Let's Make Cocktails!: a Sneak Peek
Happy Thanksgiving week!! I am hosting a gathering of friends this year, and making Samin Nosrat’s Big Lasagna. I’m still finishing up the art for a new book pitch, so it’s kind of a busy week. Rather than draw a new comic, I thought I’d show off some of the preview pages for Let’s Make Cocktails! (which you can preorder now!)
I’m really pleased with how the cover came out. Now that this whole “Let’s Make” thing is shaping up to be a series, I’ve been trying to put some thought into how the books look together on a shelf, and selecting colors that work with the subject material but also jive with the other books.
ANYWAY! on to the interior. This garnishes section is one of my favorite spreads in the book. I feel like this shows off exactly how well-suited comics are to this kind of instructional content.
I included a pretty thorough techniques section in the book. I hired a bartender friend (thanks Mark!! ^_^) to consult and walk me through techniques like shaking, stirring, expressing citrus, rinsing/atomizing, etc. Mark was extremely helpful in demonstrating and explaining the process, as well as adding some real-world context that a lot of my source materials skipped.
I have the recipes separated into chapters by spirit. Figuring out the categories was a whole headache! Every cocktail book I researched seemed to have their own taxonomic system. Organizing them by spirit felt a bit basic, but I tried to imagine someone just starting to put together a home bar: maybe they just bought a single bottle of interesting gin, or were gifted a nice bottle of bourbon. I wanted that person to be able to turn to a section and see a solid handful of recipes they can make with that bottle.
Each chapter starts with a very brief explanation of the spirit family (in this case, tequila and other mezcals), what they’re made from, and what flavors they have, followed by a little bit of a primer on different styles, and what to look for when you’re shopping for them.
And the recipes! I started with over 100 recipes that I wanted to include, and eventually whittled it down to 60 in order to fit the page count.
(Sidebar: I’m thinking of drawing up a handful of my “cutting room floor” cocktails and putting them up online or making an additional companion minicomic or something! If you have any requests, let me know.)
I tried to select a good combination of old standards like the Old Fashioned, Negroni, and Americano as well as including popular modern classics like the Naked & Famous, Paper Plane, and the French Martini. Each recipe is a spread, with one page of history, context and tasting notes, and one page of instructions.
And in case you are old like me and can only handle 1-2 cocktails, I have a whole chapter of spirit-free drinks! These include standards like the Shirley Temple and Arnold Palmer (and how to make them tastier), but also drinks like Australia’s LLB below (it’s marvelous, if you haven’t tried it), and a few templates for things like a shrub and a spirit-free buck that you can build to your own tastes.
I’m so excited for people to see this book. It officially comes out in April, which is a ways off, but you can preorder it now if you want! Preorders are really awesome for a book’s chances of success - they are usually a pretty good indicator of how well a book will sell, and if preorders are strong, shops will order more books. So if you think you will want this book, please consider preordering it at your favorite retailer. ^_^
I’m also planning a good handful of events for the book when it comes out - at least a few in the Chicago area, and some further afield. More on this once we nail down the details.
Hope everyone has an absolutely delicious meal with their favorite people this week, whether you celebrate American Thanksgiving or not! ^_^
Upcoming Thing:
Saturday, December 6 is the Comic Art Festival at Sulzer Regional Library in Chicago! This is a FREE EVENT!
I will be giving a talk called Tell by Showing: Instructional Comics, and also sitting on a panel discussion about Visual Storytelling. I’ll also have a table with books, prints and holiday cards for sale. I’m not really doing any other holiday markets this year, so if you’d like to buy any art from me in person before Chrismukkah, this is your chance.
Shameless self-promotion:
My alma mater’s magazine did a profile on me! It was written by the amazing and talented Valerie Reiss who was a few years ahead of me when I was at college a thousand million years ago. She was one of my favorite columnists at the college paper when I was a student, so it was a thrill to connect with her, and the profile she wrote is super flattering. ^_^
What I’m into lately:
I just finished Educated by Tara Westover, which I read for my book club. I do not normally pick up nonfiction, and probably would not have read this without book club! But I’m so glad I did - I loved loved loved it. The author was raised in the mountains of Idaho by a survivalist Mormon family and never went to school, but managed to study enough on her own to get into BYU and followed up with a PhD at Cambridge! Her family’s story is rife with abuse, violence and neglect, but she manages to tell it with honesty and compassion. My story is nowhere near as extreme, but I was raised in a very religious family, and I often felt like my parents chose dogma over their children’s well-being. I found a lot to connect with personally in this book.
What Toki’s into lately:
Wearing a Toki-shaped divot into the couch cushions!
