Brave Chef Brianna #2 Review

Brave Chef Brianna #2

Writer: Sam Sykes
Artist: Selina Espiritu
Colorist: Sarah Stern
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: KaBOOM! Studios

A review by Insha Fitzpatrick

The last time we saw Brianna she was neck deep into finally getting her restaurant off the ground. She has a new staff member, made some new friends and there are some secrets to her business that she needs to hide in order to make it through and she’s okay with that… for now.

In Brave Chef Brianna #2 we see Brianna’s place booming. Her business is building and there’s SO much at stake for her that she really wants to do the best job she can. However, something stands in her way. Suzan, her new young and lazy employee isn’t doing the best job she can do to make Brianna’s business a success. She’s neglected orders, customers and, more importantly, Brianna’s polite and simple instructions in telling her what to do. Brianna’s also met with a secret enemy, her antagonist Madame Cron, that slithers (literally) into her restaurant and tries to expose everything. It’s a mess, but they come out in stride, or at least they think they do.

Brave Chef Brianna #2 continues to be a gem. Brianna’s evolving character development into becoming her own restaurant owner is really something to behold. An interesting thing about the comic is her anxiety. The little demon makes itself even more of a presence in this issue, causing her to lash out at the who’s helping her because of the intense pressure she’s under from the challenge she faces. Brianna’s character really touches me, as someone who has anxiety and the fear of letting myself and other people down, Brianna leaps out of the page and speaks to me as a reader.

Sam Sykes writes Brianna (and the rest of the characters) so in depth without saying much at all. That’s the best part about this story. It’s also interesting to see a shift in Suzan’s character and learn a little more about Kevin. Suzan is a lazy monster who really only needed this job for purposes, but she comes into her own within this comic, not entirely, but just enough that Brianna brings out a side of her and lets her know that SHE is all too important in this process as well. We still don’t know MUCH about Suzan, but I’m so pumped to find out more.

Kevin is another character that is completely relatable. He’s an engineer and one of Brianna’s first customers. Kevin seems like a massive cutie-pie, which he is, but we find out there’s more about Kevin than meets the eye. All the characters deal with their own issues regarding disappointment, failures, anxiety, and more, but Kevin’s is short, sweet, and to the point and that’s A-OK. He comes across as Prince Charming, but in the small glimpses we see, he is anything put, dealing with his own personal disappointment when it comes to his parents. Brave Chef Brianna #2 is such a great character study of a comic, but also a great lesson in being able to know that you are good enough at whatever you do.

Selina Espiritu and Sarah Stern continue to be the epic dream team for their illustrations and colors throughout this comic. These two ladies compliment each other so well. Selina’s illustrations are a dream, they’re so detailed and the one thing to praise her for within this comic is the facial expressions of each and every characters. I know this is a small detail to dwell upon, but hear me out. Selina’s facial details are very important to the characters as well as being a super cool character development feature. Suzan’s epic face of continued “what the f*ck”, along with Brianna’s slow descent then eventual snapping and apologizing to Kevin: it’s all clearly laid out within the art. You not only see it, but inside of Selina’s illustrations you feel bad and feel the frustrations of the characters. Sarah’s color’s are a great complimentary with this! She brings you some bright and light colors into a fun comic, but makes each and every character their own personality within their own colors.

The Verdict
Buy it! I’m enjoying Brave Chef Brianna SO much, it’s a lovely little comic with some important character development that will leave you wanting more. It’s so important for an all-ages comic to have the subject of anxiety, disappointment, and more because those are what we and have to deal with on a daily. I seriously can’t wait until the next issue!