I've gotten a reputation among people who know me as being 'the Indie Guy', and I can't quite say that I don't live up to that title at least a little considering how much I'll prattle on about Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptation, or the Vertigo Crime label, or pretty much everything Image and IDW put out these days. When my birthday comes rolling around, I already know what I'm going to find under those wrappers: DVDs for films with budgets the size of the amount your average business man makes in a year, and a comic book about someone breaking some kind of law somehow written by someone with either the last name Azzerello, Collins, or Brubaker.
Not that that's a bad thing. I can't tell you how much I enjoy the Parker series or Criminal because of how dearly I do love them, but after awhile, books like Andy Diggle's Rat Catcher may be very good, but just seem like another thing out in the mess (this in no way you should pass on Rat Catcher, it's a hell of a fine read). I'm also a big fan of your regular, no sugar, no sweetener, no milk, black crime fiction coffee. I've read over a dozen books by Raymond Chandler, a number of books by Dashielle Hammet, and I've gotten pretty good at being able to tell by stills alone which Humphrey Bogart film is which. I'm 20 something years old and I felt as if I've hit a point in the crime fiction genre that I'd never be able to recover from, and while Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker can show me a great time, I just didn't think I'd be able to see something new in crime fiction. Then I finally read Chew.
I know, it's been out since 2009. I'm rather late to this game, but I'd rather have showed up late than missed it altogether, because damn, what a game this is. It's like the second game in the Nationals/Yankees series a few weeks back where the Nats held off the Yankees for 14 innings. (I know most of you out there probably have no idea about baseball, but you gotta trust me on it that that game was one hell of a game. The kind I'll be talking about well after actual baseball fans have other more pressing baseball things to talk about.)
For those who have no idea what Chew is, let me put it in the most laconic terms I can muster: Reluctant cannibal detective eats people to psychically see their lives in an attempt to solve their murder. Also the FDA banned all chicken and other bird meats because of the bird flu. Don't know if pork was banned because of swine flu. So... you interested yet?
Now, I'm not going to say Chew is the most original thing as far as comics goes right now. To tell you the truth, I'm a firm believer in the concept that there is no such thing as true originality, there's just a refreshing take on the old, and Grant Morrison (read Massive Drug Trips). But I will say that of all the 'refreshing takes on the old' Chew might be the one head over shoulders the rest. It's the kind of thing that I just don't see a lot of in these crime fiction comics: A sense of levity that doesn't take itself too seriously, but seriously enough to where I can see some actual drama in it.
One of the big things that immediately catches you about Chew is the art. I feel strangely remiscent of the works of the macabre master Edward Gorey when I see Rob Guillory's interiors, which while it does not have his signature cross hatchings, it does have his flare for the darkly cartoonish. (I also can't be the only one who hears strings and an accordian while I read this, can I?) And please forgive me if I sound a bit too eager to see a book that isn't trying for the more common realistic approach for comics, but that this book also has that almost twisted almost gothic very well lived in, dirtied up, bloodied thuroughly, and then quickly washed with the wrong detergent as to try to avoid suspicion kind of feel makes this ride worth more than simply that it isn't something, but more that it is something else of it's own.
Still, I think where it hits it's high stride though, is the characters. They make this world seem believable, which considering that this book relies on you being able to accept that the FDA has a special crimes unit it's a pretty big deal. The entire cast is just a list of pure heroes, charmers, and winners. Our protagonist, the eponymous reluctant cannibal detective, Tony Chu earned his way into my heart before I even got done with 5 pages, and is easily the heart to this tale. He's not some crooked cop, he's not some by-the-book crony, he's not some loose cannon on the edge, or a guy just trying to make his way in the world; he's just a police detective working because of the reason anyone really becomes a police detective. The pay is the best for what it is, and you get a sense of job satisfaction and accomplishment out of it. Also the pay. That's before I get to it's supporting characters, all of them just as strong, each of them their own distinct force to the comic, bringing something of their own to the benefit of the book. Of course, I wouldn't want to spill all about them and ruin your chance to learn about them on your own. That's what wikipedia is for.
Now, Chew isn't a particularly complicated story, not to say it's not devoid of it's share of nuances, but it's strength isn't in the complexity of it's plot, but in what nuances it tells. The world is just that right blend of different and the same enough to feel as if you've been held hostage by it, and soon develope a form of Stockholm Syndrome for it making you want to learn just how it got all those scars. It's John Layman's penchant for charm that makes Chew such an immediately likable story. I'd think one would be hardpressed to try and read only a single issue of Chew and not want more. ("Layman, bet'cha you can't just read one.") A large part of that charm stems from it's morbidly dark sense of humor that gives you ease and makes it okay when you see people explode into a spew of blood, chunks, and other, as they do from time to time. It's only this series that I can say that gore is a charm.
Chew is still ongoing, but rumors abound about it possibly ending soon, (and about it possibly getting a TV series, with Lost's Ken Leung supposedly attached) so this is a perfect time to get into this lightly hearted, darkly comedic, refreshingly 'lively' crime drama that I just cannot recommend enough, not merely to just those who feel worn out on your typical crime fiction affair, but to anyone with the stomach for something so delightfully devilish.
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