Crowdfunding Spotlight
Pots & Panels: A Comic Book Anthology and Cookbook
*Disclaimer*: As I will talk about later in this write-up I interviewed Chuck Satterlee and Jason Michalski to discuss this project for my podcast. During the conversation, and afterwards, the duo invited me to submit a recipe for the cookbook section of this project. This also means that my podcast will advertised in the book as well. I planned on Spotlighting Pots & Panels before this occurred, and was excited to see the project as well. But take that for what it is. I didn’t want to hide the fact that I am a part of this project in some way, and can assure you all that I did it to be a part of something I think can and will be special.
Normally I would put the writers and artist at the top of these post but there are more than 80 creators that are participating this anthology. With that in mind please visit the campaign page to see an in-depth list of all the creators involved as I will not be listing them all but instead spotlighting a few in the post below.
Upon first hearing about this project I was immediately excited for what it could be. One thing about me is I love to cook, and have a decent collection of cookbooks in my house that I will occasionally flip through to get ideas for new things to try. I also recently bought a smoker, and of course it is all I talk about, that has been the center of my attention since gracing my house late last week. Cooking is one of those things I learned on the fly as a young man who was living alone and want more than just microwavable food around to consume. While I am not the best cook you will ever meet I like to think that I am pretty skilled at the craft. This is one of the many reason that Pots & Panels was a marriage made in heaven for someone like me.
Comic book anthologies are an artform inside of an artform in my opinion as well. Crafting short stories inside of a medium that is built upon telling stories over a long period of time in pieces is by no means an easy task. This is why I absolutely love a good anthology. While you may not love or even know every creator inside the pages of this, or any anthology you pick up, it is a great place for a creator to show off their skills and gain a new fan. Every great anthology you pick up from the big two is built upon the formula of top loading the talent with known quantities and bringing along people that are less known to show off their skills. This one does that in such an ingenuous way for the independent space. You can find mainstream creators like Steve Niles, Tim Seely, and Phil Hester along with smaller indie comic creators building their brand, if you will, like Travis Gibb, Richard Fairgray and Brian Wolf. The talent brought together for this project is absolutely stunning, and all pulled off by Chuck Satterlee and Jason Michalski. Speaking of those two men if you want to hear about the project from their mouths I have just the episode of my podcast, the Fortress of Comic News(shameless plug), for you right below.
For those people, that for some reason I can’t comprehend, didn’t listen to that awesome interview you may be wondering what to expect from this anthology/cookbook. Well exactly that. In the first half of this comic each creative team will tell a story revolving around the theme of food. These story will vary in genre but always be about food or cooking in some way. Then in the second half of the comic most of the creators, and some people asked to join in outside of the project like myself, provide a recipe that they like to make along with a short description of what the recipe means to them or why they like to make it. For example Steve Niles writes a short comic in the style we would expect from a master of horror like himself, and then in the back gives us his technique for making Beef Bourguignon. I like to think of it as getting a new great story from a creator and then a glimpse into their life and personality outside of the stories they tell through the art of cooking.
For those, and lets be honest its all of you, that are sold on this project you might wonder what great rewards you can get from this Kickstarter campaign. Well the team provides the anthology in both physical and digital editions with the physical having one cover(shown above) but provided in both soft and hard covers. But the team did make some great add-ons for the fans. There are sets of both metal bookmarks, and a separate set of prints to choose from. And for those that need a shirt to wear at their next comic con or cooking outing you can get the official Pots & Panels t-shirt as well. These all come as add-ons and different tiers to choose from.
I say it every spotlight but this project is one that I definitely want everyone out there to take a look at. This enters the category of having the ability to not only be a special project but also be able to go on for many volumes in the coming years. Hopefully you take a second to check over the campaign, using the button below, and pledge to it as well. I truly thing this will be a Kickstarter event that none of you will want to miss.
Thank you all for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed the read. If you want to support this Substack, and me there are a few ways you can do that. For starters like this post, comment below your thoughts or if you pledged, and subscribe to the Substack to keep getting more. You could also check out the Fortress of Comic News podcast which comes out every week, sometimes twice a week, on most podcast services. Also you can find all the podcast content on YouTube, as well as more at YouTube.com/@FortressComics.