This is a graphic novel anthology from Spanish women whose voice have been previously unheard. These stories needed to be heard. I loved the mix of mediums and art styles! Very creative.

Here’s my thoughts on each story as I read the:

1. Having a feminist dad is the most empowering thing.
2. 24 Hours - I liked the imbed flipped world where women were more prominent than men. The whole world flipped and all gender roles were reversed.
3. I liked how different disorders were portrayed as bugs.
4. There’s a disparity of female political reporters. And this story seeks the cause of this.
5. Poetry in a graphic novel!
6. Hollywood unfairness exposed. It’s not about how great your acting is, it’s lol about body image.
7. Shows empowerment over time and how little steps add up.
8. An essay intermingled.
9. “And when you’re different than everybody else due to your genders, culture, or ethnicity, you’re not allowed to have flaws. You have to be spotless every moment of the day.”
10. Women bios - inspiring.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Voices that Count is a beautiful comic anthology written for women by women. All of the art is so unique and stunning. Every story is also very different. I didn’t finish “The Bug” because the images were very disturbing and too much for me to handle. The rest of the stories were definitely thought-provoking conversation starters. This would be a fantastic book club book.

This graphic novel is a compilation of female centered stories. Each story is illustrated in a different style which I really liked! They all had different themes, and this was enjoyable to read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher IDW Publishing for an advanced copy of this new graphic novel anthology.

Growing up as a comic reader there was not much in the way of female representation in the books that I read. There was an occasional female writer, usually as a fill-in story, I can't think of an artist, which is probably my fault as much as the companies. Sure there was Dazzler, Ms. Marvel and the X-Men had a large contingent of female heroes, but to paraphrase Deadpool, the title was X-Men not X-People. Until I got a little older and started looking at alternative and independent comics and xines, I was really unfamiliar with any women creating comics. And didn't give it much thought. Representation is important.

Voices That Count: A Comic Anthology by Women is an anthology featuring the works of women as both writers and illustrators. Printed in Spain, this is the first translation of many of these works, by famous creators from overseas. The stories are slice of life tales about the emotional and physical tolls that are places on women just trying to get through the day, and life. Pressure on daughters, wives, mothers, on how to live their lives, how to look and how to act.

Being an anthology some of these stories are better than others. Some might not like the art, as it does fluctuate from story to story, one being realistic, the next looking like Steve Ditko at his trippiest. Again being an anthology that can be a problem, but I thought most stories the art complimented the story and vice versa. A few stories stood out Julio, about a father's support of his daughter, and 24 Hours, a story about gender reversal and how the world would be different. The art and story really work well on these two. Empowered is a strong tale about the female voice being ignored, which is a story that will stay with a reader well after the anthology is finished.

Highly recommended for young women how enjoy comics, even for young women who don't know much about comics, this might make them a fan, and show them that they are not alone. As for ages, I don't think anything is age inappropriate, I am sure that women at a very early age are learning how the world is going to treat them. What is more inappropriate is how women are being treated, and how society continues to allow this to happen.

Well illustrated collection of stories by women, about women. A nice range of styles of art and storytellying, range of still contemporary topics.

I loved this short story graphic novel anthology. The stories were all brilliant and I loved the art styles. Would highly recommend.

This book has a great concept. Unfortunately it suffers from the “Anthology Problem.” Some included stories are great, and some stories are bland. As a result, I am unsure how I feel about this book one way or another.

This was a beautifully illustrated book of short stories from Spanish women. Each story focuses on a different part of the writer's life, be it growing up with a feminist father, battling an eating disorder, or fantasizing about a matriarchal world. While some of the translation is awkward, the message comes across well, making this an overall refreshing and enjoyable read.

Genre: Graphic Novel/Collections/Women’s Fiction
Rating: 4 Stars
Spice Rating: 2 Stars*
*TW: ED

Thank you to IDW Publishing, NetGalley, and every author involved in this project for sending me a copy of Voices That Count in exchange for an honest review.

Voices That Count promised a compilation of stories that celebrate women as empowering beings, and it more than delivered on that promise. Not only was it a beautiful collection of stories from incredible and powerful women, but it also covered heavy topics that many women have experienced throughout their lives. It was beautiful – it was relatable – and most importantly, it proved that women’s voices not only count, but also matter.

The design style changes for every story, which I was hesitant about at first, but ended up enjoying. And luckily, if you’re not a fan of a story or an art style, you can literally just flip forward a few pages and start a new one (though I don’t advise skipping any of these stories because all of them were great). This was a quick read, but one that will stick with me for a long time.

My personal favorite stories included in this collection were:
Julio by Julia Otero
24 Hours by Lola García
Sexier by Leticia Dolera

This post will be published closer to publication date, so May 13, 2022
Publication date: June 14, 2022, Almudena Grandes
My Thoughts:

This anthology by female writers and illustrators is not American, so it is a little different, but what readers will see is that the feminist position in society, the lived experiences of females are equally inequitable around the world.

Saying that, what I enjoy about non-American anthologies by women about women is that they seem more hopeful and progressive. The heaviness of the American/Puritan/Conservative lens is exfoliated off of this anthology and it feels somehow more hopeful. I'm actually curious about this view of America-produced literature, especially contemporary literature or what I consider post-canonical literature, even #ownvoices literature as racialized imaginatives. I'm going to have to read more and think further on this, but this anthology opened up the questions around what makes American-produced literature, even comics, more racialized than international ones. I am hoping that the answer is not as simple as a mirror and window (thanks to Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop) to American society. I believe there is more to this.

I understand that this little divergence has nothing to do with this book, but here are the questions from this book. What does it mean to be a female in Spain? What does women supporting women look like in Barcelona? Read this book. Especially, read the love letters to each other that are provided by the authors to illustrators and illustrators to authors in the back material. Enjoy that the writing styles and art styles are as different from each other as female body types.

From the Publisher:
Brought to life by a host of talented creators, this graphic novel anthology dissects what it means to be a woman in today’s hyper-masculine world.

VOICES THAT COUNT is a collection of short comics that celebrates women. Printed in English for the first time, this Spanish collection highlights and uplifts women’s voices, collecting their stories of life, love, and empowerment. Interacting with everything from the realities of gender imbalance in the workplace—through a gender-flipped lens—to toxic beauty standards taking a toll on the body image of young girls, VOICES THAT COUNT gives women a space to recount their struggles and triumphs.

In the words of artist Ada Diez, “This comic shows the importance of an unconditionally supportive family environment, the necessity of the right educational groundwork as a feminist principle, and the key to fight for your dreams—understanding the importance of an individual’s independence, forgetting what’s been established by gender rules.”

This inspiring and thought-provoking volume collects nine stories from some of Spain’s best and brightest female authors and illustrators.

“Julio”, por Julia Otero (Julia en la Onda) y Ada Diez (Hits With Tits)
“24 horas”, por Lola García (La Vanguardia) y Agustina Guerrero (La Volátil)
“El bicho”, por Diana López Varela (No es país para coños) y Akira Pantsu (Planeta Manga)
“Auctoritas”, por Estefanía Molina (La Sexta Noche, Al rojo vivo) y Ana Oncina (Los f*cking 30)
“Soledad”, por Eva Amaral (Pájaros en la cabeza) y María Hesse (Frida Kahlo, Bowie, El placer)
“Más mujer”, por Leticia Dolera (Morder la manzana) y Raquel Riba Rossy (Lola Vendetta)
“Pasos de tortuga”, de Sandra Sabatés (El intermedio) y Sandra Cardona (Bouillon)
“Por una falda de plátanos”, de Almudena Grandes (Los besos en el pan) y Sara Herranz (La persona incorrecta)
“Mzungu”, de Patricia Campos (Tierra, mar y aire) y Sara Soler (En la oscuridad)

(I was unable to review this PDF as the firewall on my computer prevented it from being downloaded) I look forward to checking this book out once it comes out! It seems like a great representation of many voices.

Voices that Count is a small selection of short comics by women (both written and drawn). Published originally in Spanish as «Voces que cuentan: una antología», it gave complete freedom to the artists to tell the story they wanted to share with the world. Sadly, their first reaction, as explained in the prologue, was: I have nothing interesting to tell.
However, after reading the anthology a couple of times, I can confirm that their fear was unfounded. So, let’s get to it:
Julio, by writer Julia Otero and artist Ada Diez, is a really short story about the importance of the role of one’s father. Ada Diez’s colours, as the first we see, really give a punch.
24 hours, by writer Lola García and artist Agustina Guerrero, shows us an upside-down world where men and women’s position has been interchanged. It feels as it is something that should not be as obvious, but through the eyes of the main character, the reader is able to very easily pinpoint attitudes that should not be made normal in a day-to-day basis (and sadly are), and also some positive attitudes from men that should not come as a shock or a surprise or relegated to a made-up new utopian world (as it sadly sometimes is). Agustina Guerrero’s art is very easily recognisable and really fits the story.
The Bug, by writer Diana López Varela and artist Akira Pontsu, tells an autobiographical chapter of Diana’s life. It is, sadly, a well-known issue: eating disorders. Akira Pontsu’s use of colour to show the different stages or emotions, and the very manga-like art completely transforms this story and induces it with horror and grotesque elements that, in my opinion, makes it even better. My favourite from the anthology.
Empowered, by writer Estefanía Molina and artist Ana Oncina, makes the reader aware of the way women feel scared to speak up or share their knowledge and also the lack of women in important positions. The information given between the strips is something to really think about.
Loneliness, by writer Eva Amaral and artist Maria Hesse made me wonder if this was a song (Eva Amaral is a very well known Spanish song-writer) and I was missing something with the translation so I immediately went and checked, and, there it was, Soledad by Eva Amaral (2019). It was a very interesting exercise to listen to the music and read (and translate!) at the same time, and Maria Hesse’s art was so striking I had to go back a couple of times just to stare at it.
Sexier, by writer Leticia Dolera and artist Raquel Riba Rossy talks about the feminine figure and how others perceive it and think they can change it. It is based on the story of a friend who was told she needed bigger breasts in a TV performance, thus minimalizing any effort from her acting per se, simply because someone was more invested in her figure and not her work and had the urge to change that. Yikes.
Turtle Steps, by writer Sandra Sabatés and artist Sandra Cardona, is an amazing story that starts with no words and little by little, with gushes of red, shows the steps in the life of our main character and the choices she needs to make in order to find her place in the world.
Over a Banana Skirt, by writer Almudena Grandes and artist Sara Herranz, could maybe not be considered a comic, but the black and white images that accompany what starts as an anecdote and slowly transforms into much more, feel perfect.
Finally, Mzungu, by writer Patricia Campos and artist Sara Soler, also talks about the transformation of a woman, the different paths that she chooses in order to find her place, and thanks to journey, herself as well.
To sum up, I really enjoyed the anthology. The art was perfect in every single story, and even if some of them seemed more thought than others, I did not feel as if a story was out of place or just filling a space. It is, in my opinion, a great opportunity for international readers to check some writers and artist that maybe had not heard about before and it will be interesting to see if they feel connected or see themselves reflected in these stories.