The Comic Book History of the Cocktail by David Wondrich & Dean Kotz

Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: David Wondrich, Dean Kotz

David Wondrich, a drinks historian, drinks columnist for Esquire from 2000 to 2016, and for the Daily Beast from 2016 to 2022, has written a graphic novel with artist Dean Kotz about the history of the cocktail across half a millennium, with The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On, to be published by Ten Speed Graphics on the 8th of July, 2025.

“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.”

David Wondrich, a former English professor with a PhD in comparative literature, has also written Imbibe!, a biography with recipes of bartender Jerry Thomas, and edited The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. He has appeared on Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, and Rachel Maddow and developed his own spirits and line of barware.

Dean Kotz studied painting at West Chester University and has been professionally drawing comics since 2009, including Black Hammer, Krampus, Butcher of Paris, Warlord of Mars Attacks, Dungeons and Dragons, Poe, and more.

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