This is for all you newbies.

My name is John McDowell and I cook for a living.  I am a sous chef in Connecticut.  I have been in the restaurant business (professionally) for about 12 years.  About two years ago I became much disenfranchised with my vocation.  I was burnt out.  I started a web comic to help sort out the angst I was then feeling.  I called it Obscene Cuisine.

Obscene Cuisine originally started as a newspaper style strip/gag comic.  

 

However in recent months I switched over to a full page comic book style format, and have begun telling a larger story while infusing some drama.  I guess the reason for this is that the characters, which I have grown quite fond of, began to mean more to me than just the means to a punch line.  They took on a life of their own in my little mind.

The Characters:

Chef Vinny is the chef of my fictious restaurant Mis en Place.  Chef Vinny is a representation and combination of every jaded pirate-like cook I have ever worked with/for, especially early in my career.

Fred is Vin’s Sous Chef, and he is the embodiment of all the sleazy type folks I have met in this business.

New Guy is a line cook.  In my comic he has been working at Mis en Place for some time, yet he is still only known as ‘New Guy’.  I have never referred to him in my comics by his real name.  New Guy is basically me when I was just starting out in this business.  He takes a lot of shit from everybody he works with.

A.K. is the dishwasher and he is a monster.  He is bigger in size than anyone one else in the comic.  I’ve worked with a lot of scary dishwashers over the years and A.K. is the sum of all of them.

Gerard is the restaurant’s general manager, and he is a douche.  For whatever reason, general managers tend to be assholes (however I’m fortunate to be working for a great one now).  Gerard is the embodiment of every douche-like G.M. that I have had the displeasure of working under.  Vinny and Gerard clash frequently.

Dana and Kevin are the wait staff.  I don’t focus too much on the wait staff in my comic.  If you want some restaurant fiction/comedy that center on the front of the house, I suggest you rent the movie ‘Waiting’.  I’m a cook as stated, so my comic is about what I know…Kitchens!  However lately, the wait staff as served to add the drama to my comic’s new direction.  Kevin has a son who has been suffering with cancer.  This week’s installment we found out his son has passed away.  Dana and Fred have been having an affair, and a few weeks ago we found Dana is pregnant with Fred’s baby. 

You can always refer back to older blogs to catch up on what’s going on in my comic, or if you go to my pics page, I have all my archives there.

My comic also is on drunkduck.com.  I am on facebook and twitter as well.

I have a line of merchandise at www.cafepress.com/obscenecuisine.

The last 18 pages of my comic have been collected and is being sold at www.indyplanet.com.

Thank you to everyone that has read and supported my work these past couple years.  I was chatting online the other day with my friend Patrick. He told me that my comics are hanging in the kitchen where he works.  I hear that a lot from people and that blows my mind.   I mean, to think that there all these kitchens out there with something I made adorning there walls is crazy to me.  It’s a cool feeling to know that my cartoons mean that much to so many cooks. 

I was recently contacted by someone from Gourmet magazine.  The person said that they wanted to do something on my comic in the pages of Gourmet.  That was almost three months ago.  I was beyond ecstatic when I found this out; a lot of cooks read that magazine.  I was figuring that if this came to pass that maybe this would be the thing to propel me the financial success I so desperately crave and, not to mention get my work out there to a larger audience.  However, I believe the columnist who wanted to write the feature is having trouble getting the idea past the suits that make the final decisions on what is published, and that’s disappointing.

As much as I would like to make some loot with this comic, hearing that Obscene Cuisine is ‘hitting home’ with all you great people that read it is better than money…SERIOUSLY!

If my comics are hanging in your kitchens, and you got some time, snap a pic, send it to me.  I would love to see them.  I was thinking I could do a section in my next collection of all the different kitchens out there with OC on their walls.

Thanks everyone!