What’s going on here?

.

Who runs this shit-show?

.

That would be me. I’m Tyler, the owner/operator/author of this odd little corner of the internet called Cooking Comically. I come up with the recipes, cook them, photograph them, draw on them, eat them and share them. Not necessarily in that order.  I have never nor will ever claim to be a chef. I have no formal training in the culinary arts.  I’m just a guy who likes to cook and eat and also just happens to draw comics, take pictures and believe that if you aren’t having fun when you cook, you’re doing it wrong.  I also like to think that recipes should be more representative of how fun cooking can actually be instead of just a block of text.

.

.

Where did this cockamamie idea come from?

.

This all started with my chili, so you should probably blame my brother Nate. He got me started cooking it and I nailed down my own recipe in the winter of 2011. After a little foray into food photography for a class, I made a silly comic out of the recipe on a whim. I called it 2AM Chili and put it on Reddit (at the behest of a friend.  I was actually on the fence about it.) Before long it was at the #1 spot on the site and was being cross-posted on various blogs and social media sites all over the internet. A lot of people liked it. A lot of people hated it. But, one thing was certain: It got a huge response. I received enough messages and comments asking for more that I started to think about continuing it. I decided to follow it up with The Bananarama. Again, a sizable response followed, but this time it was almost entirely positive with even more requests for me to continue. I threw the website together and started pulling out more recipes to make. Here we are. I hope you enjoy reading them. Because I certainly enjoy making them.

.

.

I like the cut of your jib. How can I help?

.

A few people have expressed an interest in making a donation to help me keep making these comics and I’m not going to lie:  It would help.  While hosting costs are still fairly low, I’m a full-time student and all the extra cooking and ingredients have been impacting my already miniscule budget. If people want to help I’m certainly not going to stop them. It would also be nice to be able to keep the site ad-free or with super minimal advertising. So, if you’d like to contribute here’s how:

.

.

.

What’s this I hear about a book?

.

In June of 2012 I learned that Perigee Books will be publishing the very first Cooking Comically Cookbook in October(ish) 2013. The website will continue on as it has and in the background I will be producing the book. I hope you’ll stick with me.

.

.

Can I submit recipes?

.

A lot of people have asked this and my official answer is “Sure!”  I just can’t make any promises that I’ll use them.  If I do, you’ll get credit, but an official submission system just isn’t something that’s on my radar right now.  I’m not really opposed to the idea, but if it happens it’ll be a good ways off.  A couple of folks have also asked if they could even photograph the recipe and just have me illustrate on it and while I understand and appreciate the sentiment, I’ll have to decline on that one.  The photography is a bit more integral to my little process than you might think.  Half of what I come up tends to present itself while I’m cooking and taking the pictures.  I also very often take pictures with the future placement of text and drawings in mind, so that’s going to have to remain something I do on my end.

.

.

Do you just draw stick figures?

.

No, I do other things too.  (Do keep in mind that that site hasn’t been updated very recently though)

.

.

How do I reach you?

.

You can find me on that Twitter contraption

I’m also on this one really obscure site called Facebook

Or feel free to contact me directly at:
tyler@cappslock.com

.