It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business

I haven’t read nearly enough comics about food. In the superhero comics of my youth food didn’t exist at all.* In the big-foot comics, it’s big appetites – Archie’s Jughead, Popeye’s Wimpy, The Bash Street Kids’ Fatty – gluttons all, but none of them cooks.

Cooking is something secondary characters do, prior to the slap-up feed or duck dinner. Pops, or Rough House, or Olive the Dinner Lady beaver mysteriously away until there’s a pie on a window sill waiting for some opportunistic gannet to swoop by and snatch it.

(Of course the Japanese – who famously have manga on everything – have several. For the manga fan-foodies amongst you, and who isn’t, I can recommend Iron-Wok Jan and Oishinbo, full on works of chef fetishification both. Iron-Wok Jan is fast action-comedy cartoony manga – check it out here – and >Oishinbo an incredibly popular 100 volume saga of journalists pursuing “the perfect menu”, scholarly and a bit too serious, plus copious footnotes – find out more …)

It does seem quite strange though, that in the Come Dine With Me and Masterchef marinaded mediascape food and its preparation have barely ever made it into English-language comics. I like to read about food and cooking and I like to read comics too; surely there’s a market for this kind of thing?

And it was a bored Rob Jackson, “fed up with arranging things into alphabetical order”, who gave up his 9-5 and went to off to market, first with his fine food offerings, then with his excellent food zines, It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business.

New Year 2009 Rob quit his job to devote more time to creating comics. Needing to make a living he planned to get by making ice cream (and other delicacies) and flogging it from a stall that toured local Farmers’ Markets. Which is what he did, along with his Dad and his brother, all around Lancashire and the North West, braving wind (“the Worst Enemy of the Market Trader”), fusspots (“’it’s all carrots this, I don’t like it”) and cheese-mongering competition.

In It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business he guides us, in meticulous detail, through the ups and downs of being an outdoor food vendor. Recipes are described, eating patterns commented on (“no one wants ice-cream for breakfast”), local Lancashire delicacies revealed. (Ever heard of Whinberries? Very popular for ten miles around Bolton it seems.)

While it may not seem the most enticing of comic book offerings, It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business is an enthralling pleasure. Rob’s voice is very personal and clear, his cartooning is primitive but very functional and it moves the story along at a very well judged pace. I found myself very much looking forward to the proposed next issue (due when he’s ready to draw more gazebos).

You can find out more about Rob, and order copies of his comics from robjacksoncomics.com.

*Galactus being the exception to the rule.