Hot Dog Taste Test

by Lisa Hanawalt

The new book from the James Beard Award-winning cartoonist and designer/producer of Netflix’s Bojack Horseman

Lisa Hanawalt's debut graphic novel, My Dirty Dumb Eyes, achieved instant and widespread acclaim: reviews in the New York Times and NPR, Best of Year nods from the Washington Post and USA Today, and praise from comedians like Patton Oswalt and Kristen Schaal. Her designs define the look of the wildly popular Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman. Her culinary-focused comics and illustrated essays in Lucky Peach magazine won her a James Beard Award.

Now, Hot Dog Taste Test collects Hanawalt's devastatingly funny comics, gorgeous art, and screwball lists as she tucks into the pomposities of the foodie subculture. Hanawalt dismantles the notion of breakfast; says goodbye to New York through a street food smorgasbord; shadows chef Wylie Dufresne, samples all-you-can-eat buffets in Vegas; and crafts an eerie comic about being a horse lover yet an avid carnivore.

Hot Dog Taste Test explodes with color, hilarity, charm, and, occasionally, reproductive organs. Lush full-spread paintings of birds getting their silly feet all over a kitchen, a fully imagined hot dog show (think Best in Show but with hot dogs), and a holiday feast gone awry are the creamy icing on this imaginative rainbow-colored cake. But Hanawalt's wit and heart extend far beyond gags--her insightful musings on popular culture, relationships, and the animal in all of us are as keen and funny as her watercolors are exquisite.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Humor, Food, Art, Nonfiction, Memoir

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2016

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of My Dirty Dumb Eyes, shares more of her over-active artist brain :). She likes and makes weird ceramics, she does a lot of stuff about food and animals. Sometimes a little gross humor, which can go either way with me. Usually she makes me smile. Not a novel, just a collection of stuff, all of it will make you smile. It is stupid to just talk about without your seeing it, so here, this is her instagram thing:

https://www.instagram.com/lisadraws/?...

Here's a review of this book that actually puts the pictures right in it in a way I never do because I don't know how to do it, but this is worth looking at for one second for the picture of her with a bird in her hair.

NPR interview:

http://www.npr.org/2016/06/21/4820236...

Lynda Barry and Roz Chast territory, which is a good place to be. Fun book from the girl who when she was six wore a hot dog costume to a princess-themed dance recital.

Here she is talking about making food into art:

"You can stick petit fours onto the ends of crab legs, tie them to your fingers, and run around calling yourself Edward Cakecrabhands, and you will simply be offered more crab," she writes. "There are no consequences to my actions here, and it's intoxicating."

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was so thrilled to find that this is the book where my beloved tuca and bertie were born. oh my gosh i love them so much. i've been mourning the series and its end, so what a joy to see my favorite characters again in another form!!

after reading my dirty dumb eyes, i knew more or less what to expect from this followup. it has more of lisa's signature hijinks, quirky stories, dirty jokes, and bizarre illustrations. she's silly in a wonderful way.

the final story, "caballos con carne," is a special one. it's intense and serious, contrasting with the lighter tone that runs through the rest of the book. lisa hanawalt is a gem.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part travel log part rumination on living...I liked the originality of this book and the fantastic stories that were interwoven throughout the observations of the author. I like books that take you places you would probably not go to if left to your own devices. This book really brought back good memories for me.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horses, otters, lists, breakfast food, Argentina, toilet humor. What more could you want?

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short, short-ish and shorter pieces by Hanawalt, similar in feel to "My Dirty Dumb Eyes." Parts of it I liked better, parts I was just stumped by, but all in all I appreciate Hanawalt's "overactive artist's brain" (thanks David!) and look forward to more books!

Here's a nice quote from article linked below:

"Lisa Hanawalt’s second release through Canadian independent powerhouse Drawn & Quarterly is a surreal, free-flowing exploration of food, life, animals and illustrated autobiographical stories, depicted with lush, hand-painted artwork and an irreverent sense of humour."

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/hot-dog...

Her attitude toward bodies is absurdist and also perhaps extra-realistic. I appreciate her unflinching and flinch-worthy (and finch-worthy?) address of genitalia and just the strangeness of bodies and of social conventions. I like that humans live very clearly among the animals in her worlds, and that animals become anthropomorphized in ways that are comically unsettling. There is silliness and artsiness and absurdity and layers of humor and affection.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: cranky review ahead! I have to admit, I would never have picked up this book on my own, but it is on my reading list for a graphic novels class I am taking at Dominican University. Did I have an epiphany after reading it, and am thankful I was forced to go out of my comfort zone? No…for it was a really weird book.

In fact, I wouldn’t even categorize it as a graphic novel, it is a comic book with loosely related themes throughout it. Such themes are food, cute animals, and peeing all over yourself. The summary states that it will skewer the foodie subculture, but that’s not what I took away from it. But a fault I have always had is my practicality. Sometimes I miss the big picture because I get hung up on a certain detail that I can’t let go of. I will be interested to go to class on Sunday and hear what my classmates have to say about this quirky book.

So back to the book- the illustrations are just not very attractive. Now, I am not against pictures that are sketchy and capture the essence of the idea, even if they are not truly very precise in nature. I enjoyed Hyperbole and A Half and Adulthood is a Myth, two novels that were uncluttered and simple in layout. But both those books organized the story and/or strips into a cohesive narrative, and I feel this book just flits from one topic to another. Part travel log, part food diary, part surreal dream fragments; this book is hard to categorize. The author Lisa Hanawalt obviously loves animals, and draws many animals in an anthropomorphized manner, with birds being her specialty.

Before you think I hated the book, I didn’t, for I laughed out loud in several areas. In regards to the aforementioned peeing all over yourself comment, she just draws what many people (or maybe just me and the author) think about while we use public restrooms. My college friends and I are planning a girl's weekend to some Michigan wineries, so when I saw the menstrual bar-cycle picture, I imagined my friends (we can get a bit rowdy when we’ve had a few drinks) making fools of ourselves. That image alone made the book worthwhile for me.

So if you can’t tell already, I’ve had a crappy day and am taking it out on this book. Sorry, not sorry, Hot Dog Taste Test. The author had a wicked sense of humor, and I think I’d be her friend, but I just wasn’t sold on the format of the book.

This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2017/07/2...

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really weird and it will make you giggle to yourself.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is, as usual sensational, and some of the humor is stellar, but most of it is like a diary about travel, and it didn't work for me. I think the author's best work is in short form.

[Melissa Sussman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great graphic novel by one of the best cartoonists out there right now. Really let's you into the brain of an artist.

[Denver Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrator of the Netflix series Bojack Horseman focuses (or tries to) her wild hilarious mind on the topic of food. This graphic novel is a collection of some of the illustrated essays Hanawalt drew for Lucky Peach magazine (which won her a James Beard award) in addition to some new zany visual stories. Content ranges from toilet humor (refer to “Toilet comics” pg 34 or “Bathroom problems” pg 37), an interview with chef Wylie Dufresne, a Toucan shopping for bathing suits, to a family trip to Argentina.

For however strange some of Hanawalt’s creations are, they always manage to garnish resonance and of course, a good laugh. Phenomenal illustrations of musing I didn’t know I wanted to see, I giggled my way through the whole thing. Recommend for lovers of hot dogs, horses, menstrual huts, and cheeky humor.

[Sarah Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this delightful collection of comics, sketches, and longer essay-comics at a good time, when I was sick with a cold and headache and couldn't do much of anything but still needed to finish a few books to meet my Reading Challenge goal. Which is to say, it is a good book to help you feel better or at least a little more lighthearted and optimistic when you are struggling to concentrate on reading, whether because of a reading slump, depression / mental anguish, or sickness. I'd say this is also a good book to help bring you out of a reading slump. I love Bojack Horseman, and that humor carries over here, no surprise since Lisa Hanawalt is the production designer and producer for BoJack. If you love that trippy, absurdist, and whimsical feeling, you will enjoy this book from Hanawalt.

[Ian Hrabe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hot Dog Taste Test is a much more mature offering than Hanawalt's debut--My Dirty Dumb Eyes--and that's the main problem with this book. My Dirty Dumb Eyes was an irreverent, often insane work of pure id that captured Hanawalt's brilliant sense of humor and unhinged illustrations. I had never laughed so hard in my life. Hot Dog Taste Test is primarily compiled of comics written for Lucky Peach magazine, which is an excellent food publication, but the larger platform seems to have necessitated stripping away everything that made Hanawalt so unique. Her voice is muted, the work feels rote, and the storytelling and journalistic aspects of most of these pieces never really cracks a fairly uninteresting surface level. The voice that made her debut so electric is entirely gone, and that is heartbreaking. That said, I really enjoyed the piece about Wylie Dufresne and Hanawalt is a tremendous illustrator (I particularly love her coloring). The large-scale illustrations peppered throughout the book are outstanding and filled with the weirdness that has been reigned in everywhere else.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hard to categorize. There are comics in here, but also illustrations, text, photos ... Lisa Hanawalt's muse ranges far and wide. Most of the material in here is related to food in some way, but not all of it, or at least I couldn't see the connection on some pieces. Part comics, part art book would be a decent summary. There's a vibrancy and color here that's appealing to the eye. Hanawalt's pages never appear muddy or too busy. Despite the plethora of multicolored detail, the hues remain bright and attractive, never overpowering. I think my favorite works were the more straight up comics work, the piece about noted chef, Wiley Dufresne, her trip to Argentina, the swimming with otters bit, her Vegas story ... Though the photos of ceramic pieces, presumably her work, were fascinating as well. The sheer range of interests and techniques represented in this book is impressive. Whatever Lisa Hanawalt wants to do, I'm happy to view the result. Make sure to read through the copyright information page as she stuck a few gags in there ... Recommended!

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty great!! I'm so glad I pre-ordered it, so it showed up on my door the day it was released and I didn't have to wait for the library to get it. It's not quite as great as My Dirty Dumb Eyes (which causes me to lose my mind with glee every time I read it), but it's still so much fun. I especially love her piece about shadowing Wylie Dufresne and all the Tuca comics. And the fantastic ceramic things she made!! I've seen a bunch of those on her Instagram, but it's amazing to see all of them. Lisa Hanawalt is a genius and I will buy any book she writes ad infinitum.

[Elizabeth A · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thing about navel gazing is that if your audience does not find similar fluff in their belly buttons things simply don't make sense. This graphic novel is sort of a memoir-ish book dealing mostly with food and bathroom issues, with full page illustrations sprinkled throughout. This is a collection of vignettes, with some longer pieces, and while there were some humorous bits, I was underwhelmed with this one.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of reading the honorees and winners of the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize more than the actuality. My tastes are clearly no where as close to as eclectic as the judges. Take this book. No seriously take it away. There are pages of this book I appreciated, some of the writing, some of the art. But mostly I found it annoyingly uninteresting and kind of ugly. And the pacing was off, some parts too slow, other parts too random. Just no.

[skillwithaquill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully weird and entertaining. The quirky humor and off-beat art really appealed to me. By the time I read this line, I knew I was sold:

"Urchins taste like whipped semen and look like a million tiny fingers hatching out of a baby shit-colored brain."

If that line made you giggle, you're gonna enjoy this book.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS:
“We are so lucky to get these peeks into Lisa Hanawalt’s brain and stomach. The amount of joy in her gleefully pervy illustrations makes me happier to be alive. I aspire to the level of enthusiasm she seems to derive from examining how stupid it is to be a person!” - Tavi Gevinson, Editor of Rookie

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a random, vibrant collection of thoughts around food and foodie culture. Lisa Hanawalt explores different cuisines, overeating, toilet humor, and a smorgasbord of stream of consciousness.

[Dax · Rating 2 out of 5]

I forced my way through this. There were a few things that made me chuckle but it all seemed superfluous and trivial.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars!

“I don’t love sea urchin. Urchins taste like whipped semen and look like a million tiny fingers hatching out of a baby shit-coloured brain.”

This is yet another graphic artist I thought I had never come across before, and then I discovered that she worked on the excellent BoJack Horseman (back in the 90s…) I have to say this was a delightfully weird and varied book, with all sorts of fun, eccentric and enjoyable titbits crammed into it.

These are largely tales of the brain and the stomach, with a little travel and animals on the side, with the odd digression in the mix too. The drawing is fairly consistent and well-done and the colouring is nice and the many foods discussed, eaten and drawn are absolutely mouth-watering too.

[Emilia P]

I was slow to come to BoJack Horseman but, seriously, it's a pretty great show. And that stuff I just said about getting book deals from good TV shows... I feel like Hanawalt brings her comics to her tv rather than the other way around. Comix are a great place for a lady to be a freaking humungous weirdo and let her not-gentle, not sweet, not easily compartmentalized stuff hang out. Hanawalt is great at this. Many women are, but when it's balls out, it doesn't get old. Keep up the great great work.

[deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m fully convinced there is a direct connection between those who read the Amelia’s Notebook series by Marissa Moss as as kid and those who grow up to love Hot Dog Taste Test (and Lisa Hanawalt’s work in general). They both share that part-diary-part-comic format and have a very similar sense of humor, albeit for two different age groups. And just something about Hanawalt’s delightful and eccentric yet surprisingly focused drawings just hits the same way as Amelias Notebooks.
Anyway, that’s just a thought. HDTT is so SO charming and weird! I feel like Lisa Hanawalt would be such a fun person to get to know, or like, go to Medieval Times with.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully strange. Very train-of-thought, and I like that there are other weirdos out there that think like me. Boobs, butts, farts, vaginas all make appearances. The word tacky comes to mind, but that sounds negative and this is tacky in the absolute best way possible.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly a book about food, Hanawalt gives us her unique style of humour with a splash of the naughty stuff. Lots of fun with some real colourful comics but hurt a bit by the inclusion of some pages that feel rushed and unfinished. Overall an enjoyable book though.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously considering becoming vegetarian again.

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important takeaways: Eggs can be anything, never eat a hot dog on purpose, turdulence.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The multi-media artwork and surrealist subject matter in this comics collection bring to mind Lynda Barry. Hanawalt's book primarily focuses upon food, with numerous digressions into everything from toilets to otters--as well as plenty of absurd imagery you can't expect to make too much sense.

Hanawalt's travel diaries involve the most traditional storytelling. In one, she shadows a NYC chef and details the various meals he creates. Hanawalt eats the Standard American Diet of lots and lots of animal flesh and products, so naturally most of her food reviews focus on that. However, I cringed more than usual when she bragged about "her" chef's creation of a foie gras pie. Pound for pound, foie gras is just about the cruelest food you can choose to eat. It's the gustatory equivalent of bullfighting--lots of pointless torture just so someone can say they had a vaguely "cultural" experience. And the chef ends up throwing away multiple pies that weren't to his standards, so lots of torture for nothing at all.

Hanawalt writes about her experience visiting a petting zoo (she calls it a "wildlife sanctuary," but they breed and hand-raise animals and trade mostly in hands-on interaction, so it's a petting zoo) and how much she loves spending time with the otters. Indeed, her illustrations and descriptions of the small, furry animals are cute, funny, and delightful. A bit later, the author writes about visiting Argentina and buying lots of jars of the meat of another small, cute, and furry animal called a vizcacha.

By far the strangest and most disquieting passage has the author impulsively buying a horse after joining an Instagram group dedicated to people photographing plates of meat near their horses (yes, this is apparently a thing). She goes out riding, then eats a big plate of flesh and brags about this to her Internet pals. The author then ruminates on her horse's apparent fear when he smells meat on her, and seems to take pleasure in her pet's supposed worries that he will be "next." I will say I find the omni world to be rather confounding at times, but this takes the cake. Perhaps this passage illustrates the carnist mindset drunk on power--to revel in the ability to hold life in the balance--"I could love and care for you or I could kill and consume you, and there's not a damn thing you can do."

HOT DOG is a comics collection that has plenty to offer--wildly and weirdly creative illustrations and surrealist tales. However, some of the author's attitudes just left a bad taste.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the longer-form, sequential art nonfiction pieces here - especially the one about swimming with river otters at an animal sanctuary. The style and some of the phrasing in these cartoons reminded me of early Lynda Barry, also something about the writing sometimes reminded me of Allie Brosh. And definitely little hints of Bojack Horseman.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Hanawalt likes animals (especially birds and horses), food (especially weird and/or gross food), and ceramics. She incorporates these with plenty of poop and genitalia jokes. IT'S HILARIOUS. I also really liked her alternate tag lines for McDonald's, Chevy, etc.