FoodComix: Signs of a New World Order

Sushi Rice Man rules the bowl... and perhaps the world?

In yet another example of how Asia will soon dominate the universe and leave North America in the dust of fallen empires, I'd like to bring up food representation trends in comics.

A manic struggle with coffee overconsumption this morning led me to think of Shannon Wheeler's long-running Too Much Coffee Man — one of few food-based comics in North American media. While food makes incidental or character development appearances in many newspaper dailies (Dagwood Bumstead's signature towering sandwiches, Garfield's lasagna, Andy Capp's pints and chips and most famously, Popeye, who has probably inspired more spinach consumption in children than any USDA 5-A-Day program could ever dream of achieving...) there haven't been many significant food-based characters since the Shmoo created an "unprecedented media frenzy" following its 1948 birth in the Li'l Abner comic.

Meanwhile, Japan leads today's food-character charge with the cheese family, burnt bread guy, sushi rice boy, beer man, orange boy and those weird little Nyan Nyan Nyanko kittens, among other San-X Food Cartoons. There's also that crazy Kikkoman, not to mention Japanese Gourmet Comics, while India charts the politics of distribution and availability in Indian Food Comics.

Asia has thrown down the gauntlet (or perhaps the spoon?). I'd say we have some catching up to do.