This month, Oni Press will publish Mr. Muffins: Defender of the Stars, an action-packed adventure about the powerful connection between humans and their pets from GLAAD Media Award nominee Ben Kahn (Renegade Rule, Elle Campbell Wins Their Weekend) and illustrator Georgeo Brooks (Immortals Fenyx Rising: From Great Beginnings).
Ben Khan has graciously shared this wonderful personal essay below:
Personal Essay
by Ben Khan
“He’s so yellow.” That was my first thought the very time I saw my childhood dog. He was a little half-poodle half-cocker spaniel puppy. A cockapoo, a name that brought ten-year-old-me no small amount of delight. My mom had shown me pictures of the puppy that had been emailed to her, but you’re never prepared to see that level cuteness for the first time. That day, I had no idea the dog was even going to arrive. My sister and I had been told he was still a week away. But when my grandmother brought us back from lunch, there was my mother. Sitting on the kitchen floor with a bouncing, playing puppy. A tiny jellybean of fuzzy energy ready to lick and nip and get all the pets.
I named him Renegade, after my baseball team at Summercamp. And for the next seventeen years, he’d nap, growl, play, and eat everything in sight. Seriously, if it was edible, Renegade would eat it. Heck, sometimes he’d go for it even if it was inedible. If you spilled food on the floor, he was there as an ever-reliable furry vacuum cleaner. He wasn’t what others might have called the sweetest dog, but he was my buddy. He was my dog. Watching hours and hours of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and Air Bud with whoever Air Bud’s human was had filled my head with how special the bond between a dog and their person is. But the movies didn’t do the magic justice. Every face lick, every belly rub, every ear scratch, and I loved Renegade more and more.
Capturing how special and meaningful that bond is between a kid and their pet was my main goal writing Mr. Muffins. Well, that and making a bunch of super cool sci-fi space battles. Mr. Muffins tells the story of Reuben Mahmoud, an eleven-year-old slacker pulled into an intergalactic war when an alien crash lands in the park, and reveals that the new host of the Cosmic Spirit of Light, the chosen one destined to save the galaxy, is…his pet corgi, Mr. Muffins.
Reuben doesn’t want to spend his time dealing with homework, family obligations, or sports practice. But he’ll always find time to be with his best friend and pet. Aliens may say that Mr. Muffins is a dangerous weapon, or a cosmic chosen one, but to Reuben, he’s just a good boy. Mr. Muffins may be able to fly on magic rainbows and destroy battle ships with laser blasts, but in many ways he’s still a regular corgi who wants to get belly rubs, eat treats, and chase squirrels. And joining Reuben and Mr. Muffins on their adventure to defeat the dreaded alien HakarArmada is Lt. Cassara, a teenage alien soldier. Cassara lost her home world to the Hakar, and now seeks out the cosmic power residing with Mr. Muffins.
In a lot of ways, Mr. Muffins is a celebration of the cartoons and sci-fi I grew up loving. The original idea for the story was as simple as “How cute would it be if Star Wars, but a cute corgi instead of Luke Skywalker in an X-Wing?” Action & Cuteness going hand-in-hand was the name of the game, so I had the time of my life pulling from absolute favorites like Star Wars, Avatar the Last Airbender, Godzilla, and maybe most significant of all, Dragon Ball Z. That Dragon Ball influence only felt more meaningful to me and co-creator Georgeo Brooks after the untimely passing of creator Akira Toriyama. We decided to dedicate Mr. Muffins to his memory, it felt like the least we could do to honor the man who had inspired so much of our creative journeys.
The other side of Mr. Muffins’ themes is responsibility. Every pet owner knows it’s not all play time and snuggles, taking care of a pet is hard work. That cute little critter is relying you for all its care, and that responsibility needs to be taken seriously. When I started writing Mr. Muffins, I had just recently adopted a cat, my first pet as an adult. My partner and I named him Blargy, a silly name with no meaning beyond that it’s fun to say out loud. It was a name we had come up with for a theoretical corgi, but here was this cat—orange and white and about the size of a corgi. The name fit, so Blargy he would be.
Renegade had been my childhood dog, but my Mom had been there to do the real work. Blargy was my first time being truly responsible for a pet. And I bashfully admit, I absolutely became an over-protective cat dad. But hey, if you found a cat that loves belly rubs as much as Blargy does, you’d go to wild ends to pamper him spoiled too. Safety, nourishment, emotional support, being a pet’s human means committing yourself to fulfill all those needs. Pets give us so much, we owe it to them to give just as much back.
And so, when the story opens on Reuben, he’s at that precarious point of growing up where he’s still a kid, but real responsibilities are starting to be expected of him. At first, it’s something he rejects. To him, these obligations are impositions on his freedom. But the one responsibility he instinctively understands is looking out for Mr. Muffins. And through that bond and their adventures, Reuben will learn a lot about what it means to grow up, and be there for those you love.
I know my time with Renegade, with Blargy, and even with Mr. Muffins—fictional though he may be, taught me so much about love and responsibility. And so to everyone at home reading this curled up with a furry friend, please give them that extra scratch behind the ears.
Mr. Muffins
Defender of the Stars
By Ben Kahn
Illustrated by Georgeo Brooks
Published by Oni Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
LIST PRICE $14.99
Defender of the cosmos! Vanquisher of evil! Failure at frisbee??
Corgi shenanigans, epic space battles, and intergalactic heroes abound in this uplifting, action-packed adventure about the powerful connection between humans and their pets from GLAAD Media Award nominee Ben Kahn (Renegade Rule, Elle Campbell Wins Their Weekend) and illustrator Georgeo Brooks (Immortals Fenyx Rising: From Great Beginnings).
Eleven-year-old Reuben Mahmud just wants a break. When he takes his pet corgi, Mr. Muffins, to the park, he expects to get just that—a break. But what he gets instead is an alien invasion right smack dab in the middle of his neighborhood! Oh! And apparently Mr. Muffins is the chosen one destined to save the galaxy? This should be interesting . . .
Dragged into the middle of an epic space war, Reuben learns that the fate of the entire galaxy rests in Mr. Muffins’s adorable corgi paws. It’s going to take a lot more than tail wagging and butt waddling to end this war. To turn the tide of the conflict, intergalactic soldier Cassara must show Mr. Muffins how to tap into his cosmic power and be the hero the galaxy needs him to be. But when Mr. Muffins is separated from Reuben and a formidable giant mech-corgi arrives to conquer the world, Mr. Muffins’s powers are put to the test. Will Reuben be able to rise to the occasion to help his fluffy best friend? Do Cassara, Reuben, and Mr. Muffins have what it takes to end this war once and for all?
Publisher: Oni Press (January 21, 2025)
Length: 168 pages
ISBN13: 9781620108321
Ages: 8 – 12
About The Author
Ben Kahn is a GLAAD Media Award–nominated writer working in New York City, with years of experience writing for comics, video games, and prose. Their other titles include the GLAAD–nominated graphic novel Renegade Rule (Dark Horse Comics) and their prose debut, Elle Campbell Wins Their Weekend (Scholastic). When they’re not writing new stories, Ben likes to cook, watch scary movies, and play with the snuggliest kitty around.
About The Illustrator
Georgeo Brooks is a wildly elusive artist from Memphis, Tennessee. At a young age he discovered one of his many purposes in life: drawing fun characters making funny faces. In his spare time, he stares into the sky and ponders the meaning behind the quokka’s smile.
art credit- Ben Kahn / Oni Press
