What do we do after we Get Jiro?
GET JIRO! by Bourdain, Rose and Foss
In GET JIRO! Jiro is a simple Japanese chef, trying to create a life for himself in a semi-futuristic Los Angeles. Well, he's simple if you accept simple as being beheading customers who can't properly appreciate his sushi. The way that the cops act, this must be a regular occurrence in Jiro's place. Just as there is an art to preparing food, there is also and art to eating it as well and Jiro is a tough critic. Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose and Landon Foss let us know just what we need to about Jiro, no more and no less and they tell it to us in those first few pages. Jiro is a mystery that rival chefs Bob and Rose (no relationship to the author) fight for. In developing that Jiro, Bourdain and Rose get to play with the toughness and sensitivity of Jiro; he's a man who will cut off your head because you eat sushi the wrong way but he would rather avoid any a fight that isn't about culinary aesthetics.
The joy of food part 1 (drawn by Foss)
Celebrity chef, writer and travel show host Anthony Bourdain may get the top billing on GET JIRO! but it’s artist Landon Foss who is the star of this production. His clear line style, wonderfully colored by Jose Villarrubia, conveys a bright, large, colorful world. GET JIRO! Isn't some grim and gritty dystopian story but it revels in the joys of life and Foss's art perfectly captures that. With a nice, thick line that’s reminiscent of early Frank Quitely (Flex Mentallo or JLA Earth 2) with a hint of Moebius design thrown in for good measure, Foss captures the joy that Bourdain and Rose find in food. The way that Foss shows people who are able to enjoy the finer things in life is infectious for the reader.
Bourdain and Rose stumble when it comes to their culinary villains Bob and Rose. Two "chef warlords," they try to manipulate Jiro to grow their own power bases in L.A. Part of why Jiro works as a character is that he falls into that “mysterious stranger” category of heroes. He’s the man with an unknown past who comes to town and ends up changing it because of his own dynamism. The mystery of the hero is ultimately the core of the hero. But if your hero is going to be an enigma, your villains need to be a bit more than caricatures.
The villains are the sophisticate and the hippy and, of course, they’re going to be always fighting because that’s what snobs and hippies do. Bourdain and Rose don’t play enough with the villains as they do the other characters, except for at the very end when it’s too late. For all of the work that the authors do to create a gourmet-based society, their villains come off more as Snidely Whiplashes, twirling their mustaches as they revel in their own evilness. Any motivation they have is just to be evil and when the hero is supposed to be the mysterious character, the villains need to carry a lot of the story.
Besides Jiro, there’s only one other great character in this book, Jean Claude, Jiro’s advisor in the world of gangster cuisine. In one of the few scenes that does a great job of combining the foodie aspect of this book with the games of cat and mice between the various chefs, Bourdain and Rose give us a character who lives on both sides of the tracks. With Jean Claude, they get to really indulge in their love of cuisine while they get to establish the powers that exists that Jiro has to overcome. After that moment with Jean Claude, most other scenes in the book service either the culinary side of the story or the action/adventure side, with the two hardly ever combining together to form some new flavors.
GET JIRO! is the story of two rival gangs battling for one man’s soul. The lovely thing about GET JIRO! isn’t that the gangs’ powers revolve around guns or drugs but around food, cuisine and restaurants. While the story stumbles a bit over the characters, Foss draws these wonderful pages that create more personality than the story actually has. With Foss and Villarrubia creating an L.A. of food, glamour and double dealings, Bourdain and Rose’s story becomes this decadent feast of action and color. Food is the ultimate prize to be obtained, prepared and enjoyed. Food is power. Like all prizes though, it’s also got to be fought over and won. Foss switches easily between scenes that exhibit the joys and scenes that show just what a badass Jiro can be. If only they could have made the villains of this piece just as menacing as cool as the hero was.
The Joy of Food part 2 by Moebius