From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
Reading this was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had all year. The pleasures of food and everyday life are so accurately represented, it's palpable. Whimsical illustrations and hilarious stories are paired so splendidly it feels like kismet, as if the varying subjects had just been waiting for Hanawalt to pick them up and turn them into something magical. I laughed, teared up, and took snapshots of my favorite pages to share with friends. If you ever need a pick-me-up, this book is for you. Recommended By Haley B., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Hot Dog Taste Test serves up Lisa Hanawalt's devastatingly funny comics, saliva-stimulating art, and deliciously screwball lists as she skewers the pomposities of foodie subculture. From the James Beard Award-winning cartoonist and production designer/producer of Bojack Horseman, Hot Dog Taste Test dishes out five-star laughs as Hanawalt keenly muses on pop culture, relationships, and the animal in all of us.
Review
"Lisa Hanawalt is the Matisse of the buffet line, the O'Keeffe of the fishball and the Vermeer of the pigeon with a hot dog in its beak. Also: horses." Jonathan Gold, Food Critic and Pulitzer Prize Winner
Review
"The cartoons evoke an idiosyncratic absurdity akin to Roz Chast’s work ("Baking tip: keep your sweet tooth away from your salt molar")... Hanawalt’s self-aware humor (with a side order of deeply affecting personal stories) will whet anyone’s appetite." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"Hanawalt’s art balances the somber and the playful ... Whether she’s drawing horse-people inked with unnervingly detailed lines or a young moose fretting about her art practice ... Hanawalt’s hybrids make use of the estrangement between human and animal." The Guardian
Review
"...one of the funniest observational artists working today... a comic voice that is growing sharper and more engagingly offbeat." Washington Post, Best of 2016
Review
"Hot Dog Taste Test roasts food obsession in its many forms with a sometimes gross, sometimes charming collection of watercolors, sketches and comics." The Wall Street Journal
Review
"....hilarious and at times breathtakingly inventive." Wired
About the Author
Lisa Hanawalt is an artist living in Los Angeles, CA, and is the production designer/producer of the Netflix original series, Bojack Horseman. Lisa has worked on illustrations, book covers, animations, comics, murals, textile patterns, and exhibits her work in galleries. She writes and draws a quarterly, James Beard Award-winning food column for Lucky Peach Magazine, and co-hosts the podcast Baby Geniuses with comedian Emily Heller. Her first collection with Drawn & Quarterly was 2013’s critically acclaimed My Dirty Dumb Eyes.