Cupcake & Astronaut

A one-eyed, three-armed, cupcake-loving protagonist’s strong desire to get to the moon powers the first collection of short graphic stories from the Japanese cover illustrator mysteriously named Question No. 6. The cycloptic heroine’s extra appendage might prevent her from fitting into any available space suits, but brandishing her shotgun helps her get one tailored. Space travel initially turns out to be not as exciting as she dreamed, but an onigiri-loving monster turns up just in time to keep things interesting. There is a great deal to like in this tale, which is for grown-ups but succeeds in the very best sense like a child’s picture book. Especially inspired are the wordless sequences and the author’s occasional full-page, moment-to-moment panels that almost resemble a flip book. Its color, form, and homage to mid-20th-century artistic styles make this volume a surreal space journey worth reading. (Mar.)