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!

Womanthology: Space #3
Written by Robin Furth, Rachel Edidin, Jennifer DeGuzman, and Trina Robbins
Art by Carli Idhe, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Leigh Dragoon
Cover by Mengtian Zhang and Hanie Mohd
IDW Publishing
Release Date: December 5th, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

This is the first issue of IDW’s Womanthology: Space series that I have read, which is a shame on my part. Womanthology was born out of a successful Kickstarter campaign, originating as a longer graphic novel, and now spinning off into the Space anthology series. The big deal of the series is that all of the stories in the series were created by, as you could guess from the title, women. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but given the how hard it is for women to get material published in the comics world, it is. The Space series takes the general entry point of “women in comics” and focuses on stories somehow dealing with space, or space travel, or some kind of outer-space stuff. What you end up with in this issue is a collection of three charming stories and an interesting look at one of the golden age of comics female pioneers.

The first story in this issue is titled “Centipede.” It’s basically a riff on Aliens, with a smuggler bringing a dangerous creature onto a normal space ship. It’s a little too short to build any real suspense, but that’s no fault of the creators, who do a decent job given the page count.

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.

In the wake of the mega-successful Kicstarter campaign that launched one of the most talked about creator owned projects in comics, Womanthology has been announced as an ongoing series from IDW Publishing.

Renae De Liz, the mastermind behind Womanthology and the Heroic graphic novel anthology that it spawned, is pushing forward with a brand new series entitled Womanthology: Space. The comic will still be a contribution piece exclusively created by women. and will feature three stories in each issue that center around the ongoing concept of Space. Creators announced so far for the series are Blair Butler, Fiona Staples, Jessica Hickman, Bonnie Burton, Ming Doyle, and Stacie Ponder, with many more providing contributions that we simply don’t know of yet.