Image Comics has announced the debut of a new action series, Big Girls, this August! Big Girls comes entirely from the mind of Jason Howard, the critically acclaimed artist of Trees, who is pulling double duty as both the author and artist of the new comic. The series seems to be a modern take on kaiju which will almost certainly focus thematically on female empowerment and gender politics.

From Image: When men become giant monsters hellbent on destroying the world, only girls can stop them—Big Girls. Meet Ember—she writes poetry, loves to read, and she’s a 300-foot-tall full-time monster killer! She and the other big girls are all that stand in the way of our world’s complete annihilation!

Hopefully, the fact that Big Girls is being produced entirely by one creator will allow Jason Howard to really flex his creative muscle without burning himself out– it seems like a huge undertaking! Howard says of the series: “[this is] the perfect comic for both the dynamic sci-fi I like to draw and for my writer side to examine questions of power, inequality and the complexity of growing up.”

What pops out most to me is the description of the series’ action, which is touted as being similar to the fast-paced sequences of John Wick and Paper Girls. That sounds at odds with most giant-monster fiction, which tends to be lumbering and slower, with the exception of the other major comparison title Pacific Rim. The fact that Ember has some kind of giant handgun seems like a lot of fun and might make the John Wick comparison more apt than it sounds. Check out a few sample pages:

Big Girls #1 (Diamond Code JUN200012) will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, August 12 and will also be available for purchase across many digital platforms, including the official Image Comics iOS app, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play.