Police procedural

I looked at the items assembled upon the table. I said to my partner, “These are the raw ingredients for trouble.”
He said, “Not to worry. They have to be assembled in exactly the correct order. At exactly the right temperature. For exactly the right amount of time. Anything less renders them inert.”
Our relief was short-lived. Even as he uttered his last word both our eyes wandered directly to the left. There, sitting upon the counter, open, was a cookbook. It was open to the chapter on trouble.
“Dammit,” uttered my partner. “Is there no end to the misery caused by cookbooks?”

Food is a weapon, a comic without illustration

Intro- “War is never pretty. It is hard, dirty, and often bizarre.”

Panel 1: “Actual propaganda poster from WWII proves that the old stories you thought were the stuff of myth and legend were, in fact, true.”

Image: “Food is Ammunition! Don’t waste it!” says the propaganda poster – a festive array of breads, cheese, fruits, and canned goods pouring out of a cornucopia.

Panel 2: “Food was used as a weapon in the last days of the war. Brutal. Inhuman.”

Image: German Officers stop two frenchmen leaving a Bistro, they hold machine guns on them as the head officer barks, “Empty your pockets! We search for dangerous contraband!
Panel 3: Up close on officer’s face “As I thought! Sausages! Crackers! Bits of sauerkraut! – Hans, take them away.”

Panel 4: “Those who lived through it never forgot nor forgave, though few could bring themselves to talk of it openly.”

Image: a child approaches a man in an armchair reading a paper he asks “What kind of food did you eat in the war daddy?” The man replies “I don’t want to talk about it. Children should not ever think of such things.”

Panel 5: “Loaves of bread dropped from planes above Dusseldorf.”

Image: The planes fly over as the loaves sail toward the ground.

Panel 6 (split panel): “Landing in the fields, brown and attractive to children and animals both;”

Image: The children run to the bread, smiling and laughing.

”then, when touched, devastation.”

Image: an explosion covers the whole half of the panel, you see nothing.

Panel 7: “Carrots, grapes, lettuce, all causing the kind of devastation and pain that only food can bring.”

Image: a group of villagers throw dirt at a man who exclaims, with his hands up in defense, “I am just a simple Farmer!” 
A woman in the crowd says, finger pointing in accusation, “No, You are a MONSTER.”

Panel 8: “A large cauliflower can level a small city. Every farmer knows that.”

Image: A cauliflower fills the panel. It says “Tick… Tick… Tick…”

Panel 9: “Why would man do this to man?”

Multiple images: a man in a suit says, “For Freedom!”; a man in uniform says, “For Duty!”; a priest says, “For God!”; A bespecled scientist says, “For science!”; A newspaperman behind a desk says, “To sell papers!”

Panel 10: “What does this sad chapter say about our planet and our people?”

Image: a farmer stands in front of a tractor in a field, “Our farmland is the breadbasket of our armed forces. With a can-do attitude we prove again to the world that we can do!”

Panel 11: “Food is ammunition.”

Along the highway a sign says, “Next exit: Food” “Eat Now. Refuel. Reload.”


”When will it stop?”