Not many people can mix comics, sushi, and blood. Food personality and comic book author Anthony Bourdain is teaming up with Get Jiro’s Joel Rose for a prequel to the popular graphic novel. The series is returning with Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi and a new set of artists with Dave Johnson (Abe Sapien) on covers and Ale Garza (Teen Titans) drawing the interiors from the book. Comic Vine ran a press release from the publisher Vertigo Comics that included a quote from Bourdain himself;
“Where did my ultra-violent sushi chef hero from the previous book come from? What if you were brought up in a family where murder is acceptable practice and making the best sushi on the planet is a shameful secret? I wanted to take the story back to its beginnings–in Japan (albeit a slightly-in-the-future, dystopic Japan), and indulge my own enthusiasms for both the place and the many classic genre films that have been made there. This is fun for me.”
This is an origin story for Get Jiro’s protagonist, where our lead has to cook in secret in a strange alternate version of Japan. This is a departure from the events of the first series set in Los Angeles, where we will discover the origins of the character in Tokyo. The cover for the book introduces a pretty arresting image perfectly mixing the comic’s violent sushi indulgences. While the comic itself may not be edible, fans get a taste of the delicious graphic novel on October 20. The story cooks up an 160-page meal priced at $22.99 for a full entree.
And I presume Bourdain too will be tarred and feathered for “cultural appropriation” as well…or does that only apply to small web comic artists that online harrassment will work on and not TV celebrities?