Since Kelly and I are doing our Female Creators countdown this week, I didn't have time to do spotlights on female-created comics like I normally like to do in March. Instead, though, I asked the nifty comic book writer Regine L. Sawyer to do some spotlights on fellow members of her Women In Comics NYC Collective. - BC

Alitha E. Martinez is a 16 year veteran of the mainstream comic book industry. She began her career in early 1999 as the Art Assistant of then Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada of Marvel Comics. She was assigned to do background artwork in various comic book series’ at that time. Soon afterward, she became a Penciler in her own right; working on such titles as ‘Ironman’, ‘X-men: Black Sun’, ‘Marvel Age Fantastic Four’, ‘Black Panther’, and ‘Voltron’.

She moved on to work for other companies as well. She has drawn almost every single character for DC Comics, with the exception of only Wonder Woman and Superman. In 2012, in collaboration with Gail Simone, Alitha penciled several issues of DC’s New 52 Batgirl. In addition to that, she was a featured artist during the reign of NBC’s ‘Heroes’, drawing several of the shows corresponding comic books. Mainstream wise, she is currently the artist for Paper Cutz comics, penciling two books: ‘WWE Superstars’ and ‘WWE Slam City’. With all that said; Alitha has worked on more books than I can count and more than this Spotlight could ever contain!

If Alitha wasn’t already busy enough, she also is the Owner and Founder of Ariot Storm Productions LLC; her own small press/multi-media company. The company produces such comic books as ‘Yume and Ever’, ‘Ningyo’ and her newest Interstellar Sci-Fi illustrated novella series ‘Foreign’. She can be found exhibiting her works at many conventions across the country. Her books and other merchandise are also available on www.ariotstorm.com.