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Interview: Sarah Becan Brings Happy Hour To The Comic Page In LET’S MAKE COCKTAILS!

Out now from Ten Speed Press, Let’s Make Cocktails! is a fun and approachable comic book introduction to the wonderful world of cocktails, with tips for stocking your home bar and 60 recipes for classic drinks, from the co-author and illustrator of Let’s Make Ramen! and Let’s Make Dumplings!
In Let’s Make Cocktails!, Becan demystifies the art of making craft drinks and exploring their history and walks readers through the essential bar tools they will need, core mixology ingtechniques like shaking, stirring, and muddling,  through clear, visual storytelling while featuring recipes ranging from a classic Martini and Manhattan to modern favorites and spirit-free libations.
Becan, is a Chicago-based illustrator whose work has appeared in SaveurEater, and has built a career at the intersection of food culture and visual storytelling, pulls a chair up to the bar and spills the details on more on her new project:
During our interview, we mentioned The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On by David Wondrich
The Comic Book History of the Cocktail explores the history of the cocktail—from prehistoric wassail to our current boozy renaissance—featuring 20 recipes by drinks historian, Daily Beast columnist, and award-winning author David Wondrich
Last year at New York Comic Con, Wondrich sat down with Comic Watch to talk about the graphic novel
New York Comic Con 2025

Let’s Make Cocktails! 

Sarah Becan invites readers to wet their whistles in Let’s Make Cocktails! Featuring her colorful, engaging illustrations that have become a series favorite, the book opens with insight on the proper tools, glassware, and staple ingredients such as juices, sodas, homemade syrups, and garnishes to always have in stock. With vivid, easy-to-follow graphics, Becan guides readers through basic techniques such as shaking, stirring, muddling, and more.  The book explores the origins, traditions, and popular legends surrounding foundational cocktails, including fun tidbits on drink accompaniments and occasions.

With chapters organized by spirit for easy access, readers will delight in the panelized step-by-step comic instructions for crafting a proper Gin or Vodka Martini, a refreshing Mojito, an eye-opening Bloody Mary, and more. For those who prefer non-alcoholic drinks, she also includes delicious spirit-free options such as the perfect Arnold PalmerFruit and Vinegar Shrub, and Lemon, Lime & Bitters. With recipes ranging from venerated standards such as the Manhattan and Last Word to popular modern classics like the Paper Plane and Oaxaca Old Fashioned, this Let’s Make Cocktails! is an accessible guide to bringing the Craft Cocktail Renaissance into your own home

The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On

A graphic novel history of the cocktail—from prehistoric wassail to our current boozy renaissance—featuring 20 recipes by drinks historian, Daily Beast columnist, and award-winning author David Wondrich.

There’s no better writer to tell the colorful history of cocktails than David Wondrich, widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on cocktails and a driving force behind the early-twenty-first-century revival in the classic American art of mixing drinks.

In The Comic Book Story of the Cocktail, Wondrich teams up with comics artist Dean Kotz to trace the evolution of the cocktail. Beginning with the ancient days of wassail and hypocras (mixed drinks based on wine and beer), they narrate a tumultuous and vibrant history that stretches through the Age of Exploration, the boozier parts of the Enlightenment and America’s hurly-burly nineteenth century, to the Disco years, the Cosmo years, and the modern Cocktail Revolution.

Kotz’s intricate, masterful drawings illustrate stories that have never been properly told and introduce key characters who haven’t yet received their due. Nearly thirty recipes round out this spirited account, featuring accurate versions of old classics and a generous selection of secret weapons from the mixologist’s vest pocket. So, settle in with your libation of choice and prepare to meet the good, the bad, and the boozy in this lively and jam-packed tale.

 

Let’s Make Cocktails! and The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On are now available for purchase.

 

 

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