Please keep up with all of my old Graphic Novel Reviews here as I quest for 365 in 365 days! Or hit up #GN365 on Twitter.
Hey, all! I have some cool things coming your way in July as I end my quest of 365 blog posts in a row. I appreciate you for reading. After today, 4 posts to go!
Food and comics: if you know me, you know these are two of my favorite things in life. The comics you read and the food you eat say a lot about you; don’t forget that!
Title: Flavor
Author(s): Joseph Keatinge, Wook Jin Clark, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher…with Ali Bouzari
Publisher: Image Comics (2018)
Age Rating: 13+
Flavor #1 from Image Comics hit shelves not that long ago, and with any luck, the book will be around for a good number of years, and I’m saying that after just reading the first issue.
I’d say the book has some high hopes for itself as well. It’s not until the end of the issue that we get the title cards with book title and authors. That’s a bold move that we do not see a lot in comics. To me, it is reminiscent of the title cards in the opening of a film, after the initial exposition, but in a comic, since we do not see it as often, it says…yeah, this is just the start, and we are going to be here for a while. I wouldn’t doubt it either. The story that we get in issue one has a lot of moving parts, and those moving parts make way for what could be a good amount of interesting story.
Basic premise: teen girl named Xoo is the head chef (although she is not a government certified chef) of her parents’ restaurant. Her parents have been in an accident of some sort leaving them in wheelchairs, and her uncle, in order to be her official guardian as she navigates running this restaurant, comes to stay with the family. Xoo has a dog that seems to be as smart as a human, and it can cook, ride a bike, read, etc. So, that’s exciting (to me). And much more about the world is teased out, much of it strange and frightening, but the overall tone and mood of the book is fairly light.
The back matter of this book is an interview with chef consultant on the book, Ali Bouzari. And I look forward to what he will add to this sure to be epic story.
My hopes are high for this one. The premise is solid; the characters are solid; the art is solid. What else is there? This may be the last Image book of my 365, and I could not have asked for one more entertaining.
Happy reading!
Eric
Twitter: @comics_teacher
Instagram: comics_teacher
Please share with #365GN