CHEW VOLUME 1: TASTER’S CHOICE
Story by: John Layman
Art by: Rob Guillory
Cover by: Rob Guillory
Publisher: Image Comics
Book Summery: Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he’s a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn’t mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He’s been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases. Collects CHEW #1-5.
REVIEW: In 2009 something special happened at Image Comics when a new comic from writer John Layman and artist Ron Guillory began. It was about a man named Tony Chu who was an FDA agent with a special power that enables him to be a Cibpathic. What that means is that Tony, just by eating something, can in his mind see the whole history of what it is he has just eaten. With the exception of Beetroots which must have a dull existence, everything Tony ingests has a history that he is privy to. Tony has even been known to taste human flesh if it means catching a break on a case he is working on. The opening chapters of this book, collected here in the first volume, created a storm of critical acclaim with its original idea, entertaining plot and beautiful cartooning of artist Guillory who may be the best non superhero artist out there right now.
Following a devastating outbreak of bird flu the government have outlawed the sale of chicken for consumption. Squads of cops from all over the country now have in their edict the directive to stake out and close illegal chicken joints. Tony Chu is one of these agents after being recruited by the FDA usually to aid them in solving crimes by eating something stomach churning. Layman surrounds Tony with an eclectic cast of characters and the ensemble cast is able to intermingle with ease as Layman doesn’t let a large cast deter any bit from the overarching story.
The story doesn’t give up plot details too easily. Layman is one of those writers who lets plot points slowly burn away and doesn’t give up information or clues too easily and that serves to give the book a sense of prolonged drama in which he excels at writing. The book at its core is a character driven story even in the face of some comic’s most twisted ideas.
Guillory’s art is a great compliment to Layman’s scripting and it would be a crime to not give the art as much lauded merits as the writing. The script calls for black humour, nausea worthy visuals and out and out drama in many parts and Guillory laps it all up and produces exceptional exaggerated pages that have deservedly earned him high praise. His style is a hard one to describe in details s there aren’t many artists you could compare him to which makes the book stand out even more from the rest.
As a taster, pardon the pun, to what this series is all about this book is a cool gateway to one of comic’s premier series right now. This is one book I would love new readers to discover all by themselves and let them fall into this wonderful world that Guillory and Layman have come up with. The book delivers original ideas, entertaining plots and awesome visuals on every level. Highly recommended.
Story: Overall 5/5
Art: Overall 5/5
Overall 10/10
