45 Days Of CCS, #32: Em Sauter

An interesting thing that James Sturm did at CCS was create the concept of "Applied Cartooning." By this, he meant non-narrative cartooning with potential real-world applications in all kinds of fields. He reasoned, why NOT allow comics to help illustrate all kinds of concepts in surprising ways? It's a smart idea, because people respond to the combination of words and images. 

I can't think of a single CCS grad who has embodied this idea better than Em Sauter. She found a very specific niche for her cartooning that is largely outside of traditional comics-reading audiences and combined that with her other expertise to create a hugely popular webcomic and subsequent books. Sauter's expertise? Beer. Sauter isn't just a craft beer enthusiast--she is an Advanced Cicerone and has judged international beer competitions. She co-hosts a podcast called All About Beer. Most importantly, her webcomic Pints and Panels is a mega-success. Her latest book, Pairing Beer With Everything, points to exactly why she's so successful.

Anyone can be a beer nerd and drily recite esoteric facts and figures about beer. Sauter takes that expertise and pairs it with a whimsical sense of humor and sketchy drawing style. For someone who loves beer, this is exactly the kind of you thing you'd pick up on a whim, just so you could match wits with Sauter's picks on all kinds of random, pop culture beer pairings. You want beers for every sports time you can imagine? It's in there. Beer for specific genres and examples of movies? Sauter did it. Beer for holidays? Beer for food from various countries? Sauter did all of this and more, in a format ideally suited for the occasional skim rather than a dedicated read. Brief introductions to each section add a bit of context as to how she makes her choices. This book is not for a general audience, but that doesn't matter. She found her reading group, and Sauter provides a model for other cartoonists in their own side areas of expertise.