First the tattoo that was signed by Stan Lee (found here):
Via 2adults1child
This week's comic we'll be looking at is John Layman & Rob Guillory's Chew.
I know, I know - I've been pimping Chew out for a while now. But dangit - it's pretty exciting stuff that is plenty accessible for non-comic readers. It's another one of my go-to gifts for non-comics people, as it's a strange, unique universe that is as entertaining as it is bizarre.
The series focuses on John Chu who is a police detective in an alternate world where a "bird epidemic" (Birdemic?) has made all poultry illegal. So, as in all cases of prohibition, a black market forms with chicken speakeasies and underground food sales and it's up to John Chu and his partner to bust them. So that's already an odd take on the world with many possibilities for commentary on current attitudes to prohibition, government interference, police procedurals and crowd psychology.
But then Layman & Guillory throw in a very specific and unique curveball: Chu is a cibopathic.
"What the hell is that?" I hear you muttering. It means that whenever Chu eats anything he knows the entire history of that item: where a piece of fruit was picked, traveled to, how it was prepared, everything. He feels the entire experience - and so he is completely unable to eat any meats at all due to the psychic trauma it inflicts. In fact, the only thing he can eat without any sort of mental pain is canned beets. However, his skills make him an incredible asset to the now ridiculously powerful - thanks to the aforementioned birdemic - FDA where his unique talents have him eating various items in order to solve cases.
So that's a rather high concept for a book - an alternate world with new rules and social structures, plus a superpowered cop with a completely unique superpower that tends to be more disgusting than it is cool. But the weirdest thing about it? It fucking works.
There's a great sense of dark humor in every panel as the ridiculous situations just become even more gruesome and hilariously disturbing. And Layman's scripts do a great job of taking excellent character work - like the banter between Chu and his mentor, Savoy, or the various recurring bits displaying just how much Chu's new boss hates him - and marrying it to scenes of exciting action. Layman is ably assisted in this book by Rob Guillory's kinetic, and almost cartoony, style that makes it reminiscent of The Maxx cartoon (although less expressionistic than Kieth's original comic). Each layer of this brave and fucked up new world is deftly peeled back to show an ever more fucked up layer underneath - and through it all we have these oddball heroes and villains trying to navigate all of the epic weirdness.
I can't recommend Chew enough. There's only one collection out right now (Taster's Choice) although the second volume (International Flavor) will be out on April 28th or so. It's one of the few comics I still pick up in floppy form from my local nerdery and I find myself rife with anticipation as I await each new issue.