Jody Houser

Jody Houser is an American professional comics writer known for her work on adaptations and licensed properties. She was nominated for the Eisner Award in 2017 for her writing in the comic series Faith. Additionally, she was the writer on the second volume of Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins, which became a New York Times best-seller in September 2020.

Career

From 2010 to 2015, Houser self published the webcomic Cupcake POW!; she created the comic after reading a survey on the audience desire of female comic readers. Houser stated that "the summary was girls don’t need comics about 'princesses and unicorns and cupcakes'. And I thought, ‘Huh, what would a comic about a cupcake be like?'". PBS highlighted that Faith "sold out five times in its limited-run series, a significant feat in the comic book industry" which led to Valiant launching an ongoing series starting Faith, with Houser as the writer, in July 2016. Karen Walsh, for GeekMom in 2016, wrote that "Houser’s voice and her range place her on the precipice of comic writing popularity. I hope that with an ongoing Valiant book, she’ll be able to reach the level of respect and popularity she deserves. [...] Houser writes voices for the disaffected, manages to engage readers in the inner lives of characters, and is able to engage her readers by connecting to their varied lived experiences". In 2017, Faith (2016) was nominated for the "Best New Series" Eisner Award. Houser went on to write two sequel limited series: Faith & The Future Force (2017)

Houser was involved in several Geek & Sundry productions, including starring as Tkaah in the actual play web series VAST (2016) and guest starring as herself in the comics talk web show The Wednesday Club (2016) and as the Time Lord Corsair in the actual play web series TBD RPG (2017).

alt=Photograph of Houser at a WonderCon panel with a microphone seen in front of her face as she looks slightly to her right. She is wearing a jeans jacket with pins, blue framed glasses, and her shoulder length hair is partly dyed blue.

Houser was brought on to write Mother Panic (2017) for the DC Comics imprint Young Animal after she was asked by editor Molly Mahan to write several sample pages featuring Mother Panic to see if she "could nail [her] voice". In January 2017, Houser co-wrote two Justice League of America one-shot issues with Steve Orlando. In 2017 and 2018, Houser was a co-writer on several Supergirl issues during Orlando's run in the DC Rebirth era. This series was followed by the three-issue limited series Spider-Girls, which Houser wrote for the 2018 comics event Spider-Geddon. In 2022, Houser wrote a series of connected one-shots, collected as Ms. Marvel: Fists of Justice; each issue featured Ms. Marvel teaming up with a different hero (Wolverine, Moon Knight, and Venom). In 2023, Houser returned to the Renew Your Vows characters with a story arc in the digital comic series Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity Comic.

In 2025, she contributed to the one-shot anthology LA Strong: A Charity Comic for Victims of the LA Wildfires published by Mad Cave Studios. The Beat highlighted that all profits will be donated to "comic creators impacted by" the January 2025 Southern California wildfires. Also in 2025, Houser announced that she had been working as a writer on the upcoming video game March of Giants.

As part of Marvel's X-Men: Shadows of Tomorrow relaunch, starting in February 2026, Houser will be the writer on the upcoming ongoing series Generation X-23.

Adaptations and licensed properties Houser has written Star Wars adaptations for Marvel Comics such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Star Wars: Thrawn (2018). She also wrote the original limited series Star Wars: TIE Fighter (2019). Charlie Hall, reviewing TIE Fighter for Polygon, wrote "it's penned by Eisner nominated writer Jody Houser, who somehow made the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comic adaptation leaps and bounds more appetizing than the film itself. She also managed to reign in Timothy Zahn’s meandering reboot of the Grand Admiral Thrawn character with a series of clear, concise comics. TIE Fighter just might be some of her best work yet". In 2023, she wrote an arc for the Star Wars: Yoda (2022) limited series with artist Luke Ross and wrote the comic adaptation of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (2023) with artist Salvador Larocca. However, this was later cancelled, making the film the first in the franchise not to receive a serialized comic adaptation. The comic was later revived, with the first issue released in February 2025.

Houser has also written multiple comic runs on several other licensed properties such as Doctor Who (for Titan Comics), Stranger Things and Critical Role (for Dark Horse Comics). Houser was a member of the writer's room for the ongoing series Star Trek: Year Five which ran from 2019 to 2021. Then in September 2020, the trade paperback reached #13 on The New York Times Best Seller list in the "Graphic Books and Manga" category.

Personal life Houser studied English at the University of Miami with a focus on creative writing. In 2005, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. Houser enjoys role-playing games and is a player in a long running Star Wars role-playing game. In July 2021, Houser stated that she "had a full-time job while writing comics full-time for longer than I’d have liked" and she had only recently started "doing comics full-time".

Works

Dark Horse Comics Halo Wars 2 Halo: Rise of Atriox #2 (2017) StarCraft StarCraft: Scavengers #1–4 (2018) StarCraft: Soldiers #1 (2019) StarCraft: Survivors #1–4 (2019) Stranger Things Stranger Things #1–4 (2018) Stranger Things: Six #1–4 (2019) Stranger Things: Into the Fire #1–4 (2020) Stranger Things: Science Camp #1–4 (2020) Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons #1–4 (2020) Stranger Things: Tales From Hawkins #1–4 (2023) Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons: The Rise of Hellfire #1–4 (2025) Critical Role Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Series Two #1–6 (2019) Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins – Caleb Widogast (2022) Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Series Four #1–6 (2024) Farseer trilogy Assassin's Apprentice #1–6 (2022) Assassin's Apprentice II #1–6 (2023) DC Comics

Mother Panic Mother Panic #1–12 (2017) Mother Panic: Gotham A.D #1–6 (2018) Justice League of America Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1 (2017) Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy #1–6 (2019) Womanthology: Space "Trinkets" (2013) Orphan Black #1–5 (2015) Maximum Ride Max Ride: Ultimate Flight #1–5 (2015) Max Ride: Final Flight #1–5 (2016) Star Wars Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #1–6 (2016) Star Wars: TIE Fighter #1–5 (2019) Star Wars: Yoda #4–6 (2022) Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi – The Empire #1 (2023) Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi #1–6 (2023) Thrawn: Alliances #1–4 (2024) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Adaptation #1–5 (2025) Spider-Man Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #13–23 (2016) Spider-Girls #1–3 (2018) What If...? Dark: Spider-Gwen #1 (2023) Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity Comic #13–18 (2023) Black Widow The Web of Black Widow #1–5 (2019) Captain Marvel Captain Marvel: Braver & Mightier #1 (2019) Wolverine Wolverine Annual #1 (2019) Generation X-23 (2026) Venom Venom 2099 #1 (2019) Ms. Marvel Ms. Marvel & Wolverine #1 (2022) Ms. Marvel & Moon Knight #1 (2022) Ms. Marvel & Venom #1 (2022)

Titan Comics

Doctor Who Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #1–12, Season 1 (2018) Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #1–4, Season 2 (2020) Doctor Who: Alternating Current #1–4 (2020) Doctor Who: Defender of the Daleks #1–2 (2020) Doctor Who: Missy – The Master Plan #1–4 (2021) Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf #1–4 (2021) Doctor Who: Origins #1–4 (2022) Doctor Who: A Doctor in the House Part One & Two (2023)

Valiant Comics

Faith Faith #1–4, Volume 1 (2016) Faith: Dreamside (2018)

Big Finish Productions

Doctor Who Call Me Master: Monsters "The Ideal Quarry" (2025)