The Handmaid’s Tale and Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss is set to star in The Kitchen, New Line’s upcoming adaptation of writer Ollie Masters and illustrator Ming Doyle‘s Vertigo comic book of the same name.

Moss joins a cast that already includes Tiffany Haddish and Melissa McCarthy. The trio will play mob wives in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen who end up taking over the business after an FBI raid puts many mobsters, including their husbands, behind bars.

Quantum and Woody #5
Written by James Asmus
Illustrated by Ming Doyle
Colors by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
Covers by Andrew Robinson, Lee Garbett, David Lopez, and Mike McKone
Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: November 6, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

James Asmus continues writing duties for Quantum and Woody #5 along with illustrator Ming Doyle and colorist Jordie Bellaire. Fresh off their first adventure, the two misfit brothers who’ve accidentally gained super powers are taking on life together — and this time they’ve brought a pet goat along for the ride!

Upon realizing that the bracelets Eric (secretly the superhero named Quantum) and Woody both wear force them to rejuvenate their powers every 24 hours or else they’ll perish, the brothers put aside their differences and move in together. Unfortunately for Eric, Woody — acting like an immature child as always — invites a beautiful clone of the evil scientist who killed their father to live with them. The two men soon begin to grasp the notion that having powers is quite the adjustment. Meanwhile, there are blatantly evil happenings going on all over the city and someone very close to Eric wishes to take advantage of his new found abilities.

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!

Mara #3
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Ming Doyle
Colors by Jordie Bellaire
Image Comics
Release Date: March 6, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99

There’s this familiar feeling I got after reading the first two issues of the Image Comics series Mara that I couldn’t put my finger on, which is funny because the premise of the book – a beautiful athlete in the future competes in professional volleyball – has been praised for being unique. And it certainly is, but I realized that the book was reminding me of David Foster Wallace’s notorious tome Infinite Jest, the 1,100 page novel being set largely in a tennis academy where young people train to compete in a media landscape vastly different then the one we know. The novel and the comic also have a captivating protagonist with some sort of shameful secret and peripherally circling both of them are an array of bizarre human beings with their own askewed political agendas. Look, it’s far, far from a being a perfect parallel, like I said, but there’s just something there that brings it to my mind.

Now with Mara, things take a much different turn (let me quickly throw up a **SPOILER WARNING** for issues 1 and 2 for this upcoming paragraph)…

Womanthology: Space #1
Written by Bonnie Burton, Sandy King Carpenter, Alison Ross, Ming Doyle
Story by Alison Ross and Stephanie Hans
Art by Jessica Hickman, Tanja Wooten, Stephanie Hans, Ming Doyle
Letters by Rachel Deering
Colors by Jordie Bellaire
Strips by Stacie Ponder
IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 19, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Well, this is what happens when a comic Kickstarter project makes a hundred grand. Back in August of last year artist Renae De Liz (IDW’s The Last Unicorn) put out her proposed Womanthology book, featuring a wide array of female writers and artists. Working off the theme of Heroic, it managed to make over four times its goal of $25,000, sending the message that there’s a strong demand for more venues where women can showcase their work in the field. IDW got the message loud and clear.

The sequel, Womanthology: Space, features stories about filling empty rooms with furniture and accutrements.

Wow, what a terrible joke… sorry – it’s a smorgasbord of rockets, alien planets, and journeys to the stars. Jumping from sub-genre to sub-genre (space drama to space parody to space horror, etc.) and art styles, this first issue shares a playfulness akin to your average Heavy Metal, with, naturally, the testosterone notched down a bit. Editor Mariah Huehner has curated a book showcasing women doing so much of what really talented men do well in comics.