BOOM! Comics comes up with a children’s book which focuses on adventuring and traveling around the globe in Bolivar Eats New York.

I’ve been traveling a lot, even overseas, I discovered some different things. However, food is something that came up in my mind, and there are a lot of artists who create a story about food. Some of the comics that I’ve read about food is, Shokugeki no Souma or just Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Souma in English; I don’t know, Koizumi san loves Ramen Noodles, any kind of food-related theme stories that can make the readers very hungry. This comic, however, will take you to an adventure to share any New York best foods that you’ve ever tasted, and this will going to be a big review. Yeah… It’s time to talk about the restaurants in New York City.

So, Bolivar Eats New York, at first I thought this would be another of Scholastic kind of story where the story can be child-friendly and educational, instead, it made it into BOOM! Comics. The story’s author created by Sean Rubin, a New Yorker illustrator who is capable to make children’s books from inspiration like Redwall. The front cover shows that this dinosaur Bolivar is just too shy to take a hot dog from a girl named Sybil like it’s his first time eating human food in New York. And the whole concept is taken place in Coney Island in daylight, that’s nice, I thought that Coney Island has its own Nathan’s hot dog restaurant, but it depends because we get a lot of vendors who make hot dogs and pretzels around.

The first thing to note that this book is a work of fiction and it’s mostly what you think that the Shin Megami Tensei games would give you a warning, according to the author, he states at the end of the book that the restaurants that they’re going to visit are a work of fiction. The story starts with a fictional restaurant called Kanofsky’s Deli located at the Upper West Side. Sybil suggests Bolivar try any other kinds of food in New York because he always eats his favorite sandwich, he agreed, and the adventure begins. Sybil takes Bolivar some other restaurants in New York besides McDonald’s or Burger King, the whole journey takes you some of the restaurants in a fictional world of New York. But yeah, the Coney Island Boardwalk still exists, but the other restaurants are fictional counterparts of the restaurants in the real world, and some other restaurant’s that you’ve probably don’t know. From local foods to a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, to a Halal food at almost any place, a bakery, even pizza. And at the end, Bolivar finally got what he wanted and all as well.

Now I’m going to stop for a moment and think about the restaurant’s name in this book and look outside in the real world. I noticed the famous Katz’s Delicatessen or Katz’s Deli for short located at the Lower East Side. The Boardwalk at Coney Island, Russ & Daughters at Lower East Side, Joe’s Pizza at Greenwich Village and some Italian restaurant located in Little Italy and Brooklyn. Beyond any coincidence, he’s been naming them after the famous restaurants in New York, THAT is awesome. And please don’t even get me started with Joe’s Original NY Pizza, you think that this Joe’s Original Pizza would be decent, but Bolivar didn’t like it, because it’s the taste. There are pizzas everywhere, and whenever you eat one, buying a slice of pizza for a dollar isn’t everything, it depends on the taste of the pizza. And hey, have you ever been to an actual Joe’s Pizza to have a Spumoni ice cream? Well, not this one. But there are some other pizzerias who sell this ice cream, well prove me if I’m wrong if they are selling the Spumoni, I’m gonna lose it.

So anyway, this book takes you a marvelous adventure between a dinosaur and a girl to explore and try one of the famous restaurants in New York. But it’s impossible to find one in the real world because all this work is all fiction. Instead, we get a children’s story for some adventures to explore something from the real world like tourists. However, the back of the book applies that this book has the kids and parents explore different sites of view including their favorite foods to one of the greatest cities in the world. The story is amazing, it has some lovable characters, and it’s most likely to be fitting as a children’s book. If you rather want to read something related to Scholastic books and when you’re hungry that bad, then this is for you.

By Kevin Bermeo

I'm a New Yorker Artist, and I traveled a lot. I enjoy making comics, illustrations, paintings, and digital art. Besides drawing, I'm also a writer, I used to be a Gamer, and I love adventures, food, and dragons.