Countless celebrities have been sharing touching memories about Anthony Bourdain, who died earlier this week. Although, most of the tributes have been focused on his career as a chef, traveler, and lover of food, former DC Comics editor, Karen Berger, who's also the founder of its adult imprint, Vertigo, is weighing in on Bourdain's comic book career.
Back in 2012, Berger published Bourdain's co-written graphic novel, Get Jiro! Joel Rose wrote it with him with art from Langdon Foss. Naturally, this meant appearances at New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con for panel appearances to talk about the mafia-inspired food comic.
"He wanted to be a comic artist. That’s what he wanted to do," wrote Berger in an essay for Vulture. "On our panel at New York, he was like, 'Comics are my first love.' He was so happy to be writing comics. He always had a bristle at that the celebrity chef stuff. He wanted to be known as a writer as long as I knew him. He was a writer, first and foremost."
Berger also shared a funny moment with Bourdain when Get Jiro! came out.
"He came to San Diego Comic-Con when we launched Get Jiro!, as well. I can tell you about a funny story. When he was up in San Diego, he was greeted with a couple panels, signings. When he first came to the booth, he was so tall and people are like, 'Anthony Bourdain!' What are we going to do with him? You can’t hide Anthony Bourdain. So he went into the storage closet. He was like, 'This’ll do, this will be a good place to hang out before I have to go to a panel'," she recalled.
Get Jiro! was released as two volumes. It can be found here.
