Many readers got their first introduction to Sarah Graley’s work in last year’s unsummarizable Rick and Morty spin-off, Lil’ Poopy Superstar. However, the Birmingham-based cartoonist has long been a fan-favorite in the UK scene, earning a nomination for “Emerging Talent” at the 2015 British Comic Awards for her self-published titles Rentquest, Our Super Adventure, and Pizza Witch. The latter is now getting a deluxe edition (with extra toppings) courtesy of Shiny Sword Press, and Broken Frontier has a preview before the book’s release on March 20.
Pizza Witch is the story of Roxy, a practitioner of “pizza magic” who falls head over heels for a lactose-intolerant cutie during a routine delivery. To win over her new love, Roxy embarks on a quest for a fabled cheese-free ingredient with her black cat familiar George in tow.
Graley’s work has an effervescent energy and inclusive worldview that recalls Boom Box! titles like Lumberjanes and Giant Days. As with those titles and all the pop punk songs you loved in high school, there’s also an honest emotional core to Roxy’s adventure that belies the more fantastical elements.
Originally serialized online in 2015, Pizza Witch had a limited print run as a reward for Graley’s Our Super Adventure Kickstarter. The new edition includes the complete original story with relettered pages in a deluxe hardcover edition along with a bonus short story and “making of” content. Think of it as the well-deserved Director’s Cut for an early work from a rising star.
Pizza Witch is available for order from her online store here before its release on March 20. Meanwhile, the collected edition of Lil’ Poopy Superstar will be released from Oni Press on March 7, and Graley’s new high-school-gothic-rom-com-fantasy Kim Reaper (also from Oni) debuts April 5.
For more on Sarah Graley’s work visit her site here and follow her on Twitter here.
