Written and Lettered By: John Layman
Drawn and Coloured By: Rob Guillory
Colour Assists: Taylor Wells
Image Comics
I’m sure it comes as a shock to no one when I say that I adore Chew. It is the basis by which I compare most other comics to for quality, humor, mystery, pretty much EVERYTHING. It was one of the first comics I became obsessed with and it is one I will see through to the end. The world that Layman and Guillory have created is so in depth and gripping that you will never want to leave and frankly in comparison, the real world feels quite bland.
Tony Chu’s old FDA partner, Mason Savoy, has kidnapped his daughter Olive – unbeknownst to Tony of course. Due to his recent demotion to traffic cop, Tony, has no means by which he can track down his missing daughter so he calls an old friend in hopes of help ,but, ultimately meets a dead end. With Olive still missing and no way to track her down his mission seems hopeless and it soon becomes even more impossible by means of his own abduction by his girlfriends sports-writing co-worker.
The evolution of this comic is just mind-blowing. When I look back at old issues and remember it’s simple original premise of illegal chickens and see what they present me with today in newer issues, it is unbelievable to think about how they have kept it going this strong for this long; respectable really. We went from two cibopath’s and a few other gifted people to this developing community of gifted foodies that can preform any number of tasks and it is exciting to feel like we are a part of it’s formation. With the promise of Olive’s newly revealed powers and his sister Toni’s still unnamed gift, the future of Chew looks hella bright and I am anticipating it’s outcome.
Alongside this incredible plot comes some very enticing and eye-catching art, courtesy of the very talented Rob Guillory. The story comes to life impeccably with his grotesque-cartoon styling. The emotion of each character is always very clear omitting the need to read so far into each statement in order to find the tone. But, just in case you couldn’t read it in their faces, Layman comes in with a very captivating and immersive lettering technique. The best I have seen in recent comics, or any comics for that matter. Normally it is something you look over, but, in the case of Chew, the lettering adds a hidden depth to the story and plays a huge role in holding a fun tone in the comic.
For the reasons I have named and many more, I think Chew is a series anyone can enjoy. Even if you don’t read the entire series as a whole, each issue individually is packed full with a lot of laughs and action, making it worth a sporadic read in the least.
5/5, Happy reading.
