Oni Press Announces The Juiciest Tomato of All: Corita Kent, Pop Nun

Oni Press is bringing the life and work of artist, educator, nun, and social activist Corita Kent to the graphic novel shelf with The Juiciest Tomato of All: Corita Kent, Pop Nun, a new 144-page graphic biography written and illustrated by bestselling creator Alison Oliver.

Set for release on May 11, 2027, the book looks at a figure whose work became deeply connected to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. Kent combined bold color, silkscreen techniques, advertising language, pop culture references, literature, biblical text, and increasingly political messages into art that addressed poverty, racism, war, censorship, and social justice.

Her story is also one of contradictions that resist easy labels. Kent entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious order at 18, later became an educator and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College, achieved international recognition as part of the pop art conversation, and eventually left the order in 1968 before moving to Boston. Her work continued to evolve throughout her life, becoming more introspective after 1970 while she remained active in social causes.

Alison Oliver said she became fascinated with Kent after discovering her work in 2009 and being struck by the fact that such vivid, culturally engaged pop art had been created by a nun. That tension between artist and religious figure became one of the reasons Oliver felt Kent’s life deserved a fresh telling, particularly at a time when public conversation often tries to force complicated people into simple categories.

Oni Press editor Allyson Gronowitz also points to the continuing relevance of Kent’s willingness to challenge the status quo. Her art was not separated from the world around her; it was one of the ways she confronted it. Turning that history into a graphic novel creates a natural meeting point between biography and visual art, giving Oliver room to interpret Kent’s life through the same kind of image-driven storytelling that made the subject so influential.

The Juiciest Tomato of All: Corita Kent, Pop Nun is written and illustrated by Alison Oliver with lettering by Haley Rose-Lyon. The book will be released by Oni Press on May 11, 2027, with a cover price of $24.99. The listed final order cutoff is April 19, 2027.

For readers interested in comics history, pop art, biography, faith, activism, and the complicated people who live at the intersection of all of them, this one already has the ingredients for a very different kind of graphic novel spotlight.