The Comic Book Creator's Cookbook lives again!

This evening I received an email query from P. Craig Russell about whether the Comic Book Creator's Cookbook had ever been published and I said no, then ran down a few points that had weighed against it. I asked him for his opinions about working with overworked comics pros and the publishers so the book could get done and he replied: "I understand the $ issue with generating new artwork. For myself, I would have no problem granting fair use for, say, the banquet scene from The Magic Flute. Surely the various artists must have material of their own to grant use of. Maybe not. Some don't ever do anything beyond the big three.

"How about a combination of pre-existing art and/or photos of the artists in their kitchens? Or at the dinner table? Maybe you only need money for an original cover.

"Since this could be seen as a scholarly work, under fair use couldn't you have a chapter illustrating 'food in comics' which could give you all sorts of images? Perhaps as interludes between recipes so as to keep the images dispersed throughout the book?

"If nothing else is there any way this could be published online? Shame not to have access to all those recipes.

"Good luck."

So he inspired me to sally forth and get the book done so it can be published in some fashion ... maybe not through Square One out of NY, but possibly self published or through on of the online sites. I will dedicate it to Russell and to the late Tony Dezuniga (who donated four recipes!!) And I believe I will go back to using Rick Schmitz's Creeple-inspired cover.   ;-)