Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Chew is a comic series written by John Layman and drawn by Rob Guillory, published by Image Comics. I just recently finished reading volume two (“International Flavor”), but since I don’t really dwell on the plot too much on this blog, I’m going to talk about the first two volumes together for the sake of simplicity.

The first volume of Chew comprised the first story arc in the series called “Taster’s Choice”, and introduces the reader to the world that Layman and Guillory have devised to tell their oddball stories in. In their universe, chicken has been outlawed due to the bird flu so an underground black market has sprung up to meet the needs of the chicken craving, and the police spend a great amount of time cracking down on these illegal investigations. Each of the first two story arcs rely heavily on the fact that the lack of legal chicken has created a demand for either illegal ways to get the product or introducing a proper tasting substitute. The other major element to these stories is that there are certain people who are Cibopathic, meaning they get psychic impressions from whatever they eat. This ability is possessed by the main character of the series, Tony Chu, who is a detective who can’t help but know the complete history of whatever he eats, which makes eating almost everything unpleasant, because guaranteed at some point his food has come in contact with something unpleasant or revolting (pesticides, the horrific way the animal was killed, etc.). Volume two, “International Flavor”, continues Chu’s adventures in solving cases through eating, but this time whisking the reader off to a small little resort island-state. It reintroduces a number of secondary characters from the first story arc, including Chu’s celebrity chef brother who loves cooking with chicken and a food critic who can describe her culinary experiences with such acute word-smithing that she can make her readers almost taste what she describes. The second story is a fun filled romp that just allows the characters to play a bit more in the universe developed in the first arc while ever so slightly introducing a bit more mystery into the series.

The idea of a Cibopath is amusing and bizarre, which is what this book aims to be right from the get go. Tony Chu is quickly swept into bizarre cases where he must eat strange things in order to deduce a key part of a crime, and the artist has the ability to make it all seem gross, regardless of how little or how much he sometimes chooses to show. This isn’t a book to read over lunch unless you have a strong stomach. It’s the bizarreness of the books that make it hard to place into a neat little genre-box. Image categorizes it as a crime book every part of it makes you laugh, so principally it really should be seen as a comedy with just the smallest dash of horror. 

The book is both a treat to read and look at. The artist has a wonderful comic style, and is a real treat. I dare people to take a peek inside one of the volumes next time they are in a book or comic store and not instantly want to buy it. Guillory has this unique style which just looks pretty. His character designs are all unique and looking at each character design you can tell he built each one around the character’s personality so that their posture and look speaks for the character just as much as what they say. Guillory also does these great panels/pages showing what Chu “sees” when he eats something, where the whole background becomes a mosaic of all the events that object was part of up to that moment, (or the moment of its death), that are great to scour for details that might be relevant to the case later on. In terms of the layout of the book, “Taster’s Choice” had more unique and interesting page layouts, but his individual panels became much more nuanced in “International Flavor”. 

Chew is a book made to entertain. When I read it, I enjoy the moment immensely, and when I put it down for the evening I feel satisfied. It is a book that sets out to shake you out of the daily life doldrums by being a fun, bizarre experience. It’s not meant to be a poignant story that sticks in your head beyond the reading experience, but it gives such fun while you read it that it leaves your mind happy and content.