Just for the heck of it, for International Women's Day, here's 75 comics creators who are rad and are women. These are in alphabetical order by first name/initial because I was too lazy to sort by last name.



(Caveat: if I've misgendered anyone, it was not intentional!)

1) AP Quach's work with Max Landis on the now-impossible-to-find Boy's Night (a thoughtful, downbeat, and manic investigation of Mouse celebrity) was precise and perfect. There are new mouse comics as well.

2) Akiko Higashimura is primarily known for Princess Jellyfish but her work on Tokyo Takareba Girls is more mature, and her autobio Blank Canvas should be invaluable to young artist talents, esp those full of themselves.

3) Ann Nocenti wrote my favourite run of Daredevil. Her Hell's Kitchen had a life and nutty wildness that I've never seen another creator approach.

4) B. Mure has so far created a trilogy of gorgeous stories in her Ismyre fantasy setting. Her colouring is moody and incredible, and the stories are fraught with human nature (even if her characters are zoomorphs).

5) Barbara Yelin created Irmina, exploring how an ostensibly open-minded and liberal young woman could be eased into supporting the Nazi regime - as so many were.

6) Caitlin Cass has for years chronicled the folly and ingenuity (but mostly folly) of Western Civilization. In the last couple years, she's focused her humour and work on the cause of women working to extricate themselves from under the thumb of the patriarchy.

7) Carey Pietsch has created a number of lovely fantasy stories of her own design (such as Rift and Keepsakes), and more recently illustrated the Adventure Zone books.

8) Cathy Malkasian's Eartha is a large and worthy fable and her illustration style keeps her pages open and welcoming.

9) Christine Norrie was a reliable contributor to the early 2000s romance comics market, writing her own books like Cheat and providing art for others, like Hopeless Savages.

10) Christie Scheele is basically may favourite colourist. Her work on Walt Simonson's Thor is incredible (and unfortunately now lost to time - and boxed up comic collections - with Marvel's recolouring of the book).

11) Christina Strain is another great colourist. Her work on Mary Jane/Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man was integral in pushing that book to be as vibrant as it was. I believe she no longer colours but is a television screenwriter.

12) Dylan Meconis produced one of last year's most beautiful/interesting books: Queen Of The Sea, the history-adjacent story of an orphaned girl living in exile among nuns until everything falls apart.

13) Eleanor Davis is one of the most interesting working auteurs. Her work (exemplified in How To Be Happy and The Hard Tomorrow) is varied and intimately concerned with the ways humans are. Very observational work.

14) Emil Ferris burst onto the scene a couple years ago with the first volume of her ambitious My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.

15) Emily Carroll is among the best names in comics horror. She's probably only second to Junji Ito in terms of recognizability, but for my money, the mood, ambiance, and horror of her work cuts deeper. Check out the delightful, horrible Through The Woods).

16) Faith Erin Hicks creates thoroughly enjoyable books. Friends With Boys and Superhero Girl are my favourites, followed by the 3-vol Nameless City adventure.

17) Flavia Biondi created Generations a heart-whelming story of family and the struggles families have staying together - and how winning out over those struggles can be ultimately emboldening and enriching.

18) Fumi Yoshinaga, among many other books, is the creator of Ooku, one of the best and most ambitious series to yet grace the medium. Her work is intricate and human, filled with romance and drama.

19) Fumiyo Kouno has created, among other work, several stories about WWII and Hiroshima, notably Town Of Evening Calm and In This Corner Of The World (adaptation now on Netflix). Her stories are quiet, delicate, and brash.

20) GG draws lusciously. The work I've seen from her has a Murakami-esque sense of mystery, simultaneously inviting, distant, and alienating.

21) HERO writes Horimiya, a book about a young couple trying to figure out 1) just how to love each other, and 2) just who they are going to be.

22) Haruko Ichikawa writes and draws Land Of The Lustrous, one of the most intriguing series out there, about the far-off future of the world, where people are gems and they fight off constant attacks from people from the moon. It's way more interesting than that sounds.

I have to watch the kids for the next five hours or so, so I'll be back with more later. Just looking at these makes me remember how much I love comics. See you soon.

Baby is sleeping, little guy is watching Totoro, and the older two are making lunch, so I can squeeze in a couple more!



23) Hiromu Arakawa created Fullmetal Alchemist, among the greatest shonen adventure books of all time. She also created the lovely farming comic Silver Spoon.

24) Hisae Iwaoka created, so far as I know, only one comic, Saturn Apartments, in which she uses the story of a space station window washer to ennoble the human spirit against the grinding bureaucracy of the class-based society.

25) Isabel Greenberg is the best. Her stories are lively, heartfelt, and true. Encyclopedia Of Early Earth and its follow-up 100 Nights Of Hero feature some of the best storytelling and really push the importance of Story for any culture.

26) Jen Van Meter writes Hopeless Savages, the chronicles of the children of famous rockers Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage. The second volume of the series ("Ground Zero") contains one of my favourite comic romances.

27) Jen Wang draws beautifully. Her style is, perhaps, manga-adjacent, bursting with colour, and crisp. She knows her game and excels at it.

28) Jillian Tamaki falls into the Eleanor Davis spectrum of creators, putting out wildly variegated work, all of which is worth considering. Her illustrations in This One Summer are perfect and many of the stories included in Boundless are excellent.

29) June Brigman was the first comics illustrator whose work I recognized and followed. Despite having read some Spider-Man and Micronauts and X-Men, it was her Power Pack work that got me into comics.

30) Kaoru Mori draws what looks like effortless intricacy. It's not effortless at all, but man does it look smooth. Check out Emma, a cross-class romance at the turn of the Edwardian era, and A Bride's Story, which follows wedding cultures in the Great Game-era Caspian region.

31) Karine Bernadou's Canopy is a heartstopping fable of What It Can Be Like To Be A Woman (your own personal caveats and experiences will bear, of course). Beautifully illustrated and stark - and pretty tough stuff.

32) Kate Beaton has produced some of the funniest work on the internet (both her autobio-focused interactions with her parents and literary stuff like Dude Watchin' With The Brontes). Also some of the most heartbreaking (like Ducks and her comics concerning her sister's cancer).

33) Katherine Wirick created something amazing. No One Is Safe is a 50 square-inch work telling a story about her father and the Kent State massacre on a single page. I have a 36x36" print of it and it's magnificent. https://www.katherinewirick.com/no-one-is-safe

34) Kathryn Immonen writes delightfully frenetic work for Stuart Immonen to illustrate. Among their best work so far is Russian Olive To Red King (a ghostly story of loss and yearning) and Moving Pictures (a witty WWII interrogation book about missing museum art).

35) Kazune Kawahara wrote the precious, comfortable, funny, and warming romance with My Love Story. Some might find it too sentimental or cloying, but for me it was basically perfect.

36) Kerstin A LaCross makes outdoorsy comics like How To Poop In The Woods. Bashers is like a shorter version of Luke Healy's Americana, only totally different! https://bashers.kerstin-lacross.com/comic/page-001/

37) Kristen Haas Curtis does great diary comics, but one of my favourite projects of hers was Princess Wolf, in which she adapts her daughter's sometimes coherent story to paper, often with interjections and corrections from her daughter. It's why comics were invented.

38) Kyoko Okazaki, before a debilitating accident in the '90s, created eviscerating comics that skewered society and its treatment of women. Her work is funny and dangerous and bites ferociously. Check out Helter Skelter and Pink.

Alright. Time for another break! Baby wants to eat.





39) Lark Pien, in addition to making her own comics like Long Tail Kitty, has been a mainstay on Gene Luen Yang's books as a colourist, giving books like American Born Chinese, Boxers & Saints, and Dragon Hoops their vital, forthright tone.

40) Linda Medley in the late '90s built a wonderful world that felt based off faery tales but really had its own thing going on. Castle Waiting boasts a charming, varied cast in its slice-of-life dramas set in a lightly magical castle.

41) Liz Suburbia in Sacred Heart blows our socks off with a post-rapture story of rock-n-roll and teenage teenager-ness. And murder.

42) Lucy Bellwood, a valuable cartoonist any old day, is absolutely the bee's knees when it comes to nautical comics. Baggywrinkles is where you want to go to read all about the world of ships and sailors. And coming soon, a *thing* featuring capybaras! Which is my love language.

43) Lucy Knisley focuses on autobio comics and her book Relished is a refreshing piece of memoir organized by recipes. We prepared some of her meals and they were delicious.

44) MK Reed produced with Greg Means the enjoyable Cute Girl Network, but my favourite of her work is on last year's Penny Nichols, the story of a young woman who begins working on an indie horror film crew. She also wrote a couple of my son's favourite Science Comics.

45) Marguerite Abouet is responsible for the writing of the Aya Of Yop City books, featured in my Top 100 comics of all time, the story of a young woman and her family and friends in a particular bygone era of Cote d'Ivoire.

46) Mari Okada, in addition to some well-regarded anime like Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, is the writer of last year's blow up comic about young women exploring their sexual selves through literature, O Maidens In Your Savage Season. It's really an amazing series.

47) Marie Pommepuy is the female half of the illustrating team Kerascoet, responsible for Beauty, Miss Don't Touch Me, and Beautiful Darkness.

Taking another break. Going to watch the rest of Knives Out and put the little guy to bed. I mean, fingers-crossed he'll go to bed.

Time change!! *shakes first at the heavens*



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48) Marnie Galloway is creator of the gorgeously illustrated In The Sounds And Seas, a mythopoetic creation story.

49) Meredith McLaren went from her own book hinges to drawing Kelly Thompson's Heart In A Box, but my favourite of her work I've so far read is vol 4 of Hopeless Savages, which is fueled by her wild expressiveness.

50) Minna Sundberg creates stunning page after stunning page for her webcomic Stand Still Stay Silent. I am in awe of both her talent and the regularity with which she produces these masterpieces.

51) Mitsuhisa Kuji wrote and drew the most nauseatingly violent comic I've ever read, Wolfsmund, a historical fiction that retells the battle that gave Switzerland its freedom.

52) Molly Mendoza's Skip was one of the big revelations of 2019. Her hallucinatory style was perfect for its story of falling through realities.

53) Moro Rogers built a wonderful of monsters and one lone monster hunter in City In The Desert, and followed that with a dinosaur vs dinosaur in which the bad-guy T-rex is really just trying to save the world.

54) Moyoco Anno, like Kyoko Okazaki, put together comics that delight in poking at the seams of the patriarchy. Sakuran, In Clothes Called Fat, and Buffalo 5 Girls all provoke with anarchic clarity.

55) Ngozi Ukazu created the cutest comic about foul-mouthed hockey players and a darling little gay man who just wants to bake delicious pies. And I guess get better at hockey.

56) Paru Tiagaki makes Beastars, a high school drama that's like Zootopia for grown ups. It's television adaptation hits Netflix next week.

57) Penelope Bagieu is a superbly fun illustrator. Her work in Brazen is vivacious and strong. Likewise in her other work, but Brazen's my favourite so far.

58) Q Hayashida is a madwoman. Dorohedoro is a depraved, hilarious masterpiece of grotesqueries, humour, and heart. The series took her 18 years, but it's shockingly good.

59) Raina Telgameier is such a delight to her middle grade fandom that her books have unheard-of-in-the-US intital print runs for comics. Smile, Drama, Sisters, Ghosts, Guts, and a handful of Babysitters Clubs books.

60) Rosemary Valero O'Connell really hit it big with last year's Laura Dean, but I'm still gushing about her sci-fi short What Is Left.

61) Rumiko Takahashi is a gem, one of the great all-timers. Her work is funny and brash and showed us where we could go if we wanted to follow.

62) Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds is a fantastic book about life and longing and the mystery of mysteries. And The Property is even better.

63) Ryoko Kui is currently on of my kids favourite creators. One of mine too, as Delicious In Dungeon is essentially the perfect book that I had no interest in before trying the first volume. Now I can't wait for each new addition.

64) Saho Tono rarely gets the credit, but she works with her husband Taiyo Matsumoto on astonishing books like Sunny.

65) Sandrine Revel authored the single best graphic novel biography I've yet encountered, Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo. It's a delirious dreamlike jumble, told from that moment within the stroke that took Gould's life.

66) Sarah Burgess creates comics about young people being young - and also about young people being in love or anguish or both. It's delightful and smart. Check out her Summer Of Blake Sinclair and her current work, The Princess Beast.

67) Shimura Takako made Wandering Son, a delicate, warm, and vibrant story about an elementary school-aged boy and girl exploring their place in society's gender norms. Unfortunately, US release of the book stalled at the halfway point. Also: her series Sweet Blue Flowers

68) Sophie Goldstein's The Oven is a short, spartan book about the future and being married and how it all goes wrong when we find what we want differs from what we acquiesce to.

69) Tan Jiu makes the rather one-sided romance comic Their Story. New episodes come out sporadically, but they're always some combination of warm, cute, or funny.

70) Tillie Walden is a phenomenon. The imagination employed not just in her plots, but in her page design as well is extraordinary. End Of Summer and On A Sunbeam are not to be missed.

71) Tomo Takeuchi draws beautiful people sweating profusely. I mean, really she draws ballroom dancing comics, but in so dong does not remotely skimp on the sweat. Welcome To The Ballroom is still, I believe, on extended hiatus for health reasons. Get well soon!

72) Tsukumizu took the end of the world and the last humans living on earth and taking their final tour of the post-apocalypse - she took that and made it the coziest excursion into wonder and philosophy and love for a friend.

Oops. That comic is Girls' Last Tour.

73) Vera Brosgol needs to do more comics, for sure. Two major graphic novels (Anya's Ghost and Be Prepared) and some Hopeless Savages chapters is really not enough. She was doing Draw This Dress for awhile. I can't get enough of her illustrations.

74) Yoshitoki Oima is currently mired in To Your Eternity, a project so expansive and ambitious that I can't yet tell if it's good or fell apart volumes ago, she also did one of the greatest stories of human frailty and redemption and acceptance in the medium, A Silent Voice.

75) Yukiko Seike took Makoto Shinkai's somber masterpiece 5 Centimeters Per Second, adapted it to comics, and made it read like it wasn't written by a downer 26yo. The tenor of her work and his is so vastly different and I love her for it.

You can follow @sethhahne.

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