Cold Brewed: Jett Cropper and the Chicory Dose

by Lancelot Schaubert (Editor)

"You get where you wonder how life got so whipless. Been there before, didn't want to go back.

"Did anyway.

"It happens. You end up staring at your boots asking how they got so wet. How the water on them got so hard. Guess these days, there ain't enough grinders like me left on the streets. Everything's darker than it used to be - more burnt, less clean.

"Some new Master Roaster comes into town and tampers with the trade and everything ends up in the knock box and the water gets hard again and runs the drains over.

"And when there ain't enough grinders like me who're willing to crawl down in there, down into the sewers to filter it all back out, then all that hard water creeps up higher and higher till it spoils us all..."

Jett Cropper's best friend dies from a bad coffee roast that had been laced with chicory. To find the new burnt Master Roaster behind this mess, Jett dives into the city's underworld to bring back justice no matter the cost...

Told through both words and pictures, Cold Brewed takes place in a classic prohibition-era world where coffee is currency. The story uses silent film and film noir techniques, but favors classy black and white photographs over pencil sketches--a grittier grandson of the narrative form developed in Selznick's books "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and "Wonderstruck."

Shot and produced in and around Joplin, Missouri, Cold Brewed testifies to the art revival happening in our formerly tornado-devastated town.

Genres: Graphic Novels

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2014

About the author

"Schaubert recounts a mischievous man's eight decades in Illinois's Little Egypt region in his picaresque debut BELL HAMMERS. Remmy's life of constant schemes and pranks and a lifelong feud with classmate Jim Johnstone and the local oil drilling company proves consequential. This is a hoot."
- Publisher's Weekly

He's also the author of the children's picture book horror Harry Rides the Danger, the editor for Of Gods and Globes III (+ vol. 1 + vol 2), Tap and Die, and The Greenwood Poet.

His work Cold Brewed reinvented the photonovel for the digital age and caught the attention of the Missouri Tourism Board who commissioned him to write and direct a second photonovel, The Joplin Undercurrent, in partnership with award-winning photographer, Mark Neuenschwander.

Two excerpts of Lancelot Schaubert's (lanceschaubert.org) debut novel BELL HAMMERS sold to The New Haven Review ( Yale's Institute Library ) and The Misty Review, while a third excerpt was selected as a finalist for the last Glimmer Train Fiction Open in history. He has also sold poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to TOR (MacMillan), The Anglican Theological Review, McSweeney's, Poker Pro's World Series Edition, The Poet's Market, Writer's Digest, and many similar markets.

Spark + Echo chose him for their 2019 artist in residency, commissioning him to write four short stories.

He remains a committed husband to the grooviest girl on earth and is a public advocate for more free range trees. You know, Ents. To that end he guerilla planted over 400 acorns in New York City.

Reviews

[Lancelot Schaubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINALE IS HERE. Free web scroller episodes:

— Episode guide — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/t...
• 001 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 002 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 003 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 004 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 005 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 006 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 007 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 008 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 009 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...
• 010 — https://lanceschaubert.substack.com/p...

Paperback version:

• https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?pa...

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anything related to coffee always catches my eye, and Cold Brewed was no exception. I went in with zero expectations—completely blank—and came out genuinely surprised. This book is a piece of art, no joke.

Set in a world where everything revolves around coffee—language, work, relationships, even money—the concept itself was refreshingly unique. I loved the idea, but the storyline was a bit harder to follow. The main character’s internal monologues were engaging, yet conversations with other characters felt cryptic, almost elusive. Coffee in this world seemed more like a valuable commodity or even a drug, adding an intriguing layer to the narrative.

What truly elevated the book to an art form, though, were the visuals. The black-and-white comic book-style photography was stunning—each image meticulously captured, adding depth and emotion to the story. The artistic direction was simply mesmerizing.

Overall, if you're looking for something completely different, with a touch of the surreal and a deep love for coffee, this book is for you!

Thank you so much, NetGalley and Independent Book Publishers Association, for this fantastic reading experience and for the ARC copy!

[Crimson Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this graphic novel by @lencelotSchaubert

This was a very interesting read, I highly enjoyed seeing real photos overdrawn or digital was a nice refreshing change which I feel gave the story more of a realistic touch and drew me in more to what was happening. You can see the author of this has put a lot of work into this and I appreciated it for what it was and how the story played out.

I would suggest this for others to read and enjoy the ride it takes u on

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for the digital ARC. A noirish graphic novel that uses photographs instead of drawings; a unique approach, almost as if I was watching a short film at a film festival. As part of a self-styled Coffee Running Club, the notion of coffee and its variants being the "gear" of these gangsters was intriguing, if ultimately coming off a bit cliched. All-in-all it was an enjoyable and recommended reading experience, and leaving me wanting to check out Lancelot Schaubert's other work.

[Justin Reedmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cold Brewed is an interested take on the visual novel medium, wherein we have a prohibition era pseudo noir tale revolving around a mystery using coffee as an allegory for drugs...maybe? It's kind of hard to follow, to be perfectly honest, as the writing isn't the best, and the narrative is a bit all over the place.

The real draw here, however, is that rather than using a traditional drawn or painted graphic novel style, it's presented via photos. This is really cool! It's clear the photographer has talent, and even though this particular piece does feel a bit experimental, and the models and costumes a bit low budget, I would be extremely interested in seeing more of this kind of thing, and particularly seeing this creator grow and evolve using this medium.

This really feels like the start of a fascinating career and a potentially amazing genre.

ARC provided by NetGalley & Independent Book Publishers Association

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun graphic novel in which the pictures are black and white photographs instead of drawings. The scenery really makes the world seem desolate. It's a noir-style detective story which takes place in a world where coffee is an illicit drug and everyone speaks in coffee lingo. It was funny when the detective tells a coffee dealer he can't just claim a street as his own the way you'd lick a slice of pizza to make it yours, then the coffee dealer gets down and licks the street!

I didn't always understand the coffee lingo (I'm not much of a coffee drinker) and the photographs don't always work well when trying to depict motion, but there are a lot of great images. One scene where the detective is getting hit in the face and spittle flies from his mouth was particularly visceral.

[Kelli Santistevan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told through both words and pictures, Cold Brewed takes place in a classic prohibition-era world where coffee is currency. The story uses silent film and film noir techniques, but favors classy black and white photographs over pencil sketches--a grittier grandson of the narrative form developed in Selznick's books "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and "Wonderstruck."

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital ARC! This book has a great story and great photography. What’s done here in this book was very creative but I didn’t care for it very much. However, it was short and it was something different to read.

[Ushnav Shroff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way this was written combined with the photographs gave me an old timey, old school feeling really. Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for this advance reader copy.

[Matthew Elliot]

Dnf at 25%

This really wasn't my thing and I've been trying since October last year. So I had a really good go. Kudos to the author.

[B. Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great premise for a book: What if coffee had been banned during prohibition instead of alcohol?

And a strangely compellling format: black and white photos.

Chapter 1 grabbed me, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Update: Finished this unusual and satisfying novel. Schaubert has been posting chapters on his Substack page, and I decided to wait to read the rest until I could binge the whole thing. Good choice, since the growing tension made me impatient for the next chapter.

Loved the premise and the format. Loved the slang. The narrator's voice captures the essence of 1940's film noir, and the photos are brilliant. Highly recommended!