Bringing Flavour To This Life: Reviewing ‘Rare Flavours’ #4

Stories and food are both enriching and able to bridge wide divisions. Sometimes even between a human and a human-eating demon. Talk about an odd couple.

All pretenses have been lifted as Rubin and Mo must face the truth in Rare Flavours #4. Only two issues remain in this culinary-inspired adventure from Ram V, Filipe Andrade, and Andworld Design.

I can never get enough of this series, and work from this creative team. Anticipation is high with every issue, and mouthwatering increases, as with the longer gaps between courses. Oh, but it’s so worth the wait every single time. Like the finest of dining experiences, you walk away so satisfied. Full, but not too full, and content in life and everything for that moment.

We get a history lesson of our main character, still wrapped tightly around the series theme of food. Indian cuisine is one of the realms of food I’ve yet to explore, but this series is making sure that won’t be the case for long.

One part conversation, one part backstory, and one part food appreciation. That is the recipe for a great issue at this particular juncture. Ram V continues to do a wonderful job at making the characters have  weight and power. In a sense we just met them three issues ago, yet they already feel like individuals we might have been following for years. Hitting those beats, making one care, and becoming invested so quickly is just what he does as a writer.

Same as we see visually from Andrade. Just stunning stylistic imagery that hits at the heart of the matter. Whether it’s Mo and Rubin sitting surrounded by open nothingness at a roadside food stand, or the tightly cropped flashback pages. It all makes the story flow and keeps us right in the middle of everything. Splashy toned-down colors give everything such a fantastical but also firmly relatable palette.

Speaking of those colors, I love how the overall filters and chosen palette changes. The flashback pages have a very heavily worn sort of sepia tone to them, helping indicate their past status. Different locales we visit in the present day have filters befitting the space and nature of the area. It makes sure that everything has its quirks and personality.

Dialogue and further lettering elements hit with intentional impact, letting each word be savored. The more text-heavy panels with the recipes and information continue to delight. Comic books using their visual space to sprinkle in more prose-based beats is such an intriguing phenomenon. Allowing the story to showcase pertinent nuggets without having the characters throw it at us in actual in-story walls of dialogue. Also, when done visually right like this book, it’s such a seamless inclusion.

Rare Flavours #4 is now available from BOOM! Studios.