Chew vol. 3: Just Desserts

It is, quite frankly, impossible to hate a comic that begins with its main character, gun in hand, pointing out to his blood-splattered girlfriend that this was not exactly a conventional first date.  Really, any comic that then goes on to incorporate a caveman fighting sabertooth tigers, the intrigue surrounding a prize fighting rooster, a frog-chicken hybrid appropriately called “fricken,” and the madness of said main character’s Thanksgiving gathering is actually quite good.  Where vol. 3 of “Chew” stumbles is in how many extra details it packs in while glossing over more interesting threads.

Mainly, I’m disappointed that the surprise Colby/Applebee hook-up is glossed over in one panel.   F.D.A. agent/cibopath (he gets psychic images from the food he eats) Tony Chu merely berates his partner for getting his boss off of his back by jumping into bed with him — easily the most surprising image of the previous volume.  The fact that writer John Layman only uses it as a springboard for more (admittedly effective) comic hijinks as opposed to giving us any kind of insight into their characters strikes me as a missed opportunity.  Then you toss in all of the things about Tony’s deranged ex and family issues while the whole volume builds to a halt — not a climax, not a cliffhanger, a halt — and you ultimately wind up with a volume of a series that is not quite as good as the previous ones.

However, any discussion of “Chew” is not complete without mentioning the always-impressive artwork of Rob Guillory.  As absurd as this world that Layman has cooked up, it would’ve fallen flat without Guillory’s equally twisted and eccentric art.  His skill with facial expressions alone is Eisner-worthy and he also displays great timing in comic and action-based scenes.  There’s also a very impressive sequence towards the end where ex-F.D.A. agent Mason Savoy eats Chu’s ear to find out his weakness.  Guillory makes use of parallels in this sequence to show us what Savoy is seeing in his mind and his reaction to it, while eventually zeroing in on Chu’s weakness.

Even if the writing isn’t up to the series’ previous standards, the art is just as good if not a little better.  So if you’ve ever thought about picking up a volume of the series based on the cover art alone, I can assure you that what you see there is even better on the inside.