Northwest Cartoon Cookery

    (Starhead, 1995)
™ and ©1995 Starhead Comix and the respective artists

This comic book/cookbook is definitely an oddity. Still (as is usually the case with Starhead Comix titles), it’s a worthwhile one. Seattle-area comix artists are legendary for their “just-getting-by” image, and many readers imagine them with near-bare cupboards containing nothing but a few boxes of macaroni and cheese and an infinite supply of coffee. This comic, however, gives well-known, alternative comix artists a chance to trot out their best family recipes—all illustrated in their own distinctive styles.

J.R. Williams contributes his own favorite: Black Bean Quesadillas, combined with a short strip about his search for the perfect salsa. Ellen Forney gives us her recipe for Whole Wheat Soda Bread, and (as a surprisingly useful bonus), the illustrated instructions for folding a fancy fleur-de-lis napkin. Others maintain the high standard these artists set, with the possible exception of Joe Sacco’s “What the Poor Eat,” which proves him to be the one non-gourmet of the bunch.
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