Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem—Unicorn Superspy AGENT CUPCAKE Makes Her Middle-Grade Graphic Novel Debut!
Coming November 2025 from Triple Dream Comics – Mel Hilario, Katie Longua & Lauren Davis
COVER ART BY KATIE LONGUA
PORTLAND, OR (January 27, 2025)– Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, is proud to announce AGENT CUPCAKE—a middle-grade graphic novel full of spies, secrets, and a touch of sparkle! Perfect for fans of Mac B. Kid Spy and Spy School, go undercover and crack the case this November!
AGENT CUPCAKE hails from the Eisner-nominated team known as Triple Dream Comics. The trio, made up of Mel Hilario, Katie Longua, and Lauren Davis, previously collaborated on the computer science–themed graphic novel Debian Perl, Digital Detective.
Twelve-year-old Miguel Mangayayam has always loved one thing: mystical beasts. So he’s thrilled when he’s hired by the Mystical Beasts Bureau (MBB) to be their first ever human spy, where he’ll use his encyclopedic knowledge of hippogriffs, mermaids, dragons, and more to solve the latest cases. Even better? He’s partnered with the supercool unicorn superspy, Agent Cupcake! Together, they’ll go undercover, gather intel, crack codes, and collect clues to solve the MBB’s toughest mysteries. But when they receive reports that unicorns are losing their magical powers, Miguel and Agent Cupcake will have to put their spy skills to the test to figure out why, even if it means going up against a mega-corporation like HOARD. Could someone be trying to steal magic to put unicorns out of business?
“As people who grew up on media like Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock, and Wishbone, we’ve always believed that curiosity, imagination, and whimsy should be part of learning,” said co-writer Mel Hilario.
“Agent Cupcake blends real world knowledge about secret messages, social engineering, spyware, and lock picking with a world where a mermaid can run a spy agency, a griffin can help you break into a safe, and unicorns use their magic to craft horrifyingly cute plushies,” said co-writer Lauren Davis.
“At the same time, it’s a very human story about learning how to fail, transforming passion into action, and figuring out where you fit in,” said artist Katie Longua.
Join the MBB and solve the case in the candy-colored mystical world of Agent Cupcake, all while learning facts about real-life spies and spycraft in the next graphic novel from the dream team that brought you Debian Perl: Digital Detective: Mel Hilario, Lauren Davis, and Katie Longua! AGENT CUPCAKE will get to the bottom of things in NOVEMBER 2025!
INTERIOR ART BY KATIE LONGUA
About the Creators:
Triple Dream Comics is the magical girl team of Mel Hilario, Katie Longua, and Lauren Davis. Their mission is to inspire a better world through stories. Together, they created the computer science–themed graphic novel Debian Perl, Digital Detective. Their nonfiction comic “Trickster, Traitor, Dummy, Doll” was nominated for the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Short Story. Their poster comic series, “Who is San Francisco?” was displayed at downtown bus stops by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Their comics have also appeared inThe Nib and Failure to Launch. As a symbol of their creative bond, they all have matching tattoos (designed by Katie, of course).
Mel Hilario is a writer who empowers readers by helping them understand the world around them. She received her MFA in creative writing from Mills College, has been a recipient of the Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and residencies at VONA (Voices of our Nations Arts), Las Dos Brujas Writers Workshop, Writing by Writers, and Hedgebrook. She has developed characters for toy lines, masterminded educational workbooks, and written wrenching essays, most recently for the Kindred Souls anthology Angry Women. She lives in Oakland, California, with two of the largest cats her friends have ever seen.
Katie Longua has the power to make anything more magical. She has designed toys, developed video games, created logos, illustrated comic book covers, and drawn frame-worthy infographics. Her self-published comics include the award-winning RÖK, Her Space Opera, and Munchies. She’s done work for BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Image Comics, IDW Comics, Oni Press, Tapas Media, the San Francisco Exploratorium, Girls Make Games, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. With a personal color palette that is both art and manifesto, she lives in a haunted house with her partner, Josh, and a small army of transforming robots.
Lauren Davis almost became a lawyer but found that her love of research and sharing weird facts was better suited to comics. After receiving her JD from the Georgetown University Law Center, Lauren wrote for several years at the speculative fiction blog io9 and eventually got her MFA in comics at the California College of the Arts. In addition to making comics, Lauren is a teaching artist and a longtime organizer of San Francisco Zine Fest. She also collected, edited, and published the comics anthologies The Comic Book Guide to the Mission and Sci-Fi San Francisco. Her 12-year-old self would be proud that she wrote a book about unicorns.