MONSTRESS LENDS STEAMPUNK FLAIR TO KAIJU-INFESTED FANTASY
The all-new epic series by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda begins this November 

"[Marjorie] is as imaginative as she is prolific."
—USA Today

New York Times bestselling author Marjorie Liu (Astonishing X-Men, Black Widow) and artist Sana Takeda (X-23, Ms. Marvel) come together for the all-new ongoing fantastic adventure, MONSTRESS, first announced at Image Expo and set to launch from Image Comics this November. 

“Monstress is the story I’ve wanted to tell for years, a dark epic fantasy about a young girl who has suffered tremendous loss and who isn’t quite certain how to put herself back together—if that’s even possible. To make matters worse, she fears something else is living inside her: a monster. And she’s right to be afraid,” said Liu on why she was first inspired to write MONSTRESS.

“My other motivation for telling this story is that powerful women are always imagined as monstrous. Bringing women, monsters, and power together—setting this in a world that never was, and could be—is something that speaks to my heart. Every single girl in the world has had to fight to have herself heard, to have space and a self in societies that try their best to deny them all three. Every single girl, whether we want to recognize it or not, is a warrior. And me writing about a young warrior woman is less a fantasy than a reflection of what it means to grow up a woman in societies like ours. 

And then there’s Sana Takeda, who is a genius. It’s really that simple. Magic? She’s got that, too. Her vision, and sense of story and beauty is beyond compare. I am in constant awe of her talent. That this is also an ongoing monthly comic written and drawn by two women of color, two Asian women—Chinese-American and Japanese—is also satisfying on a totally different level.” 

In MONSTRESS, steampunk meets Kaiju in an alternate 1900s Asia, where a teenage girl named Maika begins to unravel her mysterious past, and in the process discovers a psychic connection to a powerful otherworldly creature, one of many that roam the earth—a connection that will transform them both, and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers... 

MONSTRESS #1 (Diamond Code SEP150509) will launch at triple size, weighing in at 72 pages for only $4.99 and in stores on Wednesday, November 4th. The final order cutoff deadline is Monday, October 12th. Pre-order cards are available online for customers: http://monstress-comic.tumblr.com/preorder.

About Marjorie Liu: 

Marjorie in an attorney and the author of over nineteen novels and two New York Times bestselling series: the Hunter Kiss urban fantasy novels about a woman covered in demonic tattoos; and the Dirk & Steele paranormal romances, following a group of psychic and non-human misfits: mermen, gargoyles, shape-shifters, and witches. 

Marjorie is also celebrated for her comic book writing and is a popular panelist at conventions and other domestic and international comic book and literary events. 

Marjorie co-wrote the bestselling Dark Wolverine series for Marvel, and authored NYX: No Way Home, X-23, Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, and Astonishing X-Men, which received national media attention for the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and his boyfriend, and was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for its 'outstanding representation of the LGBT Community'. Additionally, she wrote the story for the Marvel animated film, Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher, produced by Marvel, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. and Madhouse Inc. Marjorie also gained national attention with the paranormal romance video game, Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, which was based on her novel, Tiger Eye. The game was featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, was a top ten bestseller at Big Fish Games, and is now available at select major retailers. 

This fall, Marjorie will be authoring her first creator-owned ongoing with Image Comics: MONSTRESS, a highly anticipated epic steampunk fantasy about a teenage girl who has a psychic connection to a monster. Set in an alternate 1900’s Asia, MONSTRESS pairs Marjorie with Sana Takeda, her former artist on X-23. Other upcoming work includes as-yet unnamed projects for Marvel and Dark Horse. 

Marjorie attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin for her undergraduate studies, majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures, with a minor in Biomedical Ethics. She then attended law school at the University of Wisconsin. For more than 16 years, Marjorie studied and traveled throughout Asia, working briefly at the US Embassy in Beijing, China. In 2004 she gave up practicing law to become a full-time writer, and divides her time between the American Midwest, Boston, and Beijing, China. She is a Lecturer at MIT, teaching comic book writing, and also leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation workshop.

Praise for Marjorie Liu: 

“[Marjorie Liu] consistently offers audiences her visionary creativity in tying socially relevant issues with genre fiction… Liu’s superb mastery [is] involving readers at a deep emotional level...That act of finding the inherent drama is the high art of Marjorie Liu, and the signature of a true master storyteller." ­—Pop Matters on Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #51

“Artists have paint brushes, musicians have instruments and writers have… well I guess they have keyboards. Liu is by far one of the most imaginative writers out there. From the opening sentence to the final period, you're invested in this world of fantastical wonder! It's breathtaking and marvelous all at the same time… No writer today is like Liu and I lovingly long for that freshness, from all of her stories. She's talented beyond her years and if it's not clear this far in my review, I'm a fan.” —I Smell Sheep on Labyrinth of Stars 

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.