A fantasy graphic novel series follows an “adventure chef” named Rutabaga, who travels to a fantasy land to find bizarre ingredients to cook in his enchanted cauldron. The books will include pages straight out of Rutabaga’s cookbooks, with recipes that readers can make at home.
The Meta Details:
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Length: 128 pages
Genre: Graphic Novel; Humor; Fanatasy; Adventure; Food
Content Level: Middle Grade
Featuring: A quirky, tiny chef and his equally quirky friends. A sentient cooking pot. Amazing art. Laughs.
Scorecard:
Recommended for: Everyone. I adored this book.
Rating: This was amazing. You have to read it.
Ginny Lurcock’s Thoughts: Have I ever told you of my love of webcomics? It’s real. It’s all consuming. They’re beautiful pieces of art and if you’re not ingesting them you’re missing out. The best part is that occasionally that comic you read for free every day (week, month, whatever) gets published in a new and improved format and you can go out and express your love for the content in a real and physical way.
World. I mean in the real and physical….
Let’s get back to the review…
The toys at the library are next to the middle grade comics and poetry section. So while my daughter was not picking out books and instead playing with the counting food, I was sitting in this section playing Disney Tsum Tsum. I couldn’t look at more books. I’d already picked out four and I thought the library had a limit of five check outs at a time.
(Spoiler alert, I was wrong)
I ran out of lives, and noted Shel Silverstein poetry was right there. As I was talking the child into it, I turned and saw it. Rutabaga the Adventure Chef: Book 1 by Eric Colossal. I couldn’t remember why, at the time, but I knew I’d wanted to read that. And there it was, right there.
Both books ended up checked out.
Oh my god, guys. Oh my god. You know when you take that first bite of chocolate mousse after you haven’t had it for a lengthy period of time and your eyes roll back in your head because fuck a duck you forgot how good it was? That was my reaction to Rutabaga. It’s got adorable art. Simply fantastic. The characters are witty and engaging. The story is adorable. It’s appropriate for all age levels. And there are recipes.
It was the holy grail of library finds, and I devoured it all in one serving. And just like chocolate mousse, I found myself weeping over its remains and kicking myself for not saving some to savor later.
If you like quirky humor and are looking for a pick me up- and who isn’t this week?- I cannot recommend Rutabaga highly enough.
No seriously, I’m pretty sure the throwing three mushrooms into the dragon thing was an old school Zelda reference. And recipes. Go get it right now.
Buy Links: Kindle – Nook – Kobo – Amazon
And if you don’t believe me, you can read the black and white version here.
For those of you wondering, I wanted to read the book because the author’s girlfriend created one of my all time favorite comics. That’s where I’d heard of him before. I’m in awe of this couple, though I worry their combined awesome puts the world at risk of imploding into an awesome-black-hole.
Ginny Lurcock 