Brooklyn Cartoonist Kevin Alvir Debuts with Quirky Coming-of-Age Graphic Novel This September from Top Shelf Productions
A new hero arises… and her name is Lisa Cheese. For lovers of crackling fury, crazy conspiracies, and crunchy rock jams, Top Shelf Productions is proud to present Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar: Attack of the Snack, the debut entry in a raw and spectacular new series of graphic novels from Brooklyn cartoonist, musician, and educator Kevin Alvir, hitting shelves in September.
“I started drawing Lisa Cheese comics in my lined notebook at one of my jobs, as an outlet for my feelings about starting out in the workplace,” says Alvir. “In recent years, I returned to this character with a new understanding of the world, and she grew into this bombastic Jack Kirby level superhero, in my own ridiculous way. I hope readers can see themselves in Lisa and be inspired to interact with a heavy world with a light heart.”
In Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar, a sweet unicorn girl from another dimension moves to Earth City hoping to make a name for herself as a folk singer…but her very first open mic is a disaster, leaving her with a bionic arm and an identity crisis. Now she’s starting a crummy office job, her parents back in their home dimension are laying on the guilt trip, and the cool girl at the record store leaves her tongue-tied. But once she’s drawn into a knock-down, drag-out encounter with a gang of hamburger-headed goons from the sinister megacorporation Beef is Burger, Lisa must rally a ragtag band of supernatural hipsters, conspiracy freaks, and burnt-out office coworkers to thwart their diabolical ambitions!
With explosive energy and a razor-sharp edge, Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar skewers everything from youth culture trends to corporate capitalism, capturing the restless spirit of Generation Z just as Scott Pilgrim and Rick and Morty did for millennials. This off-beat urban fantasy is a bombastic celebration of rough-hewn vintage superhero aesthetics, zine-punk audacity, crusty lo-fi passion, and the power of a perfect pork bun.
“You’ve heard of ‘quiet quitting’? Well, Lisa Cheese is as loud as it gets,” says Top Shelf editor Leigh Walton. “Kevin Alvir grabs a fistful of all the frustration and joy of being young and broke in the big city, dunks it in the radioactive ooze of Steve Ditko and Gary Panter, and comes out swinging with an unstoppable cyborg punch.”
Alvir’s off-the-charts creativity has been featured in the pages of Funny or Die, Blackbook, Brooklyn Mag, Edible, The Neu Jorker, on albums for acts such as Gabe Liedman, Nicole Yun, Essex Green, Holy Tunics, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and on television screens for Will Ferrell and for High Maintenance on HBO. Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar: Attack of the Snack marks his first full-length graphic novel.
Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar (Book 1): Attack Of The Snack
By Kevin Alvir
Published by Top Shelf Productions, an imprint of IDW Publishing
ISBN 978-1-60309-528-0
$19.99 US / $26.99 CAN
168-Page Softcover, 6.5″ x 9.5″
On-Sale: September 2023
Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar is available for pre-order everywhere books and comics are sold. For more details and pre-order options, visit Penguin Random House or visit www.comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you.