I still didn’t know how to read. During the day I would make my mom read me my comics over and over again. I was dying to learn how to read and had been told that you learn to read in first grade. I remember being so excited the first day of school for the first grade. I couldn’t contain myself. I thought it was like magic – poof! – I was going to come back home and be able to read all of my comics. My mom had to sit me down and explain that it was a process. That over time I would learn how to read and by the time I finished the first grade I would be reading. I must say I was disappointed but more determined than ever to master this thing called reading. Over the years my comic collection grew (my dad had to keep building bigger and better shelves) and so did my interests. I mastered reading and went on to read books. I discovered the library where they actually let you borrow books – what a concept! And my interests in literary science fiction and fantasy expanded to include television and movies. Yes, I was and still am a full-blown geek! By the way, I’m the beard in our little duet. I have a goatee and no moustache. In all that time while growing up my dad never once complained. How could he? This was all his fault and he knew it. One time we were in a store where I was purchasing some comics and it all came to twenty bucks. As my dad was paying the man the owner commented on how much I was spending on comic books. My dad’s reply was, “Well, at least he’s not on drugs!” Science fiction, fantasy, horror, secret agents, giant monsters, and more are my drug of choice. Anyone who has ever sat in a darkened theater and has had their heart start racing in excitement as the music to STAR WARS begins to play knows exactly what I mean.