Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Butterfly...the FIRST Black SuperHeroine's Premiere!

Butterfly debuted as a back-up feature in the b/w comic magazine Hell-Rider #1, August, 1971.
She predated Marvel's Storm by four years and DC's BumbleBee by five years.

Secretly Las Vegas cabaret singer Marian Michaels, the flying femme's origin and crime-fighting motivations were never revealed.

Butterfly wore a somewhat-skimpy winged costume (note: there are no color pics of the character) with an anti-gravity device/mini-jet for propulsion, and high-intensity strobe lights to blind her foes.
Whether she created the costume and equipment herself or was given them is another mystery.
She's also a trained hand-to-hand combatant.

This premiere story was written by Gary Friedrich, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Jack Abel and Mike Esposito.

Enjoy...

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5 comments:

  1. guruuvyAugust 16, 2014 at 12:21 PM

    This is INCREDIBLE! 42 years later and this artwork is more beautiful than anything else out today!

    Have to find this book!

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    Replies
    1. Britt ReidAugust 17, 2014 at 3:57 AM

      The magazine has never been reprinted, and isn't cheap when you find it on eBay or Heritage Auctions.

      Delete
    2. guruuvySeptember 5, 2014 at 11:17 PM

      I'm a designer so if it goes over $100 I'll use it as a tax write-off. Thanks a lot for letting me know where to find this book! The art is fantastic!

      Delete
  2. guruuvySeptember 5, 2014 at 11:23 PM

    I'll fatten up the piggy-bank! Thanks for the leads on where to find it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark HarbingerMarch 22, 2022 at 4:23 PM

    Happy to revive this thread, Britt. (BTW, I looked for you on Twitter and it said you were "pending" ??)

    Anyhow, I've continued The Butterfly (and Hell-Rider's) story in my novel, "The Be(k)nighted" an epic occult/superhero/urban fantasy tale. It can be found here: tinyurl.com/2p8hvms7

    A low-risk way to check it out is to get the novel's prologue FREE (it's a standalone short-story on it's own, Marian is in there) as part of my BookFunnel Promo: https://books.bookfunnel.com/lillardbooks/76a2o1kbdm

    Anyway, drop me a line at my blog. I'd love to talk classic comics with you. Be well!!

    _Mark

    ReplyDelete