Couldn’t let comic-con end without doing one comic book post. CHEW is written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory. Probably the biggest reason behind the success of this book has to be the concept. It takes place in an altered version of our present day. In this universe the Bird Flu had literally become a pandemic wiping out 100s of millions of people worldwide. As a result the FDA outlawed chicken in the United States. Which (not unlike alcohol prohibition) forced people to open underground clubs that illegally serve this flavorful fowl. One person trying to crack down on these criminals to the best of his ability is FDA agent, Tony Chu.
What makes Chu special is he is also a cibopathic. That’s the ability to get a psychic impression from anything eaten (except beets). If Tony eats a hamburger, he’ll see and feel everything done to that cow. He samples of some illegal chicken, he can see the smugglers faces. Needless to say Agent Chu is a very valuable commodity on the force that's made lots of friends and even more enemies.
All in all CHEW has the perfect balance of humor, action and gore. Guillory’s graphic cartoony style (see below) is a great fit for the crazy plotlines. It also totally syncs up with how Layman writes these characters. If you’re looking for an incredible mature story that’ll pretty much keep you guessing to the very last frame, cast your comic-aspersions aside and pick up the trade of the first CHEW story arc (Taster’s Choice). Now available at Amazon for only $9.99
This sounds like an incredibly strange but awesome concept, I might really have to check this out, just to see what it's all about.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds flippin' awesome. I love odd comics. You ever read any of Douglas TenNapel's comics?
ReplyDeleteWell, it's definitely original. :D
ReplyDeleteLove the illustrations! Will have to get off my high horse and check it out :)
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteThat looks awesome! The art in the book is graphic but, like you said, cartoony so it's not quite as hard to swallow. Pun intended?
ReplyDeleteSounds bloody good.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable. This guy got published! He is making money writing this! That is what I used to think when I first heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and it made millions.
ReplyDeleteHow long til it turns into a Hollywood movie with 70% of the detail wiped off?
ReplyDeleteThis is the first unique plot for anything that I've heard of in a long time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for making me blog of the day. :)
Ten bucks for a comic book? Seriously? Think I'll pass.
ReplyDeletewell that was rather ineresting
ReplyDeleteThe concept is pretty good. We (Bruce and I) have thought we should be able to see what a person sees when they are killed, so we'd know who killed them. How's that one?!!!
ReplyDeleteThis looks pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI love the art work in these! :)
ReplyDeleteOK. Off my high horse now. What was the next instruction?
ReplyDeletethat looks kinda epic, I'll give it a try ;)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds kinda retarded.
ReplyDelete*laughing* at the pulp fiction dig
ReplyDeleteThere is some awesome imagination and humor in this thing...
ReplyDelete