Suffrajitsu Mrs Pankhurst's Amazons Volume One by Tony Wolf

Title:
Author: Tony Wolf (no website found)
Publisher: Amazon
Rating: WORTHY!

DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often enough reward aplenty!

Emmeline Pankhurst was a radical political agitator for women's suffrage and women's rights. She founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) which actually established a jujutsu-trained all-female squad of bodyguards to protect her from police assaults. This graphic novel, for one price but in three parts, takes that and runs with it.<.p>

Drawn very much in the old-style of the golden era of comic books, the illustrations are evocative, well-done and rather nostalgic which makes them engagingly appropriate for the subject matter. Emmeline Pankhurst was a wild and crazy girl, and this captures that and the spirit she represented very much.

The comic is very short, only 24 pages total, which makes for a fast read, but of course for those who buy the story, there are two more episodes to come included in the original purchase price (as I understand it). One issue I took with it is that it suggests that the bodyguards were trained in Bartitsu, but this was not the case since that very personal art, invented by Edward William Barton-Wright (who is, as far as I can see, is depicted as the trainer and who was very nearly the same age as Pankhurst), largely went out of style in 1902. This is the art featured in a Sherlock Holmes story and named (or misnamed) 'Baritsu'. Suggesting it this way is actually an insult to the real trainer of the WSPU bodyguards, which was a woman named Edith Margaret Garrud. Why she was snubbed in favor of a guy in what is otherwise a strongly feminist novel, I don't know other than that the author is a proponent of Bartitsu!

The novel is set in 1914 and this too, is problematic because the WSPU ceased operations during World War One for the sake of national unity against the German threat to sovereignty and freedom. The war began in late July 1914, so the events depicted here could have taken place in the earlier part of that year, I suppose!

A charming variety of characters are included, some fictional, others not. Persephone Wright is a fictional woman of ill-repute, a “fallen woman”. Flossie Le Mar is an homage to Florence LeMar, who actually was a practitioner of jujutsu. Katharina Brumbach really was a wrestler and strong-woman. Toupie Lowther was also a real person, an avid motorist, and a practitioner of jujutsu. Judith Lee appears to be an invention of writer Richard Marsh. Kitty Marshall, a fictional quick-witted teenager and a Miss Sanderson a violent fictional character. It's doubtful this group (fictional or otherwise!) ever met.

That aside, I really liked this novel and I recommend it. Issue one features the Amazons’ conflicts with the London and Glasgow police and is out as of the date of this review. Issue two follows a month later and covers "a daring rescue mission in the Austrian Alps" (over which Toupie Lowther actually rode on a motorcycle). issue three comes out a month after that and depicts the Amazons trying to prevent a terrorist attack. Is it this that will precipitate World War One?! A ripping good yarn - and somewhat educational too!