AMBER LOVE 20-NOV-2012 The doublewide 215ink booth at New York Comic Con was filled with comics from end to end. I was elated to hear that some of their titles sold out at the show including JESUS HATES ZOMBIES volume one and BEWARE #001. I was able to get a few new things including THE KITCHEN WITCH first issue created by Steve Orlando. As I’ve said in my other posts, if you see 215ink at a show, they have great convention prices to entice you and it’s always worth buying that one extra book that made you hesitant before.

THE KITCHEN WITCH #001
WRITER: Steve Orlando
ART: Olivia Pelaez

THE KITCHEN WITCH may be the newest addition to your all ages comics subscriptions. Kevin’s father is a single parent with a special talent: he’s considered to be the world’s greatest chef. As it turns out, Chef Bennet Gordon has some help. In issue #001, readers are not let in on any of the details to what powers Gordon may or may not possess.

This kickoff lays some important groundwork that Bennet is a chef; he appears to be a widower or perhaps otherwise separated from his wife Christine; he’s famous; and he feels guilty about not spending time with his son even though it’s for their financial well-being to choose to be a restaurateur. This character immediately has his challenges presented. Opening a restaurant is an epic challenge and there’s a hint that Bennet’s previous line cooks may have sabotaged him in his kitchen. All of that is uncovered in a couple of pages.

The focus of THE KITCHEN WITCH is actually on Kevin who sneaks into the fancy new restaurant kitchen and comes across Lovis, a kitchen witch. One thing that happened to me as I read the pages was that I kept expecting Lovis to be the bad guy. Her skin is green. To a practicing witch like myself green skin usually indicates whoever created the book makes all witches evil. So every time she and Kevin helped each other out, I thought she was going to betray him in any moment. My brain’s inability to keep from jumping to conclusions is part of my reading process. I love to read mysteries so I’m always looking for the point when someone’s true malevolent personality is hinted or shown completely. I’ll try to limit my “modern day pagan on a soapbox” comments. I know it’s just a story and nothing to get my bloomers in a bunch but in the modern witch circles, I’ll let you in a not-so-secret mantra: We really get annoyed by green skin or “hag” stererotypes in art, costumes, or movies.

There were a couple times in the story when I had to pause and read through the balloons more than once because I kept thinking I was misunderstanding what Lovis and Kevin were saying to each other. With the exception of the green skin, I truly loved this art, coloring and lettering. I think “fruit flywaymen” are an ingenious creation for supernatural insects that are armed with weapons who are stealthy and motivated.

Overall, I think THE KITCHEN WITCH should be added to people’s all ages pull lists. If you’re curious about how to get 215ink titles through your local retailer, they have distribution through Liber not Diamond.

*NOTE: This review was due out in October but Hurricane Sandy delayed the posting.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.