Comics and Short Rib Burrito

A few weeks back Rose and I decided that we were in need of a road trip.  Some sort of adventure to a place we had never been before.  As part of my comic book publishing project I compiled a list of all the comic book stores that are anywhere close to driving distance from us.  We decided to consult the list had found a few stores we had never been to were down in Delaware about an hour away from where we were going to grab coffee.

The first store we visited was fine, nothing bad, but nothing special.  It carried all the mainstream titles and a decent number of trades and toys.  I’d give it a B and it’s not really worth singling out here.  If that was the only place we had gone, the trip would have been a bit of a letdown, luckily we continue on.

The next store we visited was The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington.  This store was anything but average.  In fact it was everything I want in a store.  As soon as we entered we were greeted by the co-owner Sarah.  She gave us a little tour of this rather big shop.  She told us about the various reading groups and recommendation racks they had.  They also had a side room full of discount books and toys.  One thing I loved was on the new book wall they had little signs under any of the new titles that came out that week saying things like "if you like Doctor Who, you might want to give this a try."  It was such a welcoming experience.  I definitely want to do something with them once my book comes out.

After we had perused the store for a bit and picked up a couple of trades Rose and I started thinking about dinner, but we had no idea where to go for food.  Once more Sarah and the Comic Book Shop delivered someone first rate customer service.  She gave us a ton of menus to the place around the store that she liked.  It was awesome.  We end up picking El Diablo.

El Diablo continued our streak of awesome places.  It’s basically a Chipotle with a higher class of food and a 50's rockabilly decor.  I ordered a short ribs with brown rice and per the guy behind the counters recommendation, goat cheese burrito on whole wheat.  It was fantastic.  In fact it was so good that I tried my hand at making something similar at home.  I would have used a Dutch oven, but I don't have one.  I'm going to give you the recipe to make it in my kitchen.

Old Man Mitchell's Short Rib Burrito


Note: I don't like beans, I just don't.  If you like beans or anything else feel free to add it when you try this at home.  Let me know in the comments what you found worked and didn't work.

What you will need:

• A cast iron skillet
• A couple of pots with lids
• 1 pound of short ribs
• A hand full of baby carrots
• Tarragon
• Salt
• Pepper
• (I always want to list Spinderla after salt and pepper)
• 14oz can Beef stock or broth
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup of jasmine rice
• Whole Wheat tortillas
• Honey goat cheese from Wegmans
• A griddle or pan

The step:

1. Season you Short Ribs on all side with salt and pepper
2. Get your well seasoned cast iron skillet nice and hot over a high heat
3. Sear each side of the short ribs for a couple of minuets
4. Pour in the beef stock/broth and bring to a boil
5. Pour half a cup of olive oil into a pot
6. Pour the Beef stock/broth and short ribs into the pot
7. Bring to a simmer and add in carrots and tarragon
8. Cover and cook this way for 2 hours or so
9. Every half hour turn the short ribs
10. Time it out so that your rice will finish about the same time as your short ribs
11. When the ribs come out shred them with a fork or knife

Constructing a Burrito:

1. Place the tortillas on a plate
2. Add a bit of rice in the center third of the tortillas
3. Add a layer of Short Rib and then a layer of cheese
4. Fold the tortillas in half
5. Draw the top of the tortillas and contents towards yourself so it now the top just covers the contents
6. Fold in the side
7. Roll it over once
8. Place the side with the folds on a griddle at medium heat for a little bit to toast the burrito

And there you have it.  Toasty, tasty goodness.

One other bit of news, I have been posting a color redux version of Dangers of the Road over at Tal-Nor.com.  Please check it out and let me know what you think.  It my first go at digital coloring.

Until Next time, keep making things!


T.

Thoughts on Pitching a Comic Book

I recently worked with someone who is going to pitch a book to Image comics.  Looking over their work and the pitch requirement has gotten me thinking, what makes a good pitch?  How would I pitch if I was going to? I'll be honest with my current project The Chronicles of the Tal Nor, the thought of pitching it never really crossed my mind.  The plan was always that I wanted to be a comic, so I would just make it myself.  That being said looking at the road not taken was a fun exercise.

According to Image's pitch Guidelines the pitch should contain the following things:

1. a cover letter
2. a one page synopsis of the overall story
3. a sample of at least 5 fully finished pages
4. a cover mock up

While the synopsis is important, that really just the idea of your story and not the story itself.  The sample is her is the key to getting your pitch picked up.  Think about it, a good story idea will make a terrible comic if not executed well.  The opposite is true too.  List your top 10 favorite stories, then boil them down to their base idea, I bet at least one or two of them is kind of terrible idea.  But when the right people came together they knock that idea out of the park and made a good story.  Synopsis just shows that you have a road map for the story.

The sample then needs to be an example of storytelling.  If you want Image or anyone else to pick a book up the sample should tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end, or failing that it should at the very least be a complete scene.  It should work even if the person hasn't read any of the other materials one includes in a pitch.  It should tell the reader a little bit about the character and give them a sense of the world.  And it should show off that you know how to tell a story.

I know this is a really hard thing to do; it's much harder to write a short 4-8 page story and accomplish these things than it is to write a whole 24 page issue.  I have tried and failed at writing these types of short piece myself several times.  In fact I think that my newest piece "IHate When They Run" is the only time I've truly succeed in telling the kind of story I wanted to and accomplished everything I wanted.

A great example of what I'm talking about is the first scene in the movie Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier.  Here we have Cap, The Black Widow and some of the strike force guys in a Quinn Jet about to assault a boat.  As Cap is getting ready to jump out of the jet, Black Window is giving him dating advice and trying to set him up.  Right away we know what kind of relationship they have together and we know a ton about who Cap is as a person.  When asked why he doesn't ask this one girl out and if he is "too scared?", Cap responds with "no, too busy" and jumps out of the jet.  At this point a Strike team guy ask his boss if Cap was wearing a parachute and the boss responds with "no, no he wasn't"  in the exchange we are shown through character reaction that Cap is a total badass.  The action the follows in the next scene builds on this as does the eventual confrontation between Cap and Widow about their missions, which does even more to establish their characters.

Another reason to do a short self-contained story is that if Image passes (even with the best pitch this could happen, a ton of publishing house passed on Harry Potter) you will still have a comic you can self-publish and build on.  This is one of the greatest things about comics as a medium, to be a comic book creator all you have to do is create a comic.  For my very first comic (which I won't be showing anyone, ever again), I wrote a really rudimentary script for a 6 page story and went online to find an artist.  I put up an ad on Digital Webbing offering $20 a page.  I was amazing the number of emails I got from people wanting to make my comic.  I found some who art I like well enough and seemed nice from their email.  I told them to make each page 8 by 5.5, the size of a standard letter size piece of paper folded in half.  This was so that I could go down to Staples and have them just print out the pages on standard printer paper.  I spent a good week up in my room after work folding and stapling together the book.  From the moment the first two staples went into that first set of pages, I was a comic book creator.

We live in the most amazing of times, with the help of the internet, if there is a creative thing you want to do you can do it.  The only thing that stands between you and your creative goal is hard work and time.  You put in enough time and hard work and you can make almost anything.   Now, getting your creations out in the world and in to the hands of people, all the while making a living at creating things, well that I'm still working out.  If I find any answers, I'll let you know.

Till next time, keep making things and don't let anyone stop you.  Not even me.

T.