One of the surprise graphic novel hits in the bookstore market in 2013 was Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose’s Get Jiro, published by DC imprint Vertigo.  The story was a dystopian look at an alternate L.A. food scene where discussions about food have devolved into grisly gastronomic feuds, presented with wicked wit and an insider’s knowledge of the contemporary culinary milieu (see “Valiant, Vertigo Get National Coverage”).  On October 20, Bourdain and Rose return with Get Jiro: Blood & Sushi ($22.99), a new hardcover follow-up collection to their original New York Times bestseller.

In Get Jiro: Blood & Sushi, Bourdain and Rose provide a fascinating backstory for Jiro that explains what made him into the chef he became.  Born the heir to a Yakuza crime family, Jiro secretly studied his real passion, the preparation of food according to Japanese culinary traditions.  Eventually he was unable to keep juggling his two very different "lives," and the resulting crisis and loss changed his life forever.