Did civilization as we know it advance beer, or did beer advance civilization as we know it? The answer, to the disgust of prudes everywhere, is both!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jonathon Hennessey, Mike Smith
Art: Aaron McConnell
Lettering: Tom Orzechowski
What They Say:
The History of Beer Comes to Life!
We drink it. We love it. But how much do we really know about beer? Starting from around 7000 BC, beer has emerged as a major element driving humankind’s development, a role it has continued to play through today’s craft brewing explosion. With The Comic Book Story of Beer, the first-ever nonfiction graphic novel focused on this most favored beverage, you can follow along from the very beginning, as authors Jonathan Hennessey and Mike Smith team up with illustrator Aaron McConnell to present the key figures, events, and, yes, beers that shaped and frequently made history. No boring, old historical text here, McConnell’s versatile art style—moving from period-accurate renderings to cartoony diagrams to historical caricatures and back—finds an equal and effective partner in the pithy, informative text of Hennessey and Smith presented in captions and word balloons on each page. The end result is a filling mixture of words and pictures sure to please the beer aficionado and comics geek alike.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Full disclosure: Even though I’m a long-time geek and work in a liquor store (and have done so for some fourteen years), I used to hate both comic books/graphic novels and beer. Misconceptions plague both, and the beautiful thing about The Comic Book Story of Beer (Ten Speed Press) is that it defies prejudices regarding the former and enlightens to dispel ignorance concerning the latter. Co-authored by fiction and non-fiction writer Jonathan Hennessey and Back East Brewing Company’s Mike Smith and illustrated by Aaron McConnell, this non-fiction graphic novel efficiently boils down roughly 9,000 years of beer history into an easily digestible and visually delectable 170 pages. No matter how wet the subject, however, history is a dry affair to those not imbued with innate curiosity.
To effectively counteract this inherent flaw in others and draw them into the deeper story, Hennessey and Smith initially offer up a thin frame set in modern day with what should be an empathetic if not directly relatable situation complete with familiar ribs about bad taste in beer. If it weren’t for the artwork and layout, the lines would feel stale. But that’s the wonder behind how the humor works throughout the book: McConnell’s keen attention to fine details brings out the humanity in all the characters—cavemen, kings, monks, grocery store clerks—and with it all the comedy and drama necessary for gripping readers’ attentions until they’re engrossed in the lesson proper. (I was all of four pages into the preview on Amazon when I decided I had to read this book in its entirety.) The other half of the humor is the use of oversimplification and jumps in logic via loose transitive property to pedestal beer as a miracle worker or at least a miracle enabler. These equations are only punchlined sporadically, but the tales themselves, told with ode-like reverence, make everything absurdly logical (and therefore worth a self-aware chuckle or playful facepalm).
Other than people, the art and lettering are used in some pretty inventive ways. Sometimes the simple change of subject-specific fonts, to complement in English the glyphs on an Egyptian scroll for example, makes all the difference in keeping things fresh. Likewise, certain panels ape styles from various art movements—Classicism, Modernism, Cubism … even modern CGI (The LEGO Movie)—all for acute reference and period-appropriate purpose. Not to mention the entire last section of the book (which must have driven Orzechowski nuts!) that narrates completely via specific beer can fonts … ON BEER CANS. But let’s get one thing straight, history is the star of this book; it’s through the balance of visuals and narrative that this compendium is possible.
After all, this book traces the entire history and evolution of not only the drink itself but drinking culture within various cultures as well. The evolution of the humble pub, Carry A. Nation wielding an axe for Temperance, lidded steins stemming from the Black Death, and so much more are footnotes linked together to tell a staggering story of cause and effect. But even the dry facts about the brewing process, its own evolution, and the resulting characteristics of certain beer styles are made into entertaining bits. (Reading this book totally made me understand how beer is, like most say of wine, a living thing until the final gulp.) These stories are complemented by chapter-appropriate beer portraits featuring breakdowns of styles via SRM (color), IBU (bitterness), and ABV (strength) indexes as well as detailed descriptions of the defining characteristics for contributing hops and malt, examples of food pairings and specific breweries’ wares, and brewing process specifics.
And if you, like me, are wary of the suppositional tone of the early chapters, I wholly advise looking into the chapter notes that didn’t fit into the book. It’s a works cited page with visual reference to all of the panels worth noting. Even though the book is clearly the blood and sweat of what seems like an incredibly tedious amount of research and stitching, the stories still come across fun enough that the combination of those aspects is exactly why you will pick up this book and read/buy it.
In Summary:
Within hours of finishing this book (in two sittings) and ever since, I’ve been citing tidbits from this text to both amuse and edify friends and customers. The history of beer, like the libation itself, is worth appreciating and sharing, and The Comic Book Story of Beer makes doing so easy by concisely leveraging historical accounts, science, and lore with a great deal of visual and scripted humor. This is a book that deserves a permanent place on one of your shelves; not only is it a fun and informative read, but the sheer wealth of beer style-specific portraits (easily located via TOC or index) makes this an invaluable resource for novice beer drinkers as well as those who want to broaden their tasting horizons.
Grade: A+
Age Rating: Any age to read, 21+ to apply.
Released By: Ten Speed Press
Release Date: Sept 22, 2015
MSRP: $11.99 (Less than two or three beers at a bar!*)
*Happy Hour rates do not apply.
Sounds like something that should be in every liquor store at the counter for people to pick up!
If we had room on the counters in the store at which I work, I’d definitely try to convince the owners to do it.
Beer drinkers and comic book readers do have an enormous crossover, oh let me tell you… Thanks for the review, MPV. I’m thirsty.
I’m definitely gonna see if I can make the owner of the store at which I work order a few copies.
My pleasure, and prost!