Happy TENTH Anniversary To Wonder Woman Unbound!

Today in “posts designed to make me feel extremely old,” my very first book, Wonder Woman Unbound, came out TEN years ago on this very day! I mean, sort of. Unless your book is famous, release dates are kind of amorphous. It just comes out around then. But April 1, 2014, was the official date, and now it’s been ten years, somehow.

Getting Wonder Woman Unbound published was the culmination of a long dream. It was an adaptation of my Master’s thesis, rewritten for a general audience instead of academic-ese, and I graduated with that degree in 2009. It took me a year to rewrite it, another year to get an agent, yet another year to rewrite it again, and another year after that to sell it. I have so many different versions of this book buried in the files of my computer, but the one that finally saw print was the best of them all. Everyone at Chicago Review Press embraced the project enthusiastically, and their editorial notes helped turn it into something I’m really proud of.

Also, I got to design the cover! Fun fact, the cover was a huge sticking point for selling the book because we couldn’t license an official image from DC (they are rarely helpful in that regard). Trying to brainstorm an alternative, I taught myself how to use a Photoshop knockoff (shout out to Inkscape!) and designed a silhouette with the iconic Wonder Woman hands on hips pose with a few classic accessories, like a star for the tiara, bracelets, and a lasso. Then I just put stars everywhere, because Wonder Woman. The editor liked the look of it, and while I assumed they were going to take it as inspiration and do a fancier version, they instead told me that they liked it so much that they were going to use it as the actual cover! Thus began by brief career as a cover designer (I did my Lois Lane and Catwoman books too).

I’ve gotten to write several more books since, which is amazing, but Wonder Woman has been my real calling card. I got to go to Amsterdam to talk about the evolution of her costumes at a film festival. I was on TV, talking about Wonder Woman in AMC’s Secret History of Comics. I consulted on the US Post Office’s official Wonder Woman stamps. I got to co-curate a museum exhibit about the history of Wonder Woman in Brooklyn. The character has opened a lot of cool, unexpected doors for me, all of which have been so fun and interesting. I owe her a lot.

And I owe all of you a lot as well! Thanks to all of you who have bought the book, listened to the audiobook, checked it out from the library, recommended it to a friend, or engaged with it in any other way! Your support of the book made it a success, and has allowed me to keep writing my very weird, detailed deep dives into iconic female comic book characters. You’re the best readers, and I appreciate you all so much.

Speaking of deep dives, I took a more macro view with my last book, Not All Supermen, but on this tenth anniversary of Wonder Woman Unbound I am very excited to announce that my next book is another deep dive coming this November from Rowman & Littlefield:

It’s a Batgirl book, finally! I’ve been trying to get this one off the ground for years, and I’m delighted it’s coming out now. Getting to explore the history of Barbara, Cass, and Stephanie was so fun, and the book has the larger aim of examining each incarnation of Batgirl as representative of a marginalized segment of superhero fandom. Batgirl always had a dedicated fanbase, but they often weren’t the sort of fans DC was interested in pursuing. I’ll unpack all of this fascinating history in Batgirl and Beyond, this November!

The book fun never stops, gang. Ten years after Wonder Woman Unbound came out, a sixth book is coming. It’s a dang hexalogy of comic book history! Thanks again for reading, and here’s to another ten years of books!