I went to my local comic book store to see Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda speak about their collaboration, Monstress. Monstress is the story of a young girl, a survivor of war, who has a psychic link to an ancient monster.

"Goddammit -- Marjorie Liu is writing my book better than I ever could!"

In reality, I was super moved by Marjorie's eloquence and her insistence that we need more stories of women by women. And I was stoked to hear her talk about Asian female representation. (I've waffled on the question "would you publish under a pen name," but now I'm banishing those thoughts.) Sana, speaking through an interpreter, gave a moving account of how she doubts herself even now, despite Marvel approaching her to draw for them, and of how drawing and drawing Monstress have never been a cakewalk. Fans cried out compliments in disbelief, and she responded by reaffirming she wouldn't want to tell us anything but her true, personal story.

Anyway, pick up Monstress -- it's great, with a dense, lush, luminous world populated by strong women and diverse characters.