From VisualNews.com, via How To Be A Retronaut:

‘Kicking butt right out of the late 1940′s, these classic adventure comics had girl power down before it was a catch phrase. Illustrated by the late Alex Schomburg, each issue featured action-packed adventures, starring such characters as Princess Pantha and Judy of the Jungle. Famed comic artist Stan Lee called Schomburg the Norman Rockwell of comic book art and admired his “cartoony” style saying “One could never be sure if Alex was an illustrator who approached his work like a cartoonist, or a cartoonist who chose to render his artwork like an illustrator.”’

Click here to see lots of lovely pictures (which, although rather dated in their portrayals of race and gender, are still rather lovely).

My friend Afira is a beautiful, powerful woman who designs beautiful, powerful outfits:

‘…Inspired by the strong, dark, archetypal woman, glamorous, passionate and heroic, from both past and present. Vamps, femme fatales and dominant women tell the stories. These clothes are designed to harness the power and sexuality within for the woman of today. The modern Amazon is our icon: clothes for the futuristic feminist.

Afira says “Strong, powerful and sexy women are my inspiration, and my customer.

They want to feel and look sexy and powerful, embracing their femininity and not imitating what it means to be powerful from a man’s perspective. They want to feel strong and powerful in what they wear, and this further enhances their confidence and interaction with others. In life, they know what they want and know how to get it, and they want to look the part when they do. They don’t dress for men, or other women, they dress for themselves.

My clothes are about her strength, a feminine strength that penetrates beyond the wearer. They are for the woman who lives the power of her word, tapping into the primal urges and the raw instinct of her nature, the passions which sustain her lust for life, embracing the full breadth of her feminine powers without society’s pressures to fit in. Balance is restored, the truth is revealed in the makeup of her being. She is committed to be all she can be. She is a woman of substance, who combines physical potency with seriousness of purpose. In her sexual identity, and in the way she constructs her domestic life, she strives to be true to herself. If she is confrontational, it is not for its own sake, but to say: “This is what I am”.

My designs are about how clothes translate and manifest onto both the wearer and the watcher, the power, control and suggestion we have on our audience. A powerful woman wants to look and feel sexy, confident and strong; I aim to enhance her position, give her a tool for self expression… a suit of armour, a flag to rally to and pursue her dreams on the battlefield…”

See more here.