Canton couple combines talents to create superhero comic book

What happens when a trio of superhero sugar cookies work together to make the world a sweeter place? Chris and Stephanie Sabatino know the answer. The couple has created a superhero comic book for children using their own super talents.

Chris and Stephanie Sabatino

Their new book The Delicious Adventures of the Super Cookie Squad combines Chris’ talents as a freelance artist cartoonist with Stephanie’s passion and skill in creating customized decorated sugar cookies. Stephanie’s business is called Stephanie’s One Sweet Cookie.

Stephanie works at Boston Children’s Hospital in Administration Revenue Integrity, a position in which she works with the families of patients to ensure insurance coverage for patients. In addition to his freelance work, Chris does theater art for a professional play publisher and writes graphic novels for The Loud House program on Nickelodeon through Papercutz. He also acts and has a role in Lend Me a Tenor with the Community Players in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in February.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Chris found out that he could self-publish books that he wrote. “I love doing comic books,” he said. “I love doing superheroes.”

The couple loves to travel, often driving to their destinations. During one of those trips, they started talking about working together. Stephanie thought that they could create an activity book for children.

“Every time we had a long ride, something would spark that memory,” Stephanie said. “Chris is so inventive. I might think of something and then he has another way to express it. It’s a great collaboration.”

They decided to develop their idea of a comic book about cookie superheroes while on a trip to a wedding in Tennessee in October of 2023. They allowed three weeks for the trip south to attend the wedding and visit other areas, and used the time in the car to talk through the idea of the comic book.

“On that trip, we planned out the whole book,” Chris said. Their initial plans were fairly elaborate and they kept reminding themselves that their target audience was children. “I think kids today love superheroes. I think only younger kids would like the idea of cookies as superheroes.”

After the wedding, they stopped at a number of places on the way back, taking their time to visit a number of cities and sights. As Stephanie drove, Chris took notes on his iPhone. They had tickets to Comic-Con in New York City, which was their last stop before heading home.

“We had the best time,” Stephanie said. “We really made the time go by working on the book. And it didn’t feel like work. It was fun; it was exciting.”

The original idea of an activity book for children that included cookie recipes evolved into the cookie superhero comic book, which Chris said held his attention. The book consists of three stories. The first one introduces readers to Captain Cookie, Super Sugar Cookie, and Cookie Dough Boy. Children follow the team on their adventures as they help others.

“Steph is really responsible for the middle story, which she is in,” Chris said. The cookie superheroes save Stephanie in the second story before encountering an evil carton of milk in the third story.

Chris’s sense of humor, which can lend itself to using puns, is evident throughout the book, except for a particular scene. Stephanie wanted one quiet scene in which she does what she loves, which is decorating fresh cookies she has just baked.

When they returned from their Tennessee trip, Chris drew the pencil sketches for the book and went over them with Stephanie each day that he worked on them. After she approved them, he scanned them into the computer and inked them. Chris worked between his other work and assignments, but took one week to finalize the book before sending them on to Amazon.com for the publishing portion of the book.

Stephanie suggested changes, proofread the book, and looked critically at the colors in the book. “What colors worked? What worked the best?” Stephanie explained. Chris made changes after Stephanie considered the background and the colors on the pages. “We really worked together to make sure that we liked it. The two of us work very well together. We can bounce ideas off of each other. It’s a real team effort.”

One of Stephanie’s ideas was to have the comic book be a convenient size that a child could carry or fit into their backpack.

Chris has experience working at a cookie bakery and used to bring home extra cookies. His cookie decorating knowledge came in handy with the book. “Someone bought two copies of the book and they asked for the cookies,” he said. “We didn’t even think of that.”

He outlined drawings of the superheroes for Stephanie to use to decorate cookies that go with the book. While Stephanie prefers to use her own designs on the cookies she bakes, she has decorated some cookies with the superhero characters for customers who ask about them.

Stephanie spent a great deal of time coming up with a recipe for both cookies and icing that she was pleased with. “I love the recipe that I found, sugar cookies with this icing,” she said. She takes customized cookie orders when she can work them into her schedule, decorating each cookie by hand.

Chris and Stephanie learned things about each other by creating The Delicious Adventures of the Super Cookie Squad together. “I think she saw more of my world,” Chris said. “She was a part of every single process on this book. Even the whole technical part at the end.” Stephanie came away with a better sense of how Chris creates his art.

“We combined both of the things we want to do and we got to learn more about each other,” Chris said.

“It’s his love to draw and create,” Stephanie said, “and for me it’s baking. And we’re both showing people our love and our talent. I think that that comes through in the book.”

Chris added that he appreciates that Stephanie is receiving some of the attention through her work on the book that he has received for his artwork.

Their book was published in October of 2024 and can be found on amazon.com. For more information on obtaining both the book and cookies, contact stephaniesonesweetcookie@gmail.com or visit stephaniesonesweetcookie on Instagram.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Jan 31 2025. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.