Flavor Girls: Return to the Mothership #[nn]

History

The Flavor Girls property originated in 2022 as a three-issue limited series published through Archaia, BOOM! Studios' award-winning graphic novel imprint, with Locatelli-Kournwsky serving as sole writer and artist and Eros De Santiago providing colors; the original series ended on a cliffhanger. More than two years passed before Return to the Mothership was announced in September 2024, this time with Angel De Santiago handling coloring duties alongside Locatelli-Kournwsky. The creator, a French illustrator and cartoonist based in Tokyo with prior Archaia credits including Persephone, conceived the characters years before publication, describing them as having evolved from a handful of initial character sketches into a fully realized world of superheroes, aliens, and ecological themes. Senior BOOM! Editor Dafna Pleban, who shepherded the original series, highlighted the book's dual bande dessinée and manga DNA as central to its editorial identity.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Flavor Girls: Return to the Mothership is a three-issue limited series (#1–3) published by BOOM! Studios under its Archaia imprint, with issue #1 on-sale December 4, 2024, #2 on January 15, 2025, and #3 on February 12, 2025.
• The series is written and drawn entirely by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky, a French cartoonist and illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan, with coloring by Angel De Santiago — continuing the creative partnership that began on the 2022 original series.
• It is a direct sequel to the 2022 Flavor Girls limited series (#1–3, also Archaia/BOOM!), which introduced the team of Sacred Fruit Guardians — Naoko (Dragonfruit), Camille (Pomegranate), V (Artichoke), and new recruit Sara (Pineapple) — and ended on a cliffhanger.
• The central narrative of Return to the Mothership takes the team to Okinawa to investigate an ancient underwater civilization, where they discover Agarthian ruins that pre-date the aliens' known invasion — a lore-expanding development that reframes the nature of the alien threat.
• Issue #1's cover A is by series creator Locatelli-Kournwsky; the variant cover (Cover B) is by Toni Infante (Champions). Issue #2's variant is by Rian Gonzales, and issue #3's variant is by Frany.
• Each issue in the series runs as an oversized single issue (issue #2: 43 pages; issue #3: 47 pages of story content), with Sophie Philips-Roberts serving as editor and Matt Gagnon as Editor-in-Chief.
• The three issues were collected in a hardcover trade paperback (ISBN 979-8-89215-381-2), released August 11, 2025, distributed through Penguin Random House.
• BOOM! Studios and Locatelli-Kournwsky positioned the series as accessible to new readers with no prior knowledge of the original Flavor Girls run, broadening the potential audience for the franchise.