Chew #1

(see the original at http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/chew.html)

Yesterday, I read Chew #1 on my phone while waiting at the doctor's office. I've been thinking about it ever since. I couldn't agree more with squares's review on ComicVine: it is the most perfectest #1 issue to a comicbook I have ever read. Period.

I had heard of Chew before, mostly because of the hubbub it caused when it was possibly being made into a TV show on Showtime, until it wasn't, and then it was going to be a movie. I figured if it was good enough to be used as source materiel for something that I would probably watch someday, then it should be good enough to make it onto my list of comics I want to read someday, and it's been on my "list" ever since. It wasn't until I found the first issue for free on Comixology that I actually got around to reading it. And, yeah, freeking PERFECT number 1 issue!

He's "cibopathic", which, near as I can tell, is a word John Layman made up for this comic. Looks like it derives from the Latin cibus, meaning food, and "pathic", as in "telepathic". Pretty amazing concept. Have you ever felt like that? I have. Not to the extent of Tony Chu, of course, but, often, when I'm biting into something, I'll wonder where it came from, how it was harvested, what pesticides it was exposed to, or how it was killed. I think this is kind of a big thing nowadays with the current emphasis on organic, free-ranged, grass-fed, yadda yadda yadda whatever all-natural food. It was pretty neat of the author to take that concept and turn it into a kind of superpower.

So, the setting is the near future, where the government has outlawed chicken because of a bird flu. How interesting is that? Only, according to Tony Chu's brother here, it's actually a conspiracy, there never was a bird flu, and it's all just another system of control and part of the government's agenda. I love it! Naturally, the ban on chicken leads to underground restaurants and special divisions of the F.D.A to enforce the new law.

Once in the underground chicken restaurant, Tony Chu uses his involuntary superpower and discovers the chef, who the issue opened with by showing his bleeding into the soup, is actually a mass-murderer who mixes in some human meat with the chicken because it's cheaper.

And now, for the first time in the history of forever, I'm rooting for the cannibal! Wow. Never thought I'd smile as I saw one mad eat another mans face, but there it is. Yep, that just happened.

With a wonderful twist, the book ends and leaves me wanting more. The entire book from front to back was absolutely perfect. There wasn't one misplaced panel, the pacing never slowed, the art jumps off the page and makes me feel like I'm in the world... the whole darned thing is about as good a comic as you'll ever read! I can't wait to read all about the adventures of this cannibalistic cibopathic Philly detective turned F.D.A. special agent in a post-chicken apocalyptic future with underground restaurants and government conspiracies!