COSMIC PIZZA PARTY

A scrappy intergalactic team runs a traveling pizza restaurant in a food-based universe.

With narration provided by Cosmic Pizza Party’s android intern AL-N (pronounced “Allen”), each chapter serves as a stand-alone short story in this graphic novel. A helpful tip on the best cheese in the universe ends up being a trap; an advertising gimmick (a quantum-reality machine video game) goes rogue at a Calzonia royal birthday party; a bad review prompts them to fix a pizza crisis for a planet full of Plegans (who eat plastic and are sickened by organic materials); the hostile weather of a planet in the Marinaris System leads to destructively pyrrhic delivery attempts (this is the weakest chapter by far); and finally the team goes head-to-head against rival Papa Roni on the reality game show The Slice Is Right. The silliness of the concept—pizza ingredients as natural resources—is echoed in the shape of the ship (a food truck with wings, illustrated in a curvy retro-futuristic aesthetic), the punny humor, and wild character designs. Delivery pilot Meg, an anthropomorphic sloth, and pizza chef Suzie, a mecha-slug, both use female pronouns; robot AL-N and money-minded Mohs, a rocklike being, both use male pronouns. Despite the wackiness, the characters take their pizza business seriously, and they invite readers to as well—lengthy backmatter features additional art, profiles, quizzes, and pizza recipes.

Like an out-of-this-world pizza: cheesy, saucy, and delicious.