One Small Step for Man; One Giant Leap for Women – Womanthology: SPACE Review

Yes, Wednesday evening, the end of Rob and Amanda’s broadcast day. However, as I was dying from a head cold over the weekend (and have since miraculously recovered), I’m turning in my homework a bit tardy.

I first heard about the Womanthology project shortly after their Kickstarter.com fundraiser wrapped up in 2011. If you’re unfamiliar with Womanthology, it all began with a tweet from artist Renae De Liz asking if her fellow female creators would be interested in creating and publishing an anthology to benefit charity. By the end of that day, over 100 contributors had taken up the call, and shortly thereafter, IDW came on board as publisher. The project quickly coalesced into the 300 page anthology, Heroic, with over 150 female contributors whose experience levels ran the gamut from professional to beginner.

I finally picked up Heroic this summer and have been all “what the hell took me so long” ever since. I have been slowly working my way through the volume, and although I’ve only reached the halfway point, as soon as I saw the announcement for the Womanthology: SPACE series, you’d better believe I was on the phone with my local shop to pre-order it.

The first issue of Womanthology: Space contains five short stories (1 through 4 of which are lettered by Rachel Deering):

Waiting for Mr. Roboto by Bonnie Burton, gives us an amusing glimpse into the life an alien waitress named Trixie who is looking for love. Jessica Hickman’s art is clean and minimalistic, it complements Burton’s fun and flirty dialog well.

Dead Again is a haunting bit by Sandy King Carpenter about a lone worker from a salvage crew left behind to prep a damaged space station for demolition. The dialog in this short is scarce, and artist Tanja Wooten has used a dark, sketchy style to convey much of the story in heavily emotive panels.

Scaling Heaven, the third short of the book, is co-created by Alison Ross and Stephanie Hans. We are quickly carried through the tale of two nations in a race to the moon by following a brief period in the lives of characters from each side. Ross’ dialog is short and sweet but memorable; however, what I am really in love with here is Hans’ beautifully drawn and painted artwork.

At two pages, the retro-fantastic The Adventures of Princess Plutonia is much briefer than the first three works, but still manages to pack a punch. While this space-princess-saves-the-brave-Earthman story would not be my cup of tea if drawn out into a full issue, at two pages it’s a fun little read.  Ming Doyle does a great job with the writing and art, and Jordie Bellaire’s color work is right on target for the retro feel.

Space Girls is a cute little comic strip written by Stacie Ponder. We are given two pages worth here, and the episodic tale is to be continued throughout the forthcoming issues. Ponder keeps her dialog fun and her simple, black and white artwork is adorable. Space Girls follows the adventures of the SSV Raptor and crew, and I can’t wait to read more!

I highly recommend taking a look at the Womanthology: Space series.  Issue #1 is a quick, fun read, and if you’ve been indecisive about spending $50 on the Heroic volume, this may well help you decide. Oh, and by the way, regarding the portion of De Liz’s original tweet that mentioned charity, all proceeds from Heroic go to the Global Giving Foundation.