Diamond in the Rough – I Like Beets

Yeah, I’m late. Shut up. I still post more often them most web comics do, so I don’t want to hear it.

To say I labored over this review would be a gross understatement. Ask my co-workers, my friends or my wife; all of them can tell you how I agonized over writing this. I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn’t know how to say it. It wasn’t until my wife gave me the inspired angle I was looking for that I could finally sit down a start collecting my thoughts. Now that I have, I feel that I’m ready to present to you, dear reader, the explanation this title so richly deserves. Let’s dive right in with gusto.

Chew, Volume One: Tasters Choice

Author: John Layman
Illustrator: Rob Guillory
Publisher: Image Comics

[Amazon]

Has anyone ever described a food to you that they simply love, but it sounded so disgusting that it turned your stomach? Maybe it was haggis, sushi or escargot. Was it Mee-Maw’s liver recipe? How about that deep-fried stick of butter from the state fair? Now have you ever, against your better judgement, later tried that same food (you know, the one that turned you four shades of green) only to realize: “Hot damn! This is actually really good!”

This series of events is the perfect analogy of what happens every time I try to explain Chew to someone.

The basis for the story is best laid out by the bio of the protagonist, Tony Chu. A version of it appears at the beginning of every issue. From issue #1:

Tony Chu is cibopathic. That means he can take a bite of an apple and get a feeling in his head about what tree it grew from, what pestacides were used on it, and when it was harvested. Or, he could eat a hamburger, and flash onto something else entirely.

For those of you playing the home game, that last sentence is a text box over the image of a cow getting slaughtered by taking a sledgehammer to the back of the head.

Let me make a few notes right away here. This book creates some situations that are gross. There, I admitted it. Sophomoric, low-brow, gross-out jokes are liberally sprinkled throughout the narrative. But with that in mind – both the writing and the artwork make these situations completely palatable (pun only slightly intended). More so, not only are they palatable but in most cases are flat-out some of the most hilarious and enjoyable points of the story.

A few examples:

The ashes of a cremated Senator being dumped in front of the medical examiners oscillating fan because she ticked off Chu’s partner.
Scientists in a remote astrological observatory spending the millions of surplus funding sent to them on “anything they could imagine”.
Chu’s boss tricking him into eating a persons finger to get identification even though he already had the information from fingerprinting and DNA. (Their intense hatred of each other is a running gag)

I intensely like this book. I’ve tried to recommend it to many, many people, but very few of them actually end up reading it. I’m saddened every time I start to talk about this title and people’s eyes glaze over because they’ve already judged it without picking it up. While I admit openly that there is “gross” humor in it – the jokes are still delivered intelligently and with tact.

Likewise the overall story arc is an intellectual commentary on political and social taboos while staying at the heart of a hard-boiled detective tale. The “What” component of the whodunit question sometimes gets a little lost in the story. This is because of the side-jogs the book takes from time to time. It’s easy to forget what the end goal actually is – but despite that, you’ll get reined back in to the task at hand when it’s time to pay attention again.

It’s difficult for me to stress how much you should read this book. Please, when you see this in your local comic shop, try to remember that terrific food you love now and how much you thought you would hate it when you first heard about it. This story, like that food, must be tried at least once before you can say “I don’t want that.” It’s very likely to surprise you.

Results: MUST read / MUST own

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About Felix

Felix was raised on a macrobiotic diet of lentils, kelp and tofu. That's probably why he currently subsists on Slim Jim's and Slurpees. Born in the frigid north of Wisconsin and raised in the fun and sun of Daytona Beach, he now lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife, daughter and four-legged hairy son with a speech impediment. When not making a total ass of himself in the public forum of the Internet, he can be found developing said Internet from the comfort of his office cube. Oh yeah, he also has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from the University of South Florida -- not that you give a crap... honestly.