Author: Newsroom
PORTLAND, Ore. 04/28/2025 — The multiple Eisner, Harvey, Ringo, and Hugo Award winning New York Times bestselling series, Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, hits its milestone 10th anniversary this year. In celebration of the momentous achievement, an equally momentous, door-stopping Monstress Compendium One paperback edition is slated to hit shelves this Fall from Image Comics.
This highly-anticipated collected edition will be comprised of Monstress issues #1-48 and provide a binge-able new entry-point for readers just discovering Maika’s dark arcane quest.
“In a lot of ways, Monstress is one of our secret weapons,” said Eric Stephenson, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer at Image Comics. “Since the first trade paperback was released, it has sold and sold and sold, making it one of our most successful series of the past 10 years. For anyone not already seduced by this series’ many charms, this massive compendium is a great opportunity to fall in love with one of comics’ modern masterworks.”
The richly imagined world of Monstress is an alternate 1900s Asia, with an art deco-infused steampunk aesthetic that’s brimming with arcane dangers. Within it, a teenage girl struggles to overcome the trauma of war, a task that’s made all the more difficult by her mysterious psychic link to an eldritch monster of tremendous power—a connection that will transform them both, and place them in the crosshairs of both human and otherworldly powers.
Monstress first launched in 2015 and has gone on to be reprinted many times, has garnered a slew of accolades including multiple Eisner Awards, Harvey Awards, a Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and British Fantasy Award. It has snagged spots on Best of Year lists including those of Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Thrillist, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and the American Library Association’s YALSA list. Liu broke the glass ceiling in 2016 when she made history as the first woman ever to win an Eisner Award the the Best Writer category for her work on the series.
Monstress Compendium One paperback (ISBN: 9781534328334) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, September 24 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, October 7.
Monstress is also available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, and Omnibus.
Select praise for Monstress:
“Liu’s accomplishment is impressive. She’s created characters who feel larger than life, but whose motivations and values are almost always obscure.” —NPR
“If you want big, beautiful, terrifying, violent magic, Monstress is your next favorite comic.” —Cosmopolitan
“…as ambitious as George R.R. Martin or J.R.R. Tolkien…” —The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Takeda’s visuals recall realistic, gritty manga such as Lone Wolf and Cub, with magic and monsters to rival those of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.” —Publishers Weekly
“Intricate and detailed, with a definite manga influence, Takeda’s artwork creates a lush and dangerous world for Liu’s equally dangerous characters. The work is infused with feminist themes; almost all of the characters are strong—and deadly—women.” —School Library Journal
“Filled to the brim with awesome.” —Kirkus Reviews
“World-building on a scale rare in mainstream comics.” —The Hollywood Reporter
“Feels like a battle cry.” —Vox.com