Greetings comic lovers! We’re kicking off this post SDCC 2026 with an interview with the supremely talented writer and Eisner nominee, Stephanie Williams. You may know her work on DC’s Nubia: Queen of the Amazons or Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She’s also written “My Little Pony” for IDW. She’s more recently gotten accolades for her creator owned book “Roots of Madness” published by Ignition Press with Illustrator Letizia Cadonici and with colors by Alessandro Santoro. Along with “Temporal” published by Mad Cave Studios and “Street Sharks” from IDW, her work on these titles garnered her a best writer Eisner nomination which places her as the first black female writer to be recognized in the category.
Her talent for taking pieces of her life as a research scientist infused in “Roots of Madness,” resuscitating the old IP of “Street Sharks” and her unique take on time travel in “Temporal” have set Stephanie on a career path that is truly an inspiration to witness with a unique body of work that welcomes all connoisseurs of the graphic medium. Let’s get to the good stuff!
Chris Allo: What drew you into wanting to work in the comics industry? What was the first comic book, OGN or character that made you really see the power and potential of the medium?
Stephanie Williams: It all happened pretty organically. I worked in science (Electron Microscopy) before making a full transition into freelance writing. Whether I was blogging, podcasting, or writing a piece for an entertainment website, comics were always part of the conversation for me. Eventually, I started to ask myself why just write about comics when I could write them, especially for stories and characters I wish existed. Thanks to my love of research, I found resources like Jim Zub’s website and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, as well as trade paperbacks of some of my favorite comic stories with the scripts included, to begin learning how to write comics from a craft standpoint. I knew I had the ideas, but I needed the structure. Thankfully, everything I had been doing fed into my journey, so much so that the “Evolution of the Dora Milaje” piece I wrote (my first piece for SYFY Fangrrls) is actually what got me on DC’s radar for Nubia. So my love of the medium was as a fan and a critic long before I was a creator, and I think that’s the lens I never lost.
As far as the first comic book that made me really see the power and potential of the medium, I would say it was a mix of Dwayne McDuffie and Mark Bright’s Captain Marvel one-shot from 1989 and also Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, which is Monica Rambeau’s origin story. If it’s not obvious, I’m a big fan of Monica.
You’ve worked on a number of books for both Marvel and DC. As well as smaller publishers, what are the challenges you find unique to working on those properties?
With the big two, you’re a steward, not an owner. With Nubia, I was building out a world, Themyscira, the Amazons, that already had decades of history and beloved continuity, so the job was honoring what’s there while still adding something only I could add. There’s also the machinery part of it all, like the line-wide events, crossovers, and editorial coordination across a dozen books. And the fandom is enormous and intense, which is both a privilege and a pressure. The flip side is the support and the platform, and, honestly, the industry still has real work to do on pay, benefits, and protecting creators from the vitriol that comes with the job.
As a writer who’s written Nubia, Street Sharks, Wonder Woman, Scarlet Witch, The Family Snikt!, The New History of The DC Universe and Roots of Madness-can you tell us a little bit about your mental process? How do you get into the heads, hearts and minds of these disparate characters and worlds?
I over-prepare, and I read widely, not just in-house material. For Nubia, I read Madeline Miller’s Circe to get the texture of a story where women are at the center of the mythology, and I leaned heavily on George Pérez’s earlier understanding of the Amazons so Nubia wouldn’t read as a carbon copy of Diana. My comics-journalism background helps more than anything, as I’m used to taking a character a reader doesn’t know and making them feel welcome by anchoring it in something familiar. Sometimes that’s the soap opera of it all: Real Housewives, a sitcom, everyday mundane tasks embedded in extraordinary circumstances, while still feeding the longtime fans the nuggets they came for. And I trust the visual medium. Whenever I can, I always go toward “show, don’t tell.”
You also have a number of creator owned books out there. Roots of Madness being one that I really love. How do you approach those books versus corporate IP’s? Obviously, there are certain things you can do on creator owned that you may not be able to do at Marvel of DC.
The freedom is the whole point. Roots of Madness came straight out of my own life. I left a “stable” research-science career to pursue this, and the book is about a young Black woman, Etta, who picks up generational knowledge in a world that’s hostile to it, loosely inspired by Madame C.J. Walker. That’s a story rooted in my family’s survival lessons; nobody handed me those characters, and nobody can tell me what they’re allowed to feel or risk. With corporate IP, the character has to be recognizably theirs at the end. With creator-owned, the only obligation is to the truth of the story, and horror works best when there’s truth behind it. Similarly, the same with Temporal, which is also me pulling from my own life. It’s a story about a mother who wonders whether she’s doing enough, not only for her family but for herself. I love sci-fi action adventures that are centered around familial themes, and I got to explore it to the fullest extent without any creative constraints.
Generally speaking, are there any specific types of projects/genres that you like working on? What are some of the projects that you’ve worked on that really satisfied you as a writer?
I gravitate toward stories about Black women in community, mentoring, loving on, supporting each other, the friendships we don’t often get to see on the page. I also clearly have a streak of horror that I’m currently exploring and learning that I genuinely love. Nubia was deeply satisfying because she’d waited 50 years for her due. Temporal and Roots of Madness satisfied a different part of me entirely; they’re the most me thing I’ve written. Street Sharks was my chance to show what I could do with the most outlandish of characters. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to write them. And the work that started it all, Living Heroes, the fancomic reimagining Marvel heroines through a Living Single lens, is still close to my heart because it was pure joy and pure voice.
We of course have to shout out about your Eisner nomination as best writer of 2026 for Land Sharks, Temporal and no surprise here, Roots of Madness. What was that like when you heard the news? The first black woman to be nominated is milestone territory!
Honestly? It was surreal, and it hit in layers. The first wave is just the personal thrill of your name being on that ballot alongside writers you admire. But then the weight of what it actually was settled in. The first Black woman nominated for Best Writer in the Eisners’ 38-year history. Only the second Black writer ever, and the first since Dwayne McDuffie back in 1995 for Icon, and Dwayne is one of my inspirations, so to be mentioned in the same breath as him is its own kind of overwhelming.
What I keep coming back to is that a milestone like this reads as obviously significant to some people and as a footnote to others, and which one you are usually comes down to whether the history is yours. For the people who’ve been waiting to see themselves reflected in this category, it means something real. So I’m holding two things at once. I’m genuinely honored, and I’m also clear-eyed that a “first” arriving in 2026 says as much about where the industry still is as it does about me.
And I love that it’s for this particular trio, Street Sharks, Roots of Madness, and Temporal. A licensed book, a creator-owned cosmic horror, and a creator-owned sci-fi series, all in the same breath. That range is the whole career I’ve been trying to build, so to have it recognized all at once felt like the work finally being seen on its own terms.
What sage word of advice can you offer to young aspiring comics writers? What insights can you offer now that you have work, accolades and success under your belt?
Write the thing only you can write. The work that got me noticed was me being unmistakably myself, talking about characters I found important or funny, on my own terms. Don’t wait for permission or the “right” entry point. I got in through journalism and webcomics, not a traditional path. Read far outside comics. Protect your peace. Social media can feed you and drain you, so learn to take breaks on it, not just from it. And imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear with accolades, so make peace with doing the work and believing that you can.
Impostor syndrome is something a lot of us can relate to!
Any upcoming projects, creator owned or KS campaigns you’d like people to be aware of?
There are a few cool announcements that have happened recently, like the Black Caesar comic series I’m doing with Ray Anthony-Height for Shaquille O’Neal and Archie Comics. IDW just announced “Any Given Smile,” which I’m doing with Pablo Collar. Season two of “Warriors and a Wee Wonder” is on the way, now called “Warriors and a Tween Wonder.” There are additional announced projects for DC Comics that I am very excited about. And lastly, right now, the KS campaign for “Civil Disobedience” is happening!
Please check it out and support! You can still late pledge here
Thank you so much for your time enthusiasm, talent and authenticity, Stephanie! It seems like SDCC was so great for you with two new projects announced with DC, “Vixen” and an unnamed Donnay Troy series! Looking forward to these and all of the other books you will no doubt be penning soon!
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