Womanthology: Space
Written by Bonnie Burton, Sandy King Carpenter, Alison Ross and Stephanie Hans, Ming Doyle, Stacie Ponder, Blair Butler, Joelle Sellner, Ellise Heiskell, Robin Furth, Rachel Edidin, Jennifer de Guzman, Jody Houser, Devin Grayson, Christine Ellis, Barbara Randall Kesel, Allison Pang, Laura Morley, Cecil Castellucci, and Kiala Kazebee

Illustrated by Jessica Hickman, Tanja Wooten, Stephanie Hans, Jordie Bellaire, Stacie Ponder, Alicia Fernandez, Jean Kang, Maarta Laiho, Carli Idhe, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Leigh Dragoon, Sally Thompson and Kathryn Layno, Lindsay Walker, Elva Wang, Diana Nock, Chrissie Zullo, Sara Richard, Kel McDonald, and Isabelle Melancon

Colored by Jordie Bellaire and Ronda Pattison

Lettered by Rachel Deering, Robbie Robbins, Amauri Osorio, and Isabelle Melancon

Cover by Renae DeLiz
Series Edited by Mariah Huehner
Collection Edited by Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon
IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 5, 2013
Cover Price: $24.99

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that women receive enough of the limelight within the comic book industry; thankfully, artist Renae DeLiz (The Last Unicorn) came up with a fantastic way to showcase a variety of fantastic female talent and IDW jumped on board. Womanthology: Space is the collected addition of the first five issues of the monthly ongoing series of the same name. Building off of the success of DeLiz’s first venture with the graphic novel Womanthology: Heroic, Womanthology: Space is an amalgamation of short comics with the overarching theme of “space” created solely by established and up-and-coming female creators. Check out my impressions of some of the best and worst that this anthology has to offer!

Emily and the Strangers #1
Written by Mariah Huehner, Rob Reger
Art by Emily Ivie
Cover by Emily Ivie and Buzz Parker
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 30, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

So, Emily the Strange is a kind of a big deal. This character has been the focal point of a popular clothing and accessories label since the 90s. Emily has also starred in other comics, novels, and an upcoming live-action movie. I’ve never seen or heard of her, so how well her character ties-in with this comic is not something I can judge. All I’m looking for is an entertaining comic series, and writers Rob Reger and Mariah Huehner deliver with Emily and the Strangers #1.

Emily the Strange is a very untypical teenager. She spends her free time huddled away in her cat-infested lab inventing contraptions such as time machines and thinking caps. If Doc Brown from Back to the Future were a brooding, teenage girl, then he would probably resemble Emily.

Memorial #3
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Rich Ellis
Colors by Grace Allison
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover by Michael WM Kaluta
IDW Publishing
Release Date: February 8, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

About four years ago my comic book store guy insisted I try a new IDW title called Locke and Key. While I enjoyed the art immensely, the story wasn’t doing much for me at that time. Today, it’s one of my favorite titles but I avoided it for years. Looking back, I can’t recall if it was because the subject matter was too dark or the characters seemed too dull, but I clung to some justification for a long time to avoid the book everyone was telling me was going great. I realize now that what actually happened was I didn’t allow the book the opportunity to build its own world.