A New York Times Best Seller

A full-color, lushly illustrated graphic novel that recounts the many-layered past and present of beer through dynamic pairings of pictures and meticulously researched insight into the history of the world's favorite brew.

The History of Beer Comes to Life!

We drink it. We love it. But how much do we really know about beer? Starting from around 7000 BC, beer has emerged as a major element driving humankind’s development, a role it has continued to play through today’s craft brewing explosion. With The Comic Book Story of Beer, the first-ever nonfiction graphic novel focused on this most favored beverage, you can follow along from the very beginning, as authors Jonathan Hennessey and Mike Smith team up with illustrator Aaron McConnell to present the key figures, events, and, yes, beers that shaped and frequently made history. No boring, old historical text here, McConnell’s versatile art style—moving from period-accurate renderings to cartoony diagrams to historical caricatures and back—finds an equal and effective partner in the pithy, informative text of Hennessey and Smith presented in captions and word balloons on each page. The end result is a filling mixture of words and pictures sure to please the beer aficionado and comics geek alike.

JONATHAN HENNESSEY is the author of two previous nonfiction graphic novels, The U.S. Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation, as well as the history-based time travel series Epochalypse. Based in Los Angeles, he works in film and television.

MIKE SMITH has worked in breweries large and small for the last two decades. He is currently head brewer at Back East Brewing Company in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

AARON McCONNELL illustrated The U.S. Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation, as well as various other nonfiction, historical fiction, and fantasy comics. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a member of Periscope Studio in Portland, Oregon. You can find more of his work at aamcconnell.com

Introduction The World’s Favorite Beverage   1
Chapter One Beer in the Ancient World   11
Chapter Two The Brewing Process   33
Chapter Three Dark Ages and Medieval Beer   50
Meet the Beer: Lambic   60
Meet the Beer: Trappist Dubbel   65
Chapter Four The Hops Revolution: Beer Becomes a Commodity   69
Meet the Beer: Bock   83
Chapter Five Empire and Industry: Beer Goes Big   85
Meet the Beer: Porter   94
Meet the Beer: India Pale Ale   97
Chapter Six Science and Politics Transform Beer—But for the Better?   100
Meet the Beer: Pilsner   108
Chapter Seven Prohibition and Homogenization Blues: Beer Goes Stale   118
Meet the Beer: American Lager   135
Chapter Eight Drinking on the Shoulders of Giants: Beer Today   138
Meet the Beer: American Pale Ale   146
Meet the Beer: Belgian Wit   157
Acknowledgments   171
Index   172