Dennis Reader was one of the founders of original British comic books. He was inspired by American Golden Age artists like Milton Caniff and Joe Shuster. Most of his characters appear to be shapely women in tight costumes. His first creation was Cat Girl who was one of the first feline female crimefighters in comics. Other characters included the luscious Phantom Maid and Acromaid while he was working under the publishing of Cartoon Art Productions. Electro Girl was one of the few Reader made that became a reoccurring character. Beginning in G-Boy Comics in 1947, Carol Flane was the daughter of a biologist experimenting in a lab where an accident gives her the power to conduct electricity and propel herself into the sky. With her newfound abilities, Carol got a flashy red and blue outfit and was branded Electro Girl by the local newspaper. Most of her exploits were incredibly short in 3-page installments, one of which had her uncovering a classic Hollywood murder plot that her superpowers were barely needed for. In one particularly questionable story from Super Duper Comics, Electro Girl was one of the first non-parody superheroes to actually break the Fourth Wall. The story opens with Dennis Reader himself working on the latest 3-pager when he spills some ink on the storyboard and a full-sized Electro Girl herself emerges out of nowhere. The living, breathing superlass shows up to complain to her creator that she doesn't get to use her initiative enough, and that she somehow knew a pair of gremlins have changed careers after WWII and gone from sabotaging planes to messing with civilians. Electro Girl was just waiting for Dennis Reader's permission to throw the pesky little clowns back to Gremlinland. Our heroine finds the two creeps named Butch and Tuffy who speak with Brooklyn accents and tries to electrocute them, but they dodge her bolts. The gremlins capture Electo Girl in a lasso made of clouds and claim they were starting up a post-war offensive campaign for the Average Joe after resigning from the illustrious Aero-Gremlin Club. Dennis Reader butts in and erases the sky chain around Electro Girl sending the gremlins heading for the hills. Since it's a scant 3-pages long, we don't know if Electro Girl ever busted the little buggers or even how her relationship with her creator ever broke the reality barrier again which seems like a far more intriguing concept. An artist having access to a sexy super-powered blonde of his own creation could make for an interesting romantic comedy. Electro Girl is more remembered nowadays for some surviving copies of her comics that resurfaced that garnered her enough attention as a public domain character that Alan Moore employed for his expanding fictional universe in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
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