Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons is a graphic novel trilogy published by Jet City Comics, portraying the adventures of an all-women secret society of bodyguards who protect the leaders of the radical suffragette movement during early 1914. [1]
Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons is a graphic novel trilogy published by Jet City Comics, portraying the adventures of an all-women secret society of bodyguards who protect the leaders of the radical suffragette movement during early 1914. [1]
Suffrajitsu was written by Tony Wolf, with art by João Vieira, colors by Josan Gonzales and lettering by Ed Dukeshire. Artwork, colors and lettering were supervised by Jasmine Amiri and Dafna Pleban of BOOM! Studios. Issue #1 was published on January 28, 2015, with Issues #2 and #3 being released on February 25 and March 25. [2]
Initial publication was as a series of e-books via the Amazon Kindle app, with individual issues also becoming available to both US and international readers via comiXology.com. As of May 2015, collected editions became available via both the Kindle Fire and comiXology.
The Suffrajitsu trilogy is part of the Foreworld Saga, a shared-world secret history transmedia franchise initiated by speculative fiction authors Neal Stephenson and Mark Teppo via the Subutai Corporation in 2010. [3]
A printed collector's anthology edition, also including two other Foreworld graphic novels, The Dead God and Symposium, was published as Blood and Honor: The Foreworld Saga Graphic Novels on July 29, 2015. [2]
The majority of characters featured in the Suffrajitsu trilogy are fictionalized versions of real people and many events and locations shown are also closely based on real history.
The trilogy is set during the height of the English women's suffrage protests of the early 20th century, which included acts of mass civil disobedience, sabotage, and even riots as pro- and anti-suffragists battled over the right of women to vote in national elections. During this period, many suffragettes were imprisoned on charges ranging from vandalism and assault to sedition.
In response to the so-called Cat and Mouse Act legislation, which allowed hunger-striking incarcerated suffragettes to be temporarily released from prison and then re-arrested when their health had sufficiently recovered, the Women's Social and Political Union established an all-women bodyguard team. Trained by Edith Margaret Garrud, the team - known within the WSPU as "The Bodyguard" and dubbed "jujitsuffragettes" and "Amazons" by the media - frequently clashed with the police, employing decoy and subterfuge tactics as well as hand-to-hand combat to protect fugitive suffragettes from arrest and assault. [4] [5]
The Suffrajitsu trilogy also refers to numerous circa 1914 events, institutions and social movements notably including eugenics, Bohemianism, composer Alexander Scriabin's Mysterium and the controversial White Feather campaign, which protagonist Persephone Wright rejects on ethical grounds.
Issue #1 of the trilogy follows Amazon leader Persephone Wright and her team as they engage in escalating conflicts with the police in London and Glasgow during early 1914. Most of the key events depicted in Issue #1 are closely based on real history, including sections of speeches by the politician William Cremer and both Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. [2]
In Issues 2 and 3 the plot dramatically diverges from real history, although major elements and characters are inspired by history. In Issue #2 the Amazons embark on a daring rescue mission in the Austrian Alps, battling with members of a eugenic cult called the Order of New Templars and in Issue 3 they must race to prevent a terrorist attack that may have dire consequences for the entire world. [2]
During 2014 Suffrajitsu author Tony Wolf organised a scheme that produced two novellas and two short stories inspired by the Suffrajitsu trilogy and licensed and published via the Kindle Worlds platform. The stories included:
The Pale Blue Ribbon, by John Longenbaugh
The Isle of Dogs, by Michael Lussier
Carried Away, by Ray Dean
The Second-Story Girl, by Mark Lingane
With the closure of the Kindle Worlds platform in July 2018, these short stories and novellas are no longer available.
In 2018 Suffrajitsu author Tony Wolf wrote and co-produced/directed the documentary No Man Shall Protect Us: The Hidden History of the Suffragette Bodyguards, detailing the non-fictional, historical activities of the WSPU Bodyguard team. The documentary was made freely available via the Vimeo media platform.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that "she shaped an idea of objects for our time" and "shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
The Prisoners Act 1913, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain under H. H. Asquith's Liberal government in 1913.
Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914, she supported the war against Germany. After the war, she moved to the United States, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement.
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
Ann "Annie" Kenney was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie Baldock. Kenney attracted the attention of the press and public in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days for assault and obstruction related to the questioning of Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women. The incident is credited with inaugurating a new phase in the struggle for women's suffrage in the UK with the adoption of militant tactics. Annie had friendships with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Blathwayt, Clara Codd, Adela Pankhurst, and Christabel Pankhurst.
Elsie Edith Bowerman was a British lawyer, suffragette, political activist, and RMS Titanic survivor.
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragist, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
Edith Margaret Garrud was a British martial artist, suffragist and playwright. She was the first British female teacher of jujutsu and one of the first female martial arts instructors in the western world.
Gertrude Menzies Harding (1889-1977) was a suffragette born on a farm in rural Canada. She migrated to London, England in 1912. Once there she quickly joined militant suffragette movement, being one of only a handful of Canadian women to do so. Harding was known as one of the highest-ranking and longest-lasting members of the Women's Social and Political Union.
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British suffragettes. It stands at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens, south of Victoria Tower at the southwest corner of the Palace of Westminster. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.
Norah Lyle-Smyth was a British suffragette, photographer and socialist activist.
The Independent Women's Social and Political Union was a women's suffrage organisation active in the United Kingdom during World War I.
Florence Eliza Haig (1856–1952) was a Scottish artist and suffragette who was decorated for imprisonments and hunger strikes.
Lillian Dove-Willcox (1875–1963) was a British suffragette who was a member of Emmeline Pankhurst's personal bodyguard.
Sylvia is a British musical with book by Kate Prince and Priya Parmer, with music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde and lyrics by Prince based on the life of Sylvia Pankhurst.
Katherine "Kitty" Marshall was a British suffragette known for her role in the militant Women's Social and Political Union and as one of the bodyguard for the movement's leaders who had been trained in ju-jitsu.
Eleanor Grace Watney Roe (1885–1979) was Head of Suffragette operations for the Women's Social and Political Union. She was released from prison after the outbreak of World War I due to an amnesty for suffragettes negotiated with the government by the WSPU.
The Holloway brooch was presented by the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) to women who had been imprisoned at Holloway Prison for militant suffragette activity. It is also referred to as the "Portcullis badge", the "Holloway Prison brooch" and the "Victoria Cross of the Union".
Suffrajitsu is a term used to describe the application of martial arts or self-defence techniques by members of the Women's Social and Political Union during 1913/14. The term derives from a portmanteau of Suffragette and Ju-jitsu and was first coined by an anonymous English journalist during March 1914.
William Garrud (1873–1960) was a British jujutsu instructor. Garrud was introduced to jujutsu in 1899 alongside his wife Edith. They studied under Japanese jujutsu masters Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi and later opened their own London dojo. In 1914 Garrud, wrote The Complete Jujitsuan which became a standard work on jujitsu, judo and self-defence and has been republished at least seven times. During the war Garrud trained the Volunteer Civil Force in Jujitsu. Edith and William Garrud continued to work as instructors until 1925, when they retired.
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