SUPERMUTANT MAGIC ACADEMY

The New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Jillian Tamaki is best known for co-creating the award-winning young adult graphic novelsSkim andThis One Summer--moody and atmospheric bestsellers. SuperMutant Magic Academy, which she has been serializing online for the past four years, paints a teenaged world filled with just as much ennui and uncertainty, but also with a sharp dose of humor and irreverence. Tamaki deftly plays superhero and high-school Hollywood tropes against what adolescence is really like: The SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep school for mutants and witches, but their paranormal abilities take a backseat to everyday teen concerns. Science experiments go awry, bake sales are upstaged, and the new kid at school is a cat who will determine the course of human destiny. In one strip, lizard-headed Trixie frets about her nonexistent modeling career; in another, the immortal Everlasting Boy tries to escape this mortal coil to no avail. Throughout it all, closeted Marsha obsesses about her unrequited crush, the cat-eared Wendy. Whether the magic is mundane or miraculous, Tamaki's jokes are precise and devastating. SuperMutant Magic Academy has won two Ignatz Awards. This volume combines the most popular content from the webcomic with a selection of all-new, never-before-seen strips that conclude Tamaki's account of life at the academy.

Jillian Tamaki is a Canadian cartoonist and illustrator. She is the co-creator of the graphic novelSkim (with Mariko Tamaki), which was listed as one of the New York Times' Best Illustrated Books of 2008 and was nominated for four Eisner Awards. Her second collaborative work with Mariko Tamaki, the graphic novel This One Summer, was a New York Times Bestseller, won the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award, and became the first graphic novel to be given a Caldecott Honor. Tamaki has won two Ignatz Awards for her work onSuperMutant Magic Academy.