A notably Bartitsuvian fight scene from the hit TV series Gotham, in which Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee) demonstrates his credentials as a retired badass.
Readers of a certain age and proclivity may fondly recall the “Venusian aikido” exhibited by Pertwee’s father Jon in his title role in the Doctor Who series during the 1970s.
The Suffrajitsu graphic novel trilogy (coming in early 2015) now has its own official website, Facebook page and Twitter account!
Suffrajitsu.com
Suffrajitsu.com is your one-stop-shop for all matters Amazonian. Designed as something of a sister site for Bartitsu.org, it includes a comprehensive blog featuring a large (and ever-expanding) catalogue of articles on the suffragette Amazons in both history and fiction.
Suffrajitsu on social media
Social media devotees are cordially invited to like/follow/share the new Suffrajitsu Facebook page for discussion, teaser images, instant updates and some big surprises as we move ever closer to the launch date …
An alternative history of action, adventure and intrigue!
Taking place during the year 1914, Suffrajitsu recounts the adventures of Miss Persephone Wright (seen above, debating politics with a London bobby) and her elite team of Amazons; a secret society of women trained in Bartitsu, who protect the leaders of the radical women’s rights movement.
Many of the events of the first story are directly based on real history and most of the characters are fictional versions of real people, including:
* the parasol-wielding woman of mystery known only as Miss Sanderson
* the Austrian wrestler and strongwoman Katie “Sandwina” Brumbach
* Flossie Le Mar, the jujitsu-adventuress from far-off New Zealand …
Suffrajitsu is written by Tony Wolf, illustrated by Joao Vieira and published by Jet City Comics. It is part of the Foreworld Saga, a shared-world alternative history series initiated by authors Neal Stephenson and Mark Teppo.
Stay tuned for more details!
This sequence of photographs from a 1905 edition of the Italian journal La Stampa Sportiva is clearly based on Marcus Tindal’s amusing and eccentric article Self-Protection on a Cycle (1901), which may in turn have been inspired by this letter published in the London Bicycle Club Gazette in 1901.
Artist Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium was part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s recent exhibition, titled A Proximity of Consciousness:
The gymnasium invites visitors to engage in turn-of-the-century exercises designed to promote health and foster a connection between the mind and the body. In the piece, Helguera transports the educational philosophies of activist Jane Addams and educational reformer John Dewey into a contemporary art exhibition, inviting participants to reflect on the impact of two of the most influential thinkers on education.
The exhibition featured practical classes in circa 1900 physical culture exercises and also an array of antique exercise paraphernalia, including an exercise bike, rowing machine and a woman’s gymnastics dress borrowed from the Forteza Gymuseum collection.
Readers may recall our April, 2013 article presenting the “Dr. Latson Method of Self Defense” and the bizarre scandal and mystery that later enveloped the principals of that method.
Now, researcher Maxime Chouinard has tracked down an article featuring most of those photographs, plus one additional image, that appeared in the June 11, 1911 edition of the Denver Post. Visit his blog to read When a Thug Attacks You, and ponder; this anonymous article was published two months after Dr. Latson’s mysterious death.
This short story from the Suffrajitsu.com website introduces Anglo-Chinese socialite and amateur detective Judith Lee and describes her first encounter with Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons. The Bartitsu Club and several of its principal figures play important roles in the story …
Reporter Cassam Looch attends the Kingsman: The Secret Service academy where he learns how to become the perfect Kingsman agent, including a suit fitting followed by an umbrella combat lesson with Bartitsu instructor James Marwood.
You can also watch parts 1 and 3 of this tie-in with the upcoming feature film Kingsman: The Secret Service, opening in the UK on January 29 and thereafter internationally.
