Tony Chu is a cop. He’s also a Cibopath, which means that he’s sort of psychic when it comes to food. If he takes a bite out of an apple, his sixth sense kicks in and he knows where the apple was grown, when it was harvested, etc. If he eats a hamburger, he might get a glimpse of the last thing the cow saw in the slaughterhouse. As you can imagine, this can aid him immeasurably in his police work, but it makes it hard to have a decent meal.
The world in which Chu lives is not too unlike our own, save for the fact that chicken is outlawed due to a severe outbreak of avian flu. As they say in this first issue, “when chicken is outlawed, only outlaws have chicken.” So Chu and his partner investigate a black market chicken speakeasy and end up stepping on some FDA toes while attempting to solve some crimes.
The characters and the world they inhabit are fully realized. You get thrown right into the mix with little explanation, but everything fleshes itself out by the end of this first issue and you completely get the gist of where the story is going and who each character is. There’s a dark streak of humor running through this book and Rob Guillory’s artwork is a perfect fit. For lack of a better term, he’s got a very cartoony style, but he captures every grisly detail that Layman can conjure up with the story. Adding a bit of commentary about the government and media’s overreaction to illnesses such as avian flu was a nice touch that I got a big kick out of as well.
There wasn’t a whole lot that I’d complain about. I got the feeling that this book turned out just the way the creators wanted it and there wasn’t really anything lacking.
Cover art to Chew #1 by Rob Guillory
© Image Comics
If you enjoy gritty cop stories with a dark sense of humor, Chew might be up your alley. I guess I’d have to say I enjoyed everything in this book, from the characterization to the panel layouts to the coloring. It all seemed to fit together really well to create a perfect package and it felt like a completely original idea, something that often seems quite rare in comics. I’m already a fan and I’ll be back for the second issue. I’m giving this book an A and recommending that you check it out too.
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