#1321; My Dad’s Salad

Comic Transcripts

[[SHANDERZ Junior lounges in front of the sitting OBAYNE.]]

SHANDERZ JR.: My dad used to make salad.

SHANDERZ JR.: Usually in the summer. On Sunday afternoons after church, we’d stop by the grocery store. He’d get top sirloin beef for shish kebab, and fresh produce for the salad.

SHANDERZ JR.: I remember watching him with his long, thin…I don’t know what you’d even call it. It might’ve been some kind of sashimi knife? It was long and thin and it was the only knife he ever used.

[[The recipe appears, step by step, over the panels.]]

RECIPE: Peel two cloves of garlic. Place them in a large salad bowl and add a half-teaspoon of salt.

[[In flashback, both SHANDERZ SENIOR and Junior stand at the kitchen counter. The young Shanderz Junior looks up at his father as he prepares the salad. From a child’s point of view, the elder Shanderz’s head isn’t even visible.]]

SHANDERZ SR.: The salt should look like a quarter in your palm.

RECIPE: Using a pestle or the bottom of a jar, crush the garlic and salt into a paste.

SHANDERZ SR.: I have this old wooden masher. God knows where I got this old thing.

RECIPE: Wash and tear up one head of Romaine lettuce.

SHANDERZ SR.: Here, eat the heart! The heart’s good for you. You like the heart! Here, I’ll shave it down for you. Eat it.

RECIPE: Chop two medium tomatoes into 1 inch pieces.

SHANDERZ SR.: I also like to fry a little tomato with breakfast sometimes.

RECIPE: Slice one large cucumber into medallions.

SHANDERZ SR.: Cucumber is good for you! You like cucumber.

YOUNG SHANDERZ JR.: I–I guess

RECIPE: Add the juice of one lemon and about 4 tbsp of olive oil (drizzle for 4-5 seconds).

SHANDERZ SR.: Watch how I flick out the lemon seeds with my knife, see? Get out of there, you seeds!

YOUNG SHANDERZ JR.: Hee hee hee

RECIPE: Toss thoroughly and let settle for a few minutes. Serves 8 to 10. The recipe may also be halved.

[[Back in the present, Shanderz Junior continues.]]

SHANDERZ JR.: It’s simple, and tart, and cold and crunchy on a hot day. Every time we’d go to a family gathering I’d hear “Did your dad make salad? I hope he brought enough salad!”

SHANDERZ JR.: After he passed away it was a while before I thought of making the salad myself. But when I did… It was the smell that caught me first.

SHANDERZ JR.: The tang of the lemon and the garlic. The sharpness of the salt on your hangnails as you toss it. The way your tongue and your salivary glands twinge at the first taste.

SHANDERZ JR.: I don’t always get it perfect. It doesn’t always taste like I remember. But every time I make the attempt, I remember my dad, and those summers. It’s a metaphor for all the things he taught me by example.

SHANDERZ JR.: It’s a way for me to keep his memory alive, and to have something of him to pass on to the kids I’ll have who’ll never meet him.

SHANDERZ JR.: Plus, of course, it’s delicious. The firm, juicy tomatoes…the crunchy lettuce…and the heart of the romaine, which I still always eat first.

[[We now see both Shanderz and Obayne are sitting on a tiny desert island.]]

OBAYNE: You are not making this whole experience any easier

[[header: eat more at WONDERMARK.COM]]

#1321; My Dad’s Salad transcribed by in

[[SHANDERZ Junior lounges in front of the sitting OBAYNE.]]

SHANDERZ JR.: My dad used to make salad.

SHANDERZ JR.: Usually in the summer. On Sunday afternoons after church, we'd stop by the grocery store. He'd get top sirloin beef for shish kebab, and fresh produce for the salad.

SHANDERZ JR.: I remember watching him with his long, thin...I don't know what you'd even call it. It might've been some kind of sashimi knife? It was long and thin and it was the only knife he ever used.

[[The recipe appears, step by step, over the panels.]]

RECIPE: Peel two cloves of garlic. Place them in a large salad bowl and add a half-teaspoon of salt.

[[In flashback, both SHANDERZ SENIOR and Junior stand at the kitchen counter. The young Shanderz Junior looks up at his father as he prepares the salad. From a child's point of view, the elder Shanderz's head isn't even visible.]]

SHANDERZ SR.: The salt should look like a quarter in your palm.

RECIPE: Using a pestle or the bottom of a jar, crush the garlic and salt into a paste.

SHANDERZ SR.: I have this old wooden masher. God knows where I got this old thing.

RECIPE: Wash and tear up one head of Romaine lettuce.

SHANDERZ SR.: Here, eat the heart! The heart's good for you. You like the heart! Here, I'll shave it down for you. Eat it.

RECIPE: Chop two medium tomatoes into 1 inch pieces.

SHANDERZ SR.: I also like to fry a little tomato with breakfast sometimes.

RECIPE: Slice one large cucumber into medallions.

SHANDERZ SR.: Cucumber is good for you! You like cucumber.

YOUNG SHANDERZ JR.: I--I guess

RECIPE: Add the juice of one lemon and about 4 tbsp of olive oil (drizzle for 4-5 seconds).

SHANDERZ SR.: Watch how I flick out the lemon seeds with my knife, see? Get out of there, you seeds!

YOUNG SHANDERZ JR.: Hee hee hee

RECIPE: Toss thoroughly and let settle for a few minutes. Serves 8 to 10. The recipe may also be halved.

[[Back in the present, Shanderz Junior continues.]]

SHANDERZ JR.: It's simple, and tart, and cold and crunchy on a hot day. Every time we'd go to a family gathering I'd hear "Did your dad make salad? I hope he brought enough salad!"

SHANDERZ JR.: After he passed away it was a while before I thought of making the salad myself. But when I did... It was the smell that caught me first.

SHANDERZ JR.: The tang of the lemon and the garlic. The sharpness of the salt on your hangnails as you toss it. The way your tongue and your salivary glands twinge at the first taste.

SHANDERZ JR.: I don't always get it perfect. It doesn't always taste like I remember. But every time I make the attempt, I remember my dad, and those summers. It's a metaphor for all the things he taught me by example.

SHANDERZ JR.: It's a way for me to keep his memory alive, and to have something of him to pass on to the kids I'll have who'll never meet him.

SHANDERZ JR.: Plus, of course, it's delicious. The firm, juicy tomatoes...the crunchy lettuce...and the heart of the romaine, which I still always eat first.

[[We now see both Shanderz and Obayne are sitting on a tiny desert island.]]

OBAYNE: You are not making this whole experience any easier

[[header: eat more at WONDERMARK.COM]]

it's really good, folks

#1321; My Dad’s Salad

— June 19th, 2017

[ Tags: dining, nostalgia ] Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1321/

Buy a Print

The past few weeks have been a frenzy of assembling the very laborious, very bespoke first print run of NOODLE BATTLE, the puzzle game I am releasing this weekend at PAX West in Seattle!

PAX has an event called the PNW Tabletop Game Market (Saturday night ONLY), which is a curated selection of short-run games from local designers. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I applied for a space in this fall’s event mainly as a way to force myself to finish a new game. And here it is!

The drawings are all by Jason Poland, good pal and cartoonist of My Dad Is Dracula. Jason played an early version of this game at Alaska Robotics Comics Camp this spring, and really liked it!

So I said, “Do you want to help me make it?” And so he has! It was his idea to make all the characters fun little animals, and I think it adds a ton of charm.

Because this edition is limited-run, it has been incredibly labor-intensive to make! The boxes and cards were made by a game factory in the usual fashion, but separately. The blank tiles were made by a woodworker dude out of Connecticut. For each game, we have had to:

Cut a piece of plastic and install the box window
Paint all the tiles, hundreds at a time
Apply a sticker to both sides of every tile
Apply stickers to the box (we couldn’t get the box back printed in time, so the whole back side of the box is a sticker too)
Apply the “Nutrition Facts” sticker, which was a late suggestion by my kid that I just had to run with
Fold up the rule sheet (they come from the printer as big strips of paper)
Put all the components into the box and seal it all up

I knew it would be a lot of work and would require some inefficient, expensive compromises AND I WAS RIGHT. But the final product is turning out great, which is the important thing!!

I will have 50 copies with me (if all goes well) at PAX, and then between now and the holidays we will be putting together additional copies to round out this first edition.

I will announce additional copies on Patreon first, once they are available online!! And here too, naturally, before long.

You can also sign up here if you’d like me to email you once the game is available online!

Comic Transcripts

#1321; My Dad’s Salad

— June 19th, 2017

Recent blog posts