Cookbook-ing

In May, my wife and I funded a Kickstarter with 654 backers for over $50,000 to create a cookbook for our now closed store, Little Red Fox, filled with recipes and slice-of-life, all-age comic strips. It’s called Foxes At Work.

I’ve been through so many experiences that felt like “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” (for example: opening multiple small businesses, raising a kid, helping a spouse through cancer and chronic illness), and writing and drawing this cookbook is right up there. Creativity isn’t something you can white knuckle your way through, unfortunately. Even if I wasn’t good at operating a restaurant or raising a child at first, you get better everyday just by putting your head down and putting in the work. While writing and drawing are skills that you get better at through practice, I’ve found that turning the gears in my brain—specifically that creative flow sweet spot—is a lot more tricky and esoteric. Coffee helps! Lots of coffee! And thankfully, I am slowly finding my way. I’ll have several comic strips to share in the coming months as we go through a few rounds of edits and fine tune our silly cast of anthropomorphic baristas, cooks and customers.

More soon!

Publishing Goals: Unlocked

Self portrait for my “author” page.

My first full-length comic, a one-shot titled Mise En Place—a 24-page pulpy, violent, vegan propaganda revenge story—is going to be published by CEX Publishing. I’m grateful and ecstatic that this wild story is going to be in physical print and sold in comic shops. The artwork (which I cannot share just yet) is by the talented Lane Lloyd, who has one of the most incredibly unique and expressive voices in comics. The lettering is by Sean Rinehart, a former teacher of mine and an absolute pro, who really elevates every page and makes every story beat pop.

The phrase “Mise en place” is a French term commonly used in professional kitchens to refer to the prep work a cook performs before service. The protagonist is named Mise and revenge is what she's been preparing to serve. I still have my own work to prep too, including finalizing the comic for production and then dedicating ALL of my free hours to marketing it. Whether comic readers find and discover the story falls almost entirely upon the legwork of the creators. My first baby step is above: I cartooned my first “author portrait” for CEX’s marketing materials and website.

My 5-page short, Out of Touch, will be published in a second anthology, The BeBop (first time getting a comic published in the U.S.!). The project just reached its goal on Kickstarter last week and I am so excited to be a part of this wonderful collection of stories. The creators, Bird’s Eye Comics, are based out of Portland, Oregon and are absolutely incredibly kind humans. A panel of Sergi Domènech’s art from the comic has been turned into a sticker (previewed above), which I am insanely excited to get my grubby hands on so that I can plaster it everywhere.

Print, Baby, Print

Out of Touch, CBA Vol. 53

The first time someone paid me for my art was senior of high school, when my art teacher Mr. Larsen gave me a check for $200 for my 8’ x 8’ canvas oil painting of my buddy Jon asleep on a couch in the school library. It’s nearly 20 years later, but someone paid me for my art a second time!

The short comic I wrote, Out of Touch, has been accepted into into a handful of comics anthologies, including the international C’est Bon Anthology by CBK Comics in Sweden (pictured above).

I’ve been paid for writing articles for magazines and newspapers and sold countless food items that I’ve created from scratch, but, for me at least, that all felt like work: the end goal was always a business decision. This feels different. Could it be the start of something…more?

Lasers Set

One of the bakers at Little Red Fox, Emily, once described me as a shark, because if I ever stop moving I’ll drown. It’s an apt metaphor for my manic approach to managing a bustling foodservice business. But it’s also fits just as snug with the creative side of my brain: to be truly happy, I have to constantly be creating. A few therapy sessions taught me I may have created an entire café out of that insatiable need (see: my beautiful failure, Fox Loves Taco).

8 years into foodservice and I’m finally living with a healthy separation between work and my life outside of it. Thanks to the existential crisis this pandemic elicits, I’ve now found the perfect medium to focus my obsessive laser beam of creative energy: comic books.

I grew up on superhero books like the X-Men and Spider-Man and then rediscovered comics in my twenties through indie graphic novels. These days, I read anything I can get my hands on, from horror and science fiction to young adult melodramas and kids books at bedtime with my son. It’s my favorite storytelling medium for any genre: the gorgeous art, the way your brain magically fills in the blank spaces between panels, and the complete lack of constraints—a comic book can be about anything!

A lot of successful restaurants publish cookbooks. I’d like to do a comic. I’ve spent the past few months taking online classes at Comics Experience learning everything I can about how comics are produced, from script to pencils, inks, colors and letters. My goal is to get an original comic book published—a crazy fantastical story that weaves in my years of experience working in kitchens and raising a family.

Am I crazy? Probably. Is this something I can actually do? Well, I can write. I wrote my first comic back in November and then produced it this winter with a team of really talented artists. You can read it right here. Now, can I write something longer than 5 pages? Let’s find out.