Savor Each And Every Bite: Reviewing ‘Rare Flavours’ #1

Pull up a seat and prepare to embark on a journey that will delight the senses and tingle the taste buds. A tantalizing tale of a demon with the dream of being the next Anthony Bourdain, the filmmaker tapped to share his tale, and those who pursue the demon for reasons of their own.

Rare Flavours #1 is a truly delightful tale that comes as no surprise, since it was forged by the hands of Ram V, Filipe Andrade, and Andworld Design, who brought us The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr. As that previous series dove into the idea of life through the window of death, this one comes at life through the thing that gives us substance and life of a different kind, food.

Oh goodness, this was truly an amazing read. As noted above I expected no less from this team, but they took what expectations their last series set and blew them out of the water. Food is something that we all know and understand on some level. It’s not just the thing that sustains us physically but often emotionally, mentally, and spiritually as well. It often becomes tangled and tied to our emotional states, sometimes in positive or negative ways.

Ram V has a style without having a style, if that makes sense. There are elements that are a throughline within his works, of course, elements that one can point at. Yet, the overall style that he commands is being able to deeply understand and showcase the truth of humanity right on the page. It doesn’t matter if it’s stories about Indian culture or fictional stories about a man in a bat costume. Whatever the focus, he will find a way to mine the emotion, the reality, and the weight out of it in the most human way possible.

Basically, my point is that there’s this unifying thread between his works, which are all so vastly different from one another. Despite those differences that should make one assume they come from a different writer, the connection between them is clear as day for those willing to notice.

There is a heaviness and lightness within this story at the same time. Weight comes from the figure that is Rubin Baksh and what he represents. Eternal life, a demon with a past, but also with a love of food and a dream. Balanced with his own appetites that are of a darker bloodier nature.

Adding to that heaviness is Mo, who in a way represents so many of us right now in the world. Someone who also had a dream and a passion that was beaten out of them by the world to the point where they wanted to tap out. Yet, when the right voice comes along and offers something that he’s been chasing, it’s hard to say no. Even when we know that we should.

This is where food and the beauty of it is used to lighten and enlighten.

Andrade has a whimsical, yet deep artistic style, that plays with exaggeration and sets the feeling and tone through the depictions of people or items. We follow the characters through the story in a way that follows what we expect from comic books with panels and sequential scenes. Andrade leaps beyond that though and uses the gutter negative space in creative ways beyond just borders, our first page giving space for the lettering to be placed right beside the big, massive opening image.

The next level is the shots later during the sequences that begin to focus on the food. There is such loving care taken in the presentation, the colors used to lighten and make the elements pop even more. Whole panels with shots of ingredients and text that continue to tell the story but also the history behind the chosen food item. It’s a feast for our eyes on every level.

Here many of the panels pull back on some of the details, letting the words and the food bits take all the deserved focus. Our story at this point is not about the crowd shot or the moment the words are describing, but about the overall atmosphere and feeling that the story wants to elicit from us.

So many people have a preconceived notion of what comic books are and should be, but there are books like this that come along every so often to smash those notions away. To remind us that the medium, much like the food here, is more than the sum of its parts. That it’s malleable and can be turned and given loving care that will elicit so many emotions while still giving us sustenance.

Such a format gives the letterer from AndWorld Design room to play within as well. From standard bubbles ripe with personality and little flairs that give way to the emotion and the volume and tone to the extra. Those extras are words that are more prose-like on the panels, telling us the tale of the man and his grandmother’s chai. Either running through the gutter space, or right there on the page, popping up dark and powerful over the cooler colorful background tones.

There is just so much to dissect in this issue that one must return for a second, or even third helping, as they await the second course. Oh, what a wait it will be.

Rare Flavours #1 is now available from BOOM! Studios.