Encyclopedia of Women in Comics

Abel, Jessica (1969 - )

American Comic book artist and writer

Abel is the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (with collaborator Ira Glass), and the omnibus series Artbabe.

Abel become a pioneer of the alternative comics genre with her xine Artbabe (1992), a series of individual non-fiction stories that told the story of native Chicagoans like herself, hand-crafted and published by her.

To learn more about all of Abel's career, please follow this link https://jessicaabel.com to her website.

Abouet, Marguerite (1970 - )

Ivorian-French writer of bandes dessinées

Creator of the graphic novel series Aya, which utilized the author's childhood memories of Africa's Ivory coast during the 1970s. The Aya books have sold over 200,000 copies in France and over 10,000 copies in the U.S. and have been translated in over 15 languages.

Aya character designs' show diversity that help enhance the world that Abouet is trying to share. The design choices Abouet chooses enhance the African culture through its diversity through hairstyles, clothing, and facial expressions. The story is not told through a filter that explains the meaning behind every cultural aspect of the story and allows the reader to do their own research

She was influenced to do a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis.

Albright, Nina Dorothy (1907-1997)

American Comic Book Artist

was a comic book artist for nine years during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was one of the few women illustrating and writing comic books during the period.

Her prolific career includes working for Packager Jerry Iger, Majestic Studios, Funnies Inc., L. B. Cole, Bernard Baily, Novelty Press, Archie Publications, St. John Publications, Ziff-Davis and Fiction House just to name a few. Upon the last publisher, Albright was hired along with other female comic book artists such as Lily Renée and Fran Hopper to replace male artists sent off to fight in World War II in 1940.

She is also the uncredited creator of Commandette, a heroine featured in Star-Studded #1. At Holyoke Publishing, she worked on Miss Victory.

Albritton-Layton, Morgan

American comic book shop owner

Morgan Albritton Lawson is the founder and owner of Morgan's Comics, the first and only female owned comic and collector's shop in Western North Carolina and was established in Asheville, North Carolina in 2015.

In her own words "What we offer grows and changes with the beating heart that is our clientele. As new nerd folks suggest different items we should carry our variety increases. We started with new and old comics, trade paperback books, vinyl records, t-shirts, hats, board games, video games, and consoles. Seven years later, we also carry a wide array of trading card and role-playing game merchandise, kids' books, manga, action figures (loose and in box), plushies, mystery boxes, jewelry, and statues."

To hear more about Morgan's story and to check out her online store, please head to this link https://www.morganscomics.com.

Amanat, Sana (1982 - )

American comic book editor and executive

Amanat is known for co-creating Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel in 2014 with G. Willow Wison, the first Muslim-American superhero with a solo Marvel Comics series. She has worked on comics such as Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, and Ms. Marvel.

Amanat began her career at Marvel in 2009, becoming an executive of production and development at Marvel Studios since mid-2019 having formerly been the Director of Content and Character Development at Marvel Comics since February 2015.

Since 2014, Amanat has co-hosted the Women of Marvel podcast; by 2020, the podcast has released over 200 episodes. additionally, in 2015, Amanat has been running the annual Women of Marvel panel at Comic-Cons like Comic Con International (formerly San Diego Comic Con) and NYCC and does work to make Marvel characters more diverse.

Amano, Akira 天野明 (1973)

Japanese mangaka

Amano is best known for her shōnen series Katekyō Hitman Reborn! (or REBORN! as its known in the states.)

Early versions of Reborn! were published in seinen manga magazines. In late 2003, the series, a stand-alone short story at the time, was published in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. After the success of the short story, the series began serialization in the magazine in mid-2004. Since then, the manga has been adapted into an anime, as well as five light novels and several video games. On Nikkei Entertainment's list of most successful manga artists she ranked 12th.

Allred, Laura (1962 - )

American comic book colorist

Allred is best known for her work as a colorist with her husband, the writer/artist Mike Allred.

She started in the industry in 1989, coloring her husband's Graphique Musique title for Slave Labor Graphics. She has worked primarily on works with him since, including X-Statix and Madman.

Arakawa, Hiromu 荒川弘 (1973 - )

Japanese mangaka

Hiromu is best known for the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist (2001–2010), which became a hit both domestically and internationally, and was adapted into two anime television series. She is also known for Silver Spoon (2011–2019) and the manga adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan novels.

Full Metal Alchemist is celebrated for challenging gender stereotypes in the manga industry by creating compelling shonen manga with complex, mature themes, and strong female characters, and has garnered international acclaim through its multiple anime adaptations and a 64 million+ worldwide sales volume.

The manga was a critical and commercial success, earning the prestigious Annual Shogakugan Manga Award in 2003.

Armanini, Ivana (1970 - )

Croatian comic artist and illustrator

Armanini's work is characterized by its activism, feminism and social awareness. She is also an editor, curator, small press/web publisher and graphic designer, active in the indie comics scene of the Balkans.

Since 2002, Armanini has been the founder and manager of Komikaze, a network for production, promotion and distribution of authorial comics with a focus on the independent scene. Besides releasing Komikaze print and web zines, the initiative also consists of a network of over 350 published authors from 50 countries. Its website hosts a virtual library/gallery/museum of free comic stories.

A Komikaze side-project by Ivana Armanini is Femicomix, a collective initiative aiming to underline the strength and potential of female author expression in the field of contemporary comics. In addition, Ivana Armanini is a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists Association, the Women Who Draw platform (an open directory of female illustrators) and EVOKE, an international community of optimists hosted by Melinda French Gates.

To learn more about Armanini's powerful work, please head to the link https://ivanaarmanini.net to her official website.

Asselin, Janelle (1983 - )

former American comic book writer, artist, and editor.

Janelle Siegel is best known for creating the now-defunct publishing company Rosy Press, in which she tried to revive the genre of romance comics. The company's flagship anthology series, Fresh Romance, was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign and was released digitally on May 2015 before receiving a print release by Oni Press in 2016.

Asselin began working for Newsarama as a pop culture reviewer and eventually moved to Fangoria Graphix, where she performed various tasks such as proofreading and designing layout. After leaving Fangoria Graphix Asselin worked as a line editor and briefly returned to Newsarama before gaining employment with DC Comics in 2008. While at DC Comics Asselin worked on titles such as Batman, Batgirl, and Birds of Prey before leaving to work for Disney Publishing in 2011

Asselin created 12 Women Who Deserve Lifetime Achievement Recognition and Hire This Woman while writing for ComicsAlliance, and was for a time, its Senior Editor. "Hire This Woman" featured a female comic artist or writer in order to help promote talented women in the comic industry and included women that were up-and-coming newcomers along with more experienced women in the comic industry. It appeared on the site for about a year and half from late 2013 to around April 2015.

To learn more about Janelle Asselin, please follow the link https://janelleasselin.com/ to Janelle's official website.

Avery, Fiona Kai (1974 - )

American comic book and television writer

Avery was hired as a reference editor for the fifth season of Babylon 5 and later continued in that role for the spin-off Crusade. Avery contributed several scripts for the series, including "The Well of Forever" and "Patterns of the Soul", as well as the unfilmed "Value Judgements" and "Tried and True".

Following the cancellation of Crusade, Avery turned to comic book writing, working for Marvel on titles The Amazing Spider-Man, where she created the character Araña, and Icons: Rogue (2001).

Avery was also one of the main writers working for Top Cow with her most praised work being No Honor (2002). Other works with the company include Witchblade: Obakemono (2002), Rising Stars: Bright (2003), Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead (2005), and Rising Stars: Untouchable (2006)