This is a follow-up to the photo I posted last Wednesday, which showed two drinks, a candle and a Scarlet Witch comic.
The next day I was inspired to create a Scarlet Witch cocktail, and this is what I came up with:
The Scarlet Witch Cocktail: 
The instructions for preparation are included below, copied from the post I made on my BarNotes page!
Ramazzotti: 
This is what I do when I get bored at night at home:
Red wine for the lady and an apple cider cocktail for myself.
•PAST COMIC BOOK POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)
•#2 — Constantine Chugging From The Bottle (Link)
#3 — Iron Man Shares A Drink (Link)
#4 — Hellboy Beer (Link)
#5 — Dr. Strange Orders A Mai Tai (Link)
#6 — The Fade Out/Dottie Quinn Cocktail (Link)
Filed under COMICS AND COCKTAILS
COMICS & COCKTAILS
Dottie Quinn and The Fade Out
Issue number 10 of “The Fade Out” recently hit comic shop shelves — and the book sets up pretty much all the pieces for the big conclusion coming in the final two issues.
Since debuting some many months back, every time an issue of “The Fade Out” arrives, I want to frame the comic for its cover alone.
For this month’s cover, one of the secondary characters, a gal named Dottie Quinn, was featured.
Dottie does PR for the movie studio where the story is set, and has a personal and professional relationship with the main character.
Dottie Quinn
As a fan of comics and detective fiction, I have a great love for this hard-boiled era in which “The Fade Out” is set. And as a professional bartender, I’ve also got a great love of the pre-prohibition and post-prohibition eras and all the the drinks which were created in those years.
So in honor of the comic and the character Dottie Quinn, I put together an original cocktail recently which felt like a throwback — bourbon, coffee liqueur, banana liqueur, Grand Marnier & orange bitters. And I garnished it with a banana chip.
It’s sort of a blend between a “Talent Scout and a “Revolver,” but with the timing and arrival of this new issue of “The Fade Out,” I figured I better call it a Dottie Quinn — sweet and strong, with a stiff bitter side that’s not overwhelming but is surprisingly balanced and complex.
THE FADE OUT
This series is one of the best comic books being published right now.
Written and drawn by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, respectively, “The Fade Out” is published by Image Comics and set in post-World War II Hollywood. My podcast buddy Jason Sample has compared the comic to the film “L.A. Confidential” and that comparison is right on the mark. This book is noir done write — written and drawn by two guys who’ve proven themselves to masters of this genre.
Brubaker and Phillips are well known for tackling not only this era, but the gritty pulp world— with the series “Fatale” being just one example.
“The Fade Out” started as a murder mystery, with an actress’s death covered up as a suicide in issue number one. It has since evolved into a scandal so large in this pseudo-real Hollywood setting that our two main protagonists don’t even care if they solve the case, they just want to go down swinging and maybe make enough noise that it’ll draw some attention to the crime.
Our main character in the book is the scriptwriter for the movie being shot in the comic, and after coming across the corpse of the actress, he removed himself from the situation and then read in the newspapers the next day that it was a suicide — but he knows better.
Someone in his studio covered up the crime, and rearranged the crime scene to look like a suicide.
Now that we’re 10 issues in, he and his fellow writer, who’s been made aware of the crime, are on the warpath. They’ve discovered an even deeper issue below the murder of this one, individual actress — and they mean to expose it.
“The Fade Out” is a great little story that’s really taking its time to develop. Brubaker and Phillips immerse the reader in this sleazy Hollywood era and spend each of the first few issues introducing us to more and more players in the story. The middle set of books in the series really catapult the story forward and now I can’t wait for the final issues to bring it all to a head.
Filed under BANANA, BOURBON, COGNAC, COMIC BOOKS, COMICS AND COCKTAILS, GARNISHES & OTHER EDIBLES, LIQUEURS
COMICS & COCKTAILS
It’s been a while since I’ve written a “Comics & Cocktails” post, but I was reading Marvel’s new Doctor Strange book the other night and came across this:
Don’t get between Stephen Strange and his drink!
In this first issue of Marvel’s new solo series, Dr. Strange meets a group of fellow Mystics at a secret New York bar for magicians.
In the panel preceding this one, Strange gets hassled about his bill, but not the “bill” as in his bar tab. He gets hassled about the bill due for all the magic he uses — or, put another way, the cost of his sorcery and what it means to the world.
But Strange is all like: “Chill, dude… My drink ain’t even ready yet.”
I’d have to go back and re-read the issue, but I thought Chondu was at the table with Strange — but maybe he’s the bartender? Either way, Strange just wants his Mai Tai.
THE MAI TAI
The Mai Tai is one of those drinks that people know about, but don’t really know what’s in it.
People know it’s name and order it because they’ve heard it said in movies and on television. Nothing’s wrong with any of this, of course, I just usually feel bad when someone orders the drink at the bar where I work — because it’s not a drink we offer (or even have the ingredients to make). And thankfully, everyone who has ever tried ordering the drink from me has never seemed to mind the fact that I couldn’t make it for them… Because they didn’t know what was in it themselves and only wanted to order if because the name stuck with them.
All that said, if you see a Mai Tai on a cocktail list somewhere — give it a shot!
ABOUT THIS DRINK
The Mai Tai was created by either Trader Vic or Don the Beachcomber, and the recipe from each of those tiki heavyweights differs slightly.
The following recipe comes from Imbibe Magazine:
PREPARATION
Combine all ingredients in a shaker and add crushed ice. Shake for 10 seconds and pour, unstrained into a glass. Garnish.
Adapted from Jeff Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log, 1998
•PAST COMIC BOOK POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)
•#2 — Constantine Chugging From The Bottle (Link)
#3 — Iron Man Shares A Drink (Link)
#4 — Hellboy Beer (Link)
Filed under COCKTAIL RECIPES, COMIC BOOKS, COMICS AND COCKTAILS
Rogue and Dark Horse are teaming up to produce a limited-edition Hellboy Beer!? Count me in!
I know, I know… This post is called “Comics & Cocktails,” but that’s just a catchy name — any time the worlds of adult beverages and comics overlap in any way, I think it’ll be fair game for here.
So, Hellboy!
I saw the news on Comic Book Resources last night.
The beer marks Hellboy’s 21st birthday and will be called “Right Hand of Doom Red Ale,” a limited release from the Rogue brewery, which is located in Oregon.
I can’t wait to try this. I love their “Dead Guy Ale” and I’m a sucker for gimmicks, especially when it’s a comic book tie-in. I imagine the release will be similar to the way in which Ommegang Brewery put out its several “Game Of Thrones” tie-in beers. I’ve tasted a few of those and they’ve all been solid, and I imagine this will be just as good!
The beer will be available nationally through Rogue.com, as well as the Things From Another World Comics store in Portland.
Here’s what Hellboy creator Mike Mignola said in a press release announcing the beer:
“When Dark Horse Comics published the first Hellboy story 21 years ago, I never thought there’d be a Hellboy beer. But I really can’t imagine a better time for Rogue to introduce the Right Hand of Doom beer. If Hellboy was real, I guess he’d finally be able to buy me a beer.”
Pre-orders can be placed now on the Rogue site. The beer has an ABV of 6.8% and is 82 IBU.
•WHAT IS IBU?•
Most beer-drinkin’ people know what their beer’s ABV percentage means as well as some of the other jargon on the label, like style of beer and whatnot. However, IBU is something I bet most folks might just skim right over when drinking craft brew.
IBU stands for “International Bittering Units,” which is a scale of sorts for the bitterness in all different types of beers.
Here’s a pretty detailed answer — (Link)
And here’s a chart of beer IBUs — (Link)
From Wikipedia:
IBU can not be determined by perceived bitterness. For example, the bittering effect of hops is less noticeable in beers with a high quantity of malt, so a higher bitterness is needed in heavier beers to balance the flavor and achieve the same perceived bitterness as compared to a lighter beer.
For example, an Imperial Stout may have an IBU of 50, but will taste less bitter than an English Bitter with an IBU of 30, because the latter beer uses much less malt than the former. After around 100 IBU, hop utilization is so poor that the number ceases to be meaningful in regard to taste, although continued hop additions will increase bitterness.
Light lagers without much bitterness will generally have 8-20 IBU, while an India Pale Ale may have 60-100 IBU or more.
•OTHER PRESS RELEASE QUOTES•
“Hellboy has appeared in graphic novels and comic books, prose novels, two animated features, two live action films, toy lines and all manner of merchandise,” Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse, added in a statement. “Rogue Ales approached us with the idea of creating a heavy-handed, supernatural red ale and we loved the idea of two independent, Portland based companies coming together to create something new that would be both fun for fans and worthy of the Mike Mignola’s creative legacy.”
“This beer is dedicated to the B.P.R.D,” Brett Joyce, President of Rogue Ales, said in the announcement. “Right Hand of Doom is brewed with all the same passion and intensity that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse have brought to Hellboy for the past 21 years.”
Filed under BEER, BRANDS, COMIC BOOKS, COMICS AND COCKTAILS
Tony Stark, Tony Stark, Tony Stark.. It was only a matter of time before Iron Man showed up here in the “Comics & Cocktails” feature.
This is a more recent comic compared with the other two I’ve posted so far. Links to those are at the end of this post.
Here we have Tony Stark drinking Matt Murdock’s booze and berating Daredevil. See, Stark fixed Daredevil’s sight for him — without asking. And, as you can see here, Stark wants to celebrate, but Murdock’s not all that happy:
Stark’s back on the sauce in his new “Superior Iron Man” title and he seems to really be earning that new “Superior” moniker he’s been given. As a result of Marvel’s “Axis” storyline, some of the publisher’s heroes and villains have had their personalities flipped, so Tony Stark is even more of a pompous dick in the comics right now — and he’s pretty much extorting people with his “Extremis” app.
Earlier in this issue, as Daredevil’s waking up, Tony asks him where he keeps his good booze. Nothing like having an estranged friend knock you out and then rifle through your liquor bottles, am I right? But what would Daredevil have that Tony Stark would consider “Good Booze”?
This isn’t the sort of thing that Matt Murdock’s going to have on his shelves, but here’s a recent article from The Spirits Business about some premium bottles of Japanese whiskey selling at record prices. Tony Stark likes just about everything in his life to be expensive and extravagant, and so that article I’d just recently read came to mind when I started writing this post.
These next three panels come prior to the one posted above. Here Tony pours himself the drink which Daredevil slaps out of his hand.
Forget the dialogue balloons and keep your eyes on Iron Man in the background:
Not a jigger in sight! Looks like Tony’s a free pour guy.
•GOT A SUGGESTION?•
Do you know of a panel in a comic where a character is boozing it up? Shoot me an email at FrontierMixology@GMail.com with the details. I’d love to include it here on the blog.
•PAST POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)
•#2 — Constantine Chugging From The Bottle (Link)
Filed under COMICS AND COCKTAILS
What comes to mind when someone says John Constantine? Is it that he’s always quick with a quip? Or is it his holy trinity of cigarettes, booze and black magic?
That’s right, it’s time once again for what I’m trying to make a regular series of posts on the blog: Comic Books and Cocktails!
Last time I posted a picture of Darkseid drinking brandy from a snifter. Today I’m writing about John Constantine, and more specifically, the “Hellblazer” Annual #1 titled “The Bloody Saint”:
•CONSTANTINE ON TV•
Season one of NBC’s “Constantine” is close to wrapping up, with 10 episodes having now aired.
“Constantine” is based on the DC/Vertigo book “Hellblazer” and stars Matt Ryan as John Constantine, a Brit with one foot in our world and the other in the supernatural realm.
The show has been an enjoyable one so far, with the writers taking storylines straight from the comics — such as John exorcising demons and butting heads with Papa Midnite.
It’s a great show, and I don’t know if a ton of people are watching it.
Cast members have come out and said that the hasn’t been canceled yet, but NBC hasn’t ordered any more episodes after the initial 13. There still is a chance for a second season, but it seems like the show is walking a fine line.
Don’t know much about John Constantine? Don’t let that stop you. This show’s a nice, easy introduction to the character as well as the darker side of DC.
So if you’re in need of something to watch, choose “Constantine” for the time being — because everything from “Flash” and “Arrow” to The Walking Dead” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” are guaranteed more seasons. But I don’t know where “Constantine” stands.
•GOT A SUGGESTION?•
Do you know of a panel in a comic where a character is boozing it up? Shoot me an email at FrontierMixology@GMail.com with the details. I’d love to include it here on the blog.
•PAST POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)
Filed under COMIC BOOKS, COMICS AND COCKTAILS, Uncategorized
Here’s the first of what I’m going to try and make a regular series of posts on the blog: Comic Books and Cocktails!
Why comic books and cocktails? I love both!
So what will these posts entail? Well, they’ll always be one of two things — either a panel from a comic book related to booze or a recipe inspired by comic book characters.
And to start it all off, here’s a picture of Darkseid living the high life:
Such a creepy dude. And the content of this specific issue is actually quite bizarre. The panel comes from Action Comics issue #593, entitled “The Suicide Snare.”
Here’s the full page:
See that VCR in the background? Well, Darkseid’s about to show Mister Miracle a video of his wife in a porno. No, really. That’s the plot of this comic. Check it out here at this link.
I thought Darkseid drinking brandy from a snifter was strange enough, but the plot to Action Comics #593 gets even stranger — with Superman captured and forced to work on set with Mister Miracle’s wife, Big Barda.
But I digress… More about booze and less about the book!
What Is Brandy?
•Brandy is a spirit made from distilling wine.
•Brandy generally contains between 35-60% alcohol by volume. That can mean it’s anywhere from 79-120 U.S. proof.
•The term “brandy” also denotes liquors obtained from distillation of pomace (pomace brandy) or mash or wine of any other fruit (fruit brandy). These products are also named eaux-de-vie.
•Now in terms of its name, the word “Brandy” comes from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn, “gebrande wijn” — or “burned wine.”
•Some brandies are aged in wooden casks, some are colored with caramel coloring to imitate the effect of aging, and some brandies are produced using a combination of both aging and coloring.
What About Cognac?
•Cognac is named after the town of Cognac in France.
•Cognac is a variety of brandy, produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente and Charente-Maritime.
•GOT A SUGGESTION?•
Do you know of a panel in a comic where a character is boozing it up? Shoot me an email at FrontierMixology@GMail.com with the details. I’d love to include it here on the blog.
Filed under COMIC BOOKS, COMICS AND COCKTAILS
Frontier Mixology 