Pratfalls, chaos, and a clumsy, well-intentioned flying piglet have made a bestseller of Cupig (Flamingo), by Flamingo assistant editor Claire Tattersfield and illustrator Rob Sayegh Jr. Cupig, the porcine equivalent of Cupid, is a sentimental archer with terrible aim. Her misfired magic arrows break up classic couples—including peanut butter and jelly, and salt and pepper—before she restores order. Cupig has been climbing the children’s bestsellers lists since January, a MerryMakers plushie is available, and a sequel is in the works.

The character originated on Valentine’s eve 2022, when Sayegh needed romantic inspiration in a hurry. “I make a card for my wife every holiday,” Sayegh said, “and I was a little behind.” Toying with the idea of Cupid, “I drew a little pig with wings, and I left it in the kitchen” for her to find while making coffee the next morning. “That’s how Cupig was born.”

Since the communiqué was more personal than professional, Sayegh was in no hurry to share Cupig beyond his family. But his wife Meryl, to whom the book is dedicated, loved the image of a pink piglet suspended in a blue sky, hoisting a bow and heart-tipped arrow and wearing white undies dotted with red hearts. “I usually post [a holiday illustration] to Instagram a few days later,” he said, “but she’s like, ‘You should post this today.’ It was a wonderful surprise to see how many people gravitated toward it.”

Sayegh’s agent, Christy Ewers at the CAT Agency, showed the illustration to the Flamingo team, including publisher Margaret Anastas. Tattersfield remembered Ewers asking, “Do you have anyone who can write a story about this pig?” After reaching out to agents, Tattersfield decided she was the person for the job. “I like books where things go wrong,” she said, because of their dramatic possibilities. “I was thinking, what about a Valentine’s book where everyone breaks up?”

She’d met Sayegh when he illustrated Late Night host Seth Meyers’s I’m Not Scared, You’re Scared!, and her first acquisition as an editor was his forthcoming Proper Badger Would Never!, written by Lauren Glattly (Apr.). She could imagine his comic style and envision his textured digital collages. Things came together quickly: “Maybe two months later, it was like, ‘Cupig is a book, and by the way, here’s an awesome manuscript that Claire just whipped up,” Sayegh said. “It was literally that fast. Claire gets all the credit for bringing Cupig to life.”

“Rob had very little say in the matter,” Tattersfield joked.

Cupig was released in November, and a Barnes & Noble promotion (Cupig was $9.99 with the purchase of any children’s book) gave it a big boost in January. “The sales being so early surprised me,” Tattersfield said. The book’s success convinced Flamingo editor Cheryl Eissing to acquire two more picture books from the pair, one a mouse-detective holiday tale called Chrismouse and the other a second outing for Cupig.

And in case anyone asks, Cupig is a girl pig, Tattersfield said. “As an editor who reads children’s books all day long, I find that most books about anthropomorphized animals have them as boys. I wanted to split from the norm a little bit. I figured, she’s a pig that flies—who cares if she’s wearing little briefs?”

Cupig: The Valentine’s Day Pig. Claire Tattersfield, illus. by Rob Sayegh Jr. Flamingo, $14.99 Nov. 2023 ISBN 978-0-593-62310-7