Woman of the Month: Laura Bow

Laura Bow from The Colonel’s Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra

I’ve often pondered the idea of writing up a list of underrated feminist non-icons; those female characters who did more for the development of how women are depicted in media and pop-culture than anyone gives them credit for. Sorsha from Willow would be on the list, so would Evelyn Carnahan from The Mummy, Diana from the animated Dungeons and Dragons, and the entire cast of The Babysitters Club book series.

And so would Laura Bow, who – as I mentioned in my write-ups of her two games – was something of a pioneer. Princess Rosella of Daventry has the honour of being the first playable female protagonist in a graphic adventure game (The Perils of Rosella, 1988) though it was the arcade game Kangaroo (1982) that featured the first playable female character ever: a mother kangaroo trying to save her baby.

But Laura is still noteworthy, all the more so because she was the star of her own franchise – even if it did only last two games. I’ve always been a fan of the 1920s aesthetic (the outfits, the music, the night life) and these games capture that era to perfection, whilst also allowing it to infuse the design of Laura herself. Modelled off and named after the silent film actress Clara Bow, Laura is a girl that’s got gumption. Somehow a tiny collection of pixels depicts this simply in the way she walks, with her palms spread and facing downward, capturing that distinctive sashay of the times.

The Colonel’s Bequest was a unique game at the time, less of a quest narrative and more of a detective story. Laura had to collect clues and gather information, and she’s only as intelligent as the player is. If you don’t solve the mystery, she won’t either. But as fun as it all is, you never really get a sense of Laura’s fear or bravery as she stumbles across an ever-growing collection of bodies, and if she’s meant to personify the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, it doesn’t really come into focus until the second game.

It’s in The Dagger of Amon Ra that she becomes more of a character than an avatar, as the advances in technology can naturally grant her a voice, a personality, and the chance to emote. The game itself may be a bit of a step down, but Laura herself has grown: having graduated from Tulane University she now moves to New York to take a job as a reporter at the Daily Register News Tribune.

Of course, it’s a stretch that she’s simply handed the plum story of a museum burglary on her first day, but it leads to another night of horror in which Laura must uncover all sorts of skulduggery and outrun a killer, with the conclusion granting her a lot more agency considering she has to put all the pieces together to bring the assailant to justice (though the player may find this easier said than done).

A certain amount of lip service is given to the world Laura lives in, from the fact no one believes her when dead bodies start piling up to being told that “little ladies” don’t belong in the newsroom, but for the most part the stories are happy to put Laura in the middle of a Capital-S-Situation and encourage the player to get her out again without much preoccupation regarding her gender... though I have to say, I do love that she solves each mystery in an evening gown.

I’m a trilogy-minded person, so I was always a little disappointed that there was never an official third Laura Bow mystery... though anyone who has played Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father will find a special something on the bulletin board at Tulane University: “There’s a notice for a lecture on Investigative Reporting techniques to be given by octogenarian Pulitzer Prize winner Laura Bow Dorian.” I just love that little update. She lived her best life.