Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi

Get Jiro! is a fun book, written by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose and beautifully illustrated by Langdon Foss. A satire of modern food culture, the book takes place in a future LA, where tasteless boors flock to the restaurants of celebrity chefs, and where the search for celebrity food has become society's driving obsession.

Future L.A. is roughly evenly split between the rival territories of two celebrity chefs with differing philosophies - Bob, who focuses on international ingredients and fussy cooking, and Alice, who focuses on organic, vegetarian food. Into the mix comes Jiro, an outsider sushi chef who both rivals want on their team, and who plays them against each other in a wave of destruction.

The setting is intriguing, and Foss's illustrations are terrific, but the plot left me wanting more. If it sounds like the plot of Yojimbo, it should -- Bourdain and Rose have duplicated the main plot points and even a number of individual scenes. I'll grant that copying this plot is a long, honored, and often successful tradition, including on Kurosawa's part, who actually borrowed the plot for Yojimbo itself. However, in this case, it felt like the book was just going through the motions on plot. I would have liked to have seen more character development and more actual risk, rather than just waiting for the next scene.

The book's best scene, in my opinion, is a quiet little piece at the end involving Bob and Alice, which emerges from the characters and the writers rather than from their homage to noir/samurai traditions. I would have liked more of that to really get behind this book.

Still, if you're a foodie, comic fan, AND a Bourdain fan, I think you'll mostly enjoy it. Recommended for people at the intersection of those three sets.

There is a tradition of celebrities "writing" comics. Rock musicians. Genre actors. Porn stars. What have you. There is also a tradition that these comics are terrible. They are pointless, vanity projects by people who don't know the first thing about writing comics and published by companies knowing they will bank a few coin on name value alone.

Anthony Bourdain, I am happy to say, has broken this tradition.

Because "Get Jiro!" is pretty good. It's a funny, violent little satire that mixes foodies and celebrity chef culture with Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo (or Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, depending on how you look at it), and spices it up with obsessive sushi culture. It's a comic with a good sense of humor that pokes fun at things that need to be poked at, and respects things that need to be respected. There is nothing epic here, nothing ground-breaking. I have seen the "chef as action hero" done before and done better in Johnny Hiro. But it is entertaining.

The story is set in the future, where foodies and celebrity chefs dominate all other forms of entertainment. Imagine the Food Network pouring out from your TV and covering the world like a plaque, transforming everything it touches. In this world is Jiro, a traditionalist sushi maker working in a run-down little shop practicing his art. He gets caught in a struggle between Bob, the epicurean who knows exactly what a good meal is but still pushes out big-box, money-making junk restaurants for the masses (think Bobby Flay), and Alice, the neo-hippy locavore/vegan/ frutopian who follows every trend she can cash in on (think Alice Waters). In classic Yojimbo fashion, Jiro agrees to work for both and pits them against each other, trying to clear the playing field for small, artisanal restaurants.

"Get Jiro!" works because even though Bourdain is a celebrity, he is also a writer. He and co-writer Joel Rose spice up the story with sex and violence and food porn. There is some nice deadpan humor--I loved the cops discussing the merits of sushi rice while dealing with a severed head. Bourdain packs the book full of his personal food philosophy, like that a run-down taco truck serves better, more delicious food than most 4-Star restaurants, or that tiny bistros run by passionate, skilled cooks are the greatest things in the world.

Artist Langdon Foss does a decent job. I'm not familiar with Foss; his biography lists him as an artist for Heavy Metal and Wizards of the Coast. His art has an almost Steve Dillon (Preacher)-tinge too it, with tube-headed, expressive figures filled in with lots of little lines. Foss does a good job with the details, and I was impressed to see a piece of sushi drawn with almost every grain of rice illustrated.

Unfortunately, DC was chintzy and for a review copy sent me an uncolored proof with only the first twelve pages colored. This is a double-punch when you see that "Get Jiro!" Is a collaboration by two of the best colorists in the business, Jose Villarrubia (King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel), and the King of Colors himself Dave Stewart. Those first twelve pages show just how much a colorist contributes to a book over all, and can make a mediocre artist look brilliant. Villarrubia and Stewart add weight, depth, and much-needed punch to Foss' simple outlines, and the uncolored portion of the books looks amateurish by comparison. I am willing to bet that the final product will be outstanding to look at, but that will be thanks to the colorists not the artist.

Oh, and one pet peeve: Because sushi chef Jiro is Japanese, "Get Jiro!" is peppered with Japanese words to add a little authenticity and flavor to the story. That's fine. The problem is, they are misspelled. Is it REALLY that hard to get a Japanese speaker to proof a book like this? I mean really. Especially with cooking terms that are the same in English and Japanese. Japanese chefs don't make "daishi." They make "dashi." They don't chop "moguro," they chop "maguro."

If you are listening Anthony Bourdain, here is a deal for you! If you want to try this again, send me your books and I will proof the Japanese for you. Free of charge. Because just like sushi, getting the little details right makes all the difference.

Anthony Bourdain is doing more than travel food shows, he is trying his hand at writing a graphic novel for Vertigo, with help from Joel Rose and art by Landon Foss. The result is a rather tongue-in -cheek romp through the rebellious rise against the food lords in a not too distant future when almost all services and manufacturing surrounds feeding each other. The hero of Get Jiro is Jiro, a sushi master who has a small place on the outskirts of central city. His masterful skill, and decapitating strictness at those who dare offend (like the guy who ordered a California roll, swish, off with his head), has improved his reputation to where the top two foodies, who run the nice and clean inner city, who immediately rival for his services.

The book is comically delightful, chefs have great power in our future and the fact they may chop off a head for an offence plays little matter with local law enforcement. The two super powers of the city use gang-like thuggery to control food distribution, often making smaller venues take inferior products, or else, and their rivalry is typical to cooking shows on the air now, one a fine dining at any cost master murderer, the other a buy local and eat green female killer. Thus Jiro becomes the little guy with enormous skills who has to deal with the violence and deceit that comes with the gangland food leaders, who each want Jiro for themselves and secretly plot his permanent demise.

Jiro is tricky, and the fun of this martial arts meets food master parody is in his cleverness and dedication to the little guy. There is violence in extreme proportions within this book. Unfortunately the advanced copy I am reviewing only had a few pages at full color, but the promise suggested means a certain run on red ink. The stereotypes blown up to grand proportions, the backstabbing, and the clichés begin to get a little frayed by the time the final chapter unfolds, but the inevitable violent end is fitting the tale, and comes just at the right time - when you are getting weary of the running joke. The ending suggests a sequel, best if that never happens. As a stand-alone, Vertigo has a winner here. As a series, maybe not.

Recipe for "Get Jiro!": Take one part Japanese-inspired frenetic action comic, add ½ tablespoon foodie-inspired humor, and simmer over moderate heat until a "satire" consistency ensues. Serve piping hot with a nice hoppy pale ale!

Get Jiro! is the fusion lovechild of irreverent chef/food critic Anthony Bourdain, writer/middle man Joel Rose, and artist/visionary Langdon Foss. A prime mover in the unlikely emerging genre of food-based action comics such as John Layman's Chew, Get Jiro! is a tale set in a hypothetical future LA, where Chefs rule the foodie landscape like mafia dons and social stature is determined based on the priority one receives for restaurant reservations. A unique satire on both the gourmet and the gourmand, the book's protagonist is a samurai sword-wielding sushi chef, ready to defend his restaurant (and his opinions of how Nigirizushi should be eaten) with deadly force. The plot encircles the efforts of two warring restaurants/corporations to obtain Jiro's sushi-making skills for their own stables, and Jiro's retaliation against both the entrenched social and capitalist orders.

Get Jiro! starts off like shrimp hitting a wok: the sizzle catches your ear while the smell builds the anticipation for the meal yet to come. The first head gets sliced from the shoulders within 11 pages! Foss's hyper-detailed-yet-kinetic art is evocative of a diverse number of iconic influences, including Darrow, Moebius, and Quitely, without being derivative. His line work alone is worth the price of admission to this culinary roller coaster; the astute reader will also catch a number of inside jokes that serve to add depth and texture to the somewhat straightforward story line (check out the cameo of the one-and-only Bill Gaines as a Christ figure!). Get Jiro! is truly a chance to catch a master-in-waiting before he breaks big! Despite the masterful digital coloring and shading work, I can only hope that Vertigo sees fit to publish a black-and-white edition (ala Big Damned Hard Boiled) if this book takes off. Based on the sheer bizarreness of the content.

Bourdain's acerbic wit and sarcasm are ever-present, from his opinions on chain restaurants to the dining treasures to be found in dumpy eateries in the worst parts of town. His polar opposite villains, Bob the corporate carnivore and Alice the tofu-touting vegetarian, are effective (if simplistic) parodies of the opposite extremes of the gourmet food business. Punctuated by Bourdaine's entertaining commentary on food-fetishism (particularly dining on endangered species), the plot is basically a parable about how the small and nimble independent businessman can outwit and outmaneuver large corporations who have become too bloated and unfocussed on their core missions to successfully react.

Despite the somewhat disjointed pacing and, at times, inconsistency of character behavior, Get Jiro! is a compellingly effective satire on a country that, increasingly, worships food and celebrity culture. Kudos to Mr. Bourdaine for signing on to such an ambitious, genre-bending adventure. Regardless of the subject matter, true comic/graphic novel fans owe it to themselves to experience the visual poetry of Langdon Foss's pencils and inks.

Through the the store Vine program, I was able to get a pre-release version of Anthony Bourdain's debut graphic novel entitled "Get Jiro!" which coincidentally comes on the heels of David Gelb's meticulously produced 2012 documentary about uncompromising sushi master Jiro Ono, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Only the name and professions are the same, as the rest of this comic book is a gory flight of fancy that amounts to a slaughter-fest tailored to the discriminating foodie. Co-written with author Joel Rose (The Blackest Bird), the story depicts the sort of twisted world where people literally kill for a reservation at the best restaurants. In other words, this is black comedy satire as only Bourdain could deliver it, and I wasn't even aware that the celebrity chef had penned a couple of crime novels himself in the late 90's (Bone in the Throat,Gone Bamboo).

With 160 pages of vivid illustrations drawn by Heavy Meal artist Langdon Foss, this testosterone-intensive adventure contains echoes of Sergio Leone in focusing on a solitary figure, a renegade sushi chef known for his pensive demeanor until agitated by a random request for a California roll or the ungainly sight of wasabi being stirred in soy sauce. Without any hesitation, he literally decapitates the heads of such ignorant patrons. Such violent acts of bloodshed are accepted in the outer ring of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles sometime in the near-future. In fact, Jiro's culinary artistry apparently justifies such unseemly crimes. His gifts are so sought after that he becomes the centerpiece of a winner-takes-all culinary war between two formidable opponents. On one side, there are the Internationalists led by the imperious master chef Bob, who blends foods from all over the world into exotic delights. Think if Thomas Keller and David Chang blended together into one megalomaniac epicurean, and you would have Bob.

The other side is the Vertical Farm, a movement led by an Alice Waters-inspired figure (not coincidentally named Alice), who prepares nothing but vegetarian and macrobiotic dishes even if it means killing those who stand in the way of her singularly-minded purpose. There is more than a hint of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Leone's A Fistful of Dollars in this tale, and there are salacious hookers, suspicious go-betweens and even an aged pho master who complicate Jiro's path toward sushi nirvana. Clearly, Bourdain had a good time concocting the story melding classic noir and Italian spaghetti western movie conventions with a cheeky look at the elitism that permeates so much of the current food scene. His amusing disdain for Waters is made all too clear with the matronly-looking Lady MacBeth cartoon figure he presents here. This is a fun albeit supercilious browse for fans of this genre, although foodies with more sensitive stomachs may want to wait for the inevitable film version.

Messrs. Bourdain, Rose and Foss have created a very funny satire with many, many inside foodie jokes. Get Jiro effectively skewers all comers in the food business and industry. Illustrative stereotypes are rendered with exquisite detail. As a former front of house (waiter, bartender, busboy) and former back of house (dishwasher, prep cook) restaurant employee, I've seen most of the caricatures presented in the book

Behind the satire is an obvious love and knowledge of food. The action takes place in a dystopian future Los Angeles controlled by two warring food gangs - one a militant hyper-local organic foodie gang and the other a hyper-industrial, factory food mega chain. Jiro is an unheralded and unaffiliated Sushi chef with the highest standards who refuses to join either gang despite being recruited by both gangs.

Most pages seem to have at least one or two little jokes - some obvious, some very subtle. As with most graphic novels the book is a quick read the first time through - but the book was actually more interesting each time I reread it because I noticed new and different things every time. There is cartoon violence so this book isn't appropriate for younger readers - but frankly most of the younger audience won't get the inside food jokes. Overall if you enjoy food culture and graphic novels this book is a blast - if you are merely a graphic novel enthusiast this book is good, but you'll miss the subtleties. This book is definitely going on my foodie bookshelf next to the Julia Child and Alice Waters cookbooks.

I'm not really acquainted with Anthony Bourdain and his shtick so my main motivation for picking this up was because I enjoy graphic novels (and vertigo titles in particular). As it turns out this did not turn out to be good value for money. Sure it looks pretty - Langdon Foss' artwork is solid throughout and the environments are wonderfully detailed. However presentation can't save what is otherwise a bland, under-cooked dish. There is virtually no plot. There is no characterization. There is no world-building. There is only a lightweight concept which plays out in a rather dull and flavorless manner. Given the satirical set-up, the narrative is curiously humorless. The violence, after the first beheading, seems to lack any urgency or dynamism and just comes across as listless and pointless. Maybe fans of Bourdain will appreciate this more than I did but for the general reader I would suggest that you try before you buy.

I found this collection to be a really well written send-up of the ridiculous excesses seen in the modern food culture. This takes place one or two generations in the future, where society is segregated between the elites living in their guarded enclaves, and the rest of us. Fast food dominates in the real world, while Haute Cusine is exclusively limited to the elites. However there are a few closely guarded places in the real world where authentic food is served. Jiro is the proprietor of one of these places. He is recruited by a crimelord/chef to open a restaurant in the enclave. His main competitor is a crimelord/vegan-natural food guru, and they compete against one another to gain Jiro's services.

The one complaint I have is that we don't really learn about what motivates Jiro as he maneuvers this tricky situation, and this can lead to questions about why he does what he does. But that's minor. Read this for a peek into a future where being "Top Chef" means more than just getting a TV contract...

Get Jiro! is in no way subtle. Taking foodie culture to a ridiculous extreme with a thin plot to keep the action moving, this graphic novel focuses more on the superficial. It isn't bad for a quick laugh and it certainly doesn't hurt that the artwork is great. However, the story is uneven, often racing through sections which could have been better fleshed out. In big part due to the cartoonish, satirical take on foodie culture the story can't help but feel lightweight and the characters aren't very compelling. It's still a fun book, but don't expect too much from it.

The premise of the graphic novel "Get Jiro!" was great. A not so distant LA with a chaotic "inner ring" that is ruled by two chefs mafia style. One chef, Bob, is French chef and the other is Alice, a vegan militant. Access to ingredients is like access to gold. And good food is the ultimate prize.

Jiro is a mysterious sushi chef who has a sushi restaurant in the outer ring. He came in under the radar. Pays top price for exquisite ingredients such as blue fin tuna. He's gained a reputation for handing harsh punishment to those who dare to request for the low brow California roll. One day his punishment brings him to the attention of Bob and then to Alice and draws him into the turf war that is affecting all the chefs in LA.

As noted, the premise is great and I very much enjoyed Langdon Ross's artwork that is both cartoony and bold.

But while the premise is great, the plot doesn't hold as the transitions are abrupt and the lesser characters sort of blend into each other. Plus, Jiro is not exactly the most likable hero. I didn't really root for him. He just seemed like another thug when all is said and done.

If I could I'd give "Get Jiro!" a 3.5 stars, but I can't quite give it a 4-star so I am going with 3 stars.

Get Jiro! is definitely a different sort of graphic novel. It helps that I love to cook and Anthory Bourdain ROCKS! So given that, I had pretty high hopes for Get Jiro.

The premise of Get Jiro is that the future world is split up between those who can get the good ingredients and those who can not. Those who can, go to the inner city and have to wait in line for the master cooks to prepare them the special food. The rest of the people are just eating what they can from the chefs who are outside. And the chefs that are outside the wall have to wait behind the inner wall chefs for the ingredients.

Jiro, our modest sushi chef, is outside of the walls. He runs a simple sushi restaurant and just wants to be left in peace. There are other hints that Jiro is on the run from the mob or was a solider but that only helps us believe all of the crazy things that he can do. Unfortunately, in future Los Angeles, there are two different chefs who control much of the restaurants and distribution channels. One of the chefs is a classically trained chef but seems to be into making food in large, mass produced kitchens. And his nemesis is a vegan, radical anti-meat hippie who runs vegetarian restaurants. Both chefs have a cult like group of followers who are willing to do anything for their chefs.

Basically, if you like food, Iron Chef or any other food network shows, you'll like this. The only thing is that the art fizzles. The first part of the book has more detailing than the second half. It's like they ran out of either money or energy to keep up the art. It's not awful but it would have been nicer to have the art stay consistent the whole way through.

I have to say that I enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain's shows and reading his books, but when I saw that he had written a comic book titled "Get Jiro" with Joel Rose and featuring art by Langdon Foss, suffice to say, I was intrigued.

While I have watched and read culinary based comics from Japan, what makes Bourdain's "Get Jiro!" so interesting is that it's not only violent, but it is quite bleak in a world where two warring culinary factions have control over the city. Two chef warlords, Bob and Alice who have philosophical differences and literally set the pricing for produce and what chefs and restaurants can have. Don't follow the rules, they'll kill you.

Well, there is on man who doesn't follow either side. A sushi chef and former Yakuza named Jiro. A man so dedicated to his craft that you don't want to offend him.

Three men go into his restaurant, order his sushi and one doesn't properly eat sushi the right way and drops his sushi into his soy sauce. This angers Jiro and Jiro beheads the man!

But Jiro's not going to jail... this is the rule of this world. Offend a chef, he can kill you.

Problem is...the man that Jiro beheaded is a member of Bob's crew and is responsible for getting Bob his Chilean produce. But Jimmy was a tough guy and now Bob thinks, what if he can get this sushi chef on part of his crew? And Alice's crew also gets the same information and she also wants Jiro to join her crew.

But Jiro's not interested in joining anyone's crew. He just wants to make the best sushi with the best produce as possible. But when Bob and Alice take away his access to produce... suffice to say, both these warlords are messing with the wrong person!

ARTWORK:

The artwork by Langdon Foss is pretty cool and love the look of these various crews fighting each other. In a way, it has this post-apocalyptic feel ala "Mad Max" and it compliments Bourdain's and Joel Rose's story effectively.

JUDGMENT CALL:

As mentioned earlier, I have read a few culinary comics in my life. I've read the Japanese comics (and the dramas) featuring a culinary hero who takes on another master chef antagonist to comics that try to be educational about produce and effectively build the story around the art of cooking such as the popular "Oishinbo" seriesOISHINBO: JAPANESE CUISINE.

As for "GET JIRO!", it's a violent comic book that definitely has potential for those interested in cuisine and violent action but if this was a one-shot, I wish there was more explanation towards the origin of Jiro. It's a given that he was a former Yakuza and he is very temperamental when people mess with his work of art. But it would have been great to have some background on Jiro, especially of Bob and Alice and a brief introduction of the world and how these warring culinary factions came to be.

Similar to how there are films that are full of action and are great for popcorn action fans, this is a film that features a lot of action and a storyline that could be complex and last many issues to tell its full story but "Get Jiro" tries to feature a complete storyline within 160-pages. Part of me just wish there was a bit more to it than two warring factions all trying to get Jiro to join their crew and the chaos that comes afterward.

Still, I did enjoy the book. It's unusual, violent and as a fan of Bourdain's work and a fan of food in general, two culinary warring factions and a future world thrust in chaos, it makes you wonder what other kind of ideas are brewing in Bourdain's head. But I do feel that the story of Jiro should continue and I hope Bourdain continues to work on it because there is potential in the character and there are many people who love comic books that are full of action, especially stories and art that feature plenty of violence.

As for the level of violence, this one has it all... decapitations, loss of limbs, it's violent! And as a parent, I had to be careful as my son found the book and wanted to look at it and I had to take it away and warn him, that it is not for youngsters.

Overall, "Get Jiro" was an all-action comic book with a fascinating, violent story but it just needed to expand more on the characters. A bit more focus on character development for Jiro, Bob and Alice could have made a big difference in making the storyline much better.

Still, this is Bourdain's first major foray into writing a comic book story and for his first time, it didn't suck! I hope he does continue with writing more stories that revolve around Jiro!

Sometime in the dystopian future in LA, chefs are cultural heroes and a war is going on. Two gangs of food thugs led by Bob, the epicurean omnivore who owns dozens of junk food joints for the masses, and Alice, the militant bloodthirsty locavore, are battling for control of the scene.

Jiro, a traditional sushi chef, is caught in the middle. He agrees to work for both of them and goes to work to pit them against each other. Of course there is blood, and lots of it. In the first pages, a group of guys walks into Jiro's place and starts committing high crimes against sushi - mixing huge gobs of wasabi and soy, ordering California rolls - The Horror! - and Jiro finally has enough and gets all knifey with them. The cops who show up are pretty nonchalant about the head rolling down the street, send in a cleanup crew and keep on discussing the finer points of sushi rice. It's awfully funny, if you like that sort of thing, and I do. And the graphics are great.

I read "Get Jiro" in one sitting, it literally grabbed me from the first page. Right away, the illustrations captivated me with their boldness and attention to detail. Additonally, as a major foodie, I was intrigued by the unique basis of the comic book revolving around food; specifically, the domination of food culture.

I thought Jiro was a great hero who was mysterious and likeable. I appreciated his shtick about preserving sushi etiquette to the point of extreme violence and gore (a definite necessity in any superhero comic). The antagonists, Chefs Bob and Rose, were fabulous counterpoints to Jiro, and perfectly destetable the way antagonists should be. I enjoyed their purist attidues to their own food philosophies and the entertaining hypocracies and ironies they created throughout the comic. The further I read on, the more interested I was in the plot and how it would be portrayed in the drawings.

Overall, it was the perfect balance of illustrations, actions, and dialogue. I also really liked that the story included broader social messages relevant to American society and culture, but still managed to remain a light, entertaining read and maintain it's comic book appeal. Honestly, I cant wait for the next installement!

Get Jiro! is a violent dystopian view of a future where food is the only thing going and "(s)ports, film, the recording industry have all fragmented and died." Two rival chef/restaurateur/power brokers control the city as you'd envision crime lords in any other world would other than that of Anthony Bourdain. One is a comical caricature of notorious local food guru Alice Waters (even named Alice) while the other is certainly another thinly veiled representation of someone, but I don't possess enough foodie cred to figure it out. Jiro, the main character, is the clichéd lone wolf of few words and deadly skills.

Bourdain's foodie snark is all over this tale, a communist manifesto advocating bone marrow and nasty bits for all. It's at once a nod to foodies who will feast on the numerous references and also a tribute to the antihero Bourdain longs to be. His recipe recommends a pinch of Tarantino and a dash of Leone (well portrayed by artist Langdon Foss) to season the curious and unique story written along with Joel Rose.

Not quite as cool as it wants to be but still amusing if slightly elitist, this graphic novel would appear to have a narrow audience. Bourdain-heads will jump at it as will comic fans that happen to enjoy food graphics along with the requisite pithy hero, random naked women, and lots and lots of blood fountain beheadings. 3.5 stars.

I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction. I generally prefer more realistic variants, but this was a fun read about warlord chefs in a somewhat post apocalyptic LA.

I was worried about how commercial the artwork would feel going into it - celebrity pet projects can often be total garbage. That's not the case here. The artwork is awesome. Each frame has clearly been thought out and then nailed to the artistic vision.

The story is fun. Nothing too deep, just caricatures of different schools of food thought fighting their way through a dark and uncertain world. And it mostly proceeds okay. I would argue that there are hiccups along the way, the pacing is just off. And near the end, the cast of the characters blur into a mess, which is unfortunate. So -1 star for those errors, but 4 stars for a fun romp through Bourdain's mind.

I was very disappointed by "Get Jiro," and found that it failed to live up to its description. The quasi-hero, Jiro, is an expert sushi chef who is perfectly willing to behead a patron who fails to show proper etiquette when ordering. Sounds like a fun character to insert between two murderous crimelord chefs fighting over the same territory, right?

Wrong. Because (spoiler alert!) after that first flash of murderous temper, Jiro becomes a passive character who doesn't do much of anything (he certainly doesn't behead any other crass customers) and in fact becomes pretty much of a punching bag for the villains and their henchmen. He basically refuses to fight, for reasons that aren't explained - and make no sense in the context of his previously displayed murderous streak.

The story is so slight as to be almost nonexistent. We learn nothing about Jiro and, frankly, could care less about him. Two warring factions of criminal chefs are fighting, and we could care less about THEM. I can't remember when I've read 160 pages in which LESS happened. And whatever Anthony "Name Above The Title" Bourdain contributed to this certainly wasn't interesting. I thought we might at LEAST get some interesting insights about food, but other than an odd factoid or two, there really wasn't anything here.

The barely redeeming virtue of "Get Jiro" (and the reason it gets two stars) is the art, which isn't spectacular but IS extremely detailed. In fact, some of the larger illustrations are so packed with detail that it seemed like a "Where's Waldo" game. Frankly, my eyes got tired.

In fairness, I need to point out that this review was written from an advance copy which had only a fraction of the artwork presented in color - and the color work was very nice. When the entire book is in color, I'm sure it's going to have a very good look. But sadly, without a meaningful or interesting story, the art just isn't worth the cost or the time it takes to read "Get Jiro."

Get Jiro delivers only on one level, the art. Langdon does an exceptional job articulating an otherwise bankrupt, shallow, and essentialist take on food culture and history. Much like the later episodes of No Reservations, where "Chef" Anthony Bourdain feels somehow equipped to comment on cultural components that are moderated by chosen handlers, Get Jiro reeks of pretentious harmonizing in the same tune. True, he makes no apologies about selling himself for a buck, and doesn't feel compelled to respond to critics who attack him on this front, but this is something different. He dedicates this book to Jack Kirby, which is akin to his vehement support of "early" punk and 80's New York. The man is a clown. In the arbitrary dichotomy that is implemented in this barely intelligible narrative, he falls prey to the very trappings of the society that he criticizes. Elitism with respect to food requires a certain knowledge, one that he has procured over many years of exposure to bourgeoisie food, and he remains tainted with his false sense of distance from it all.

To sum this up, don't read it. Seriously. This is especially true if you work in the industry. It will only make you angry. If he wants to continue the same shtick of "vegans are ridiculous, pork is king, true culture is poor culture, and fusion is everywhere and all present" then let him do it on his show. There he can dominate the niche he has carved for himself as disaffected compatriot turned old-man-that-looks-like-a-lesbian preaching about something that helped him find his voice years ago. Grow up Bourdain, seriously, and stay out of my comics. It goes back tomorrow, and I don't care if I get a dollar for it. It won't buy back my time, but I will have at least tried to cleanse this blemish that has entered my collection. Seriously, it sucks.