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About this project
In January, 2007, I jotted down and idea in my red, go-everywhere notebook:
"something to meld comics & cooking. Either a cookbook done in sequential panels or a story that integrates food & cooking w/a story.
--Beyond Funyuns & Dew, What to Feed Your Raiding Party?"
I kept coming back to the idea over and over, revising what it would be. Everything from food based on the era and cultures of golden and silver-age comic book characters to a fictitious food memoir before finally coming back to the heart of the idea, and settling on the subtitle as the real title and letting that be my guide.
What to Feed Your Raiding party is targeted at 150 pages (give or take a few), will have 50-75 recipes divided into 5 sections: (in no particular order) appetizers and snacks, grilling, soups and stews, loafs and casseroles, sweets and beverages. Each section will start off with a comic story starring a core ensemble (a girl, a guy and his dog) who are sent off on a quest or adventure having to do with the chapter at hand.
Why gamers?
Well, I've always found RPGs fascinating but I'm not actually a gamer myself. I'm more gamer-adjacent (technical adviser to the book is my boyfriend, a long-time table-top gamer). I have, however, observed quite a few weekly games and I noticed that food was always present, but it was usually junk food, take-out or greasy snacks and soda. Yet, most of the gamers I know DO enjoy good food so I wondered if it was a matter of time (maybe cooking seems too complex but, really, rolling-up that perfect character isn't?) or know-how: maybe what is needed is a player's handbook, of sorts, for the kitchen!
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that game manuals and cookbooks have a lot in common, it's just a different vocabulary. So WtFYRP? will feature basic nutritional data in gamer-friendly terms (calories are health, protein is strength, carbs are dexterity--things like that) and the ingredient lists will be presented in chart form with serving options for 4, 8 and 12 for as many of the recipes as possible. In addition to the recipes and the comics, there will be illustrations throughout the book demonstrating knife skills, cooking tips and tricks so that the kitchen becomes demystified and, maybe, we'll start seeing more home cooking around the table.
Despite the inclusion of nutritional data, this isn't meant to be a health-focused book. Granted, I'm a healthier-type cook myself, so recipes will lean that way, but we're not talking tofu and wheat germ, here, we're talking about making cooking fun--the health benefits are icing on the cupcake.
The initial print run is going to be 250 copies, half of which (one can only hope) will be sent out immediately to the wonderful backers, the balance will travel with me to conventions and be sold online. The funding goal is based on a perfect-bound book but, if we can raise additional funds (to the tune of another $750 or so) I'll be able to afford spiral binding, making the book a better kitchen companion, so please keep that in mind when pledging your support. The rest of the funding requested is going towards the purchase of some nutritional analysis software and what I like to call R&D: art takes paper and pens, recipes need to be tested, so I'm looking for a modest stipend to offset the costs associated with making this book as good and complete as it possibly can be.
Project location: Tallahassee, FL
28
Backers
$1,082
pledged of $1,750 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on December 31.Pledge $2 or more
COCKTAILS Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art and a recipe postcard mailed to you.
1 BACKER
Pledge $7 or more
AMUSE BOUCHE Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you AND a pdf copy of the book once it's complete.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $12 or more
APPETIZER Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you AND a signed copy of the printed book.
13 BACKERs
Pledge $22 or more
SOUP or SALAD Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you and a signed and SKETCHED copy of the book.
4 BACKERs
Pledge $30 or more
THE ENTREE Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you, a signed and sketched copy of the book AND a recipe named after you (given name will be credited at the bottom of each recipe, Junior League-style but the recipe name can include your nickname or the name of one of your characters, if you want--we can talk about it).
7 BACKERs
Pledge $50 or more
THE CHEESE PLATE Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you, a signed and sketched copy of the book, a recipe named after you AND a piece of original art from the book.
2 BACKERs
Pledge $100 or more
DESSERT Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you, a signed and sketched copy of the book, a recipe named after you or one of your characters, an original page of art from the book AND a character based on you in one of the five story arcs.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $500 or more
SOUP to NUTS Behind-the-scenes progress reports, sneak peeks of the art, a recipe postcard mailed to you, a signed and sketched copy of the book, a special thank you on the dedication page, a piece of original art from the book AND DINNER FOR 4, made by me. This means you've either got to be in Tallahassee for the meal or within, say, a 5-6 hour drive from my place so I can travel, cook, and then crash at a hotel for the night before heading home. Boundaries by major cities would be New Orleans to the west, Birmingham to the northwest, the greater Atlanta area to the north, Savannah/Jacksonville/Daytona Beach along the east coast, Orlando area to the south around to Tampa on the Gulf Coast and pretty much anywhere within that arc. If I'm driving to cook, you've got to have a kitchen available for me to prepare the meal in, I'll bring everything else.
1 BACKER
Project By
Jennifer Walker
Tallahassee, FL
Send MessageI wear many hats--okay, I don't wear hats that often, I prefer shoes, but you get the idea. I have a Culinary Arts degree but no longer work in the hospitality industry with the exception of my food and cocktail blogging. Instead, I have a day-job as a Bookkeeper with the same company I've been at for the last 15 years. I like what I do, it pays the bills and it's predictable. Unfortunately, as I told my boss one day, creative accounting gets you 10 to 20...
Enter the off hours. Some people call it free time, I'm not sure I really embody that. Almost every spare moment is spent working on my comics (I have 2, they're both on the web, check 'em out at the links below), writing or creating in some way or another. For the last 2.5 years (give or take a month) I was the Art (& Crafts) Expert for eHow.com so I did a lot of writing for them, creating projects to photograph step-by-step and sharing my creativity. With that program finished, it was time to move on to something else, freeing me up to do more of my own projects instead of someone else's.
I throw fabulous parties, still love to cook, just got my BAC (BarSmarts Advanced Certification) to beef up my cocktail knowledge, knit, scrapbook, sew, make jewelry, take photographs and get the greatest joy from sparking a smile or laugh from one of my comics. I prefer useful art and functional fun stuff to dust-catchers and collect monkey-stuff.
