Farmhand vol. 1: Reap What Was Sown

There’s a scene towards the end of this volume where one of the main characters wakes up in a hospital following a pretty disturbing hallucination (Or was it!?) and a lot of plot points from the previous issues are reiterated at a fast clip.  When asked to make sense of this, Jedidiah Jenkins responds with a “Honey… I have no idea.” I get what he’s feeling and it’s not a thing you want to leave a reader with at the end of the inaugural volume of ANY series.

“Farmhand” does have a pretty neat setup going for it, at first.  After years of estrangement Zeke Jenkins is taking his wife and two kids back to meet his father, the aforementioned Jed.  While the reasons for their falling out are yet to be specified, it’s a safe bet that they have to do with the strange biotech that came into the possession of Zeke’s father.  This technology allows Jed to grow body parts like they were fruit or vegetables. He’s acquired a lot of fame and fortune as a result, and a lot of enemies as well. Oh, and then there are the complications that inevitably spring up when you’re messing around with the kind of technology that makes this kind of stuff possible.

Picking up this first volume was a no-brainer for me as it comes from Rob Guillory, the phenomenally talented artist of “Chew.”  “Farmhand” shows that his artistic chops haven’t lost a step since that series, as things get even crazier and more horrific than we ever saw in that title.  Where it lets the reader down is in the writing, which is kind of all over the place in terms of setting up a focused narrative to follow. The tone is also similarly confused as it’s not clear if this is meant to be a horror series with some comedy or a comedy with some horror in it.  This leaves the family drama to fall uncomfortably in the middle of those two extremes. I’ll be back for vol. 2 because I want to like this series (really, the art is that good) even if it doesn’t leave me hopeful for its long-term prospects.