Tony Chu is a cop. A cop with a weird power. He’s cibopathic, which means that when he eats something, he sees the entire history of it. And with a power like this, and a job like his, he often has to eat strange things, like human things. The multi-Eisner award winning series starts its newest story arc “Space Cakes”, which has a bit of change of pace for the readers, and the story.
With this issue, Tony is hospitalized and we get to see more of his sister, Antonelle “Toni” Chu, as the main character. We learn of a special power of Toni’s and learn through this power that Tony will be just fine and make it out of the hospital. As usual, the Chu family is up to some antics, which ends up with Toni helping Chow, her brother, with a scheme involving what else but food related items. Then in the epilogue, we see the Vampire who is acquiring more special people.
This issue is something of a “cool down” story beat after all the craziness that happened in issue 25. That’s not saying that this issue is bad. In fact, this is a great episode which helps to move the story along well. It just isn’t packed full of action and death and violence like the last issue.
As always, John Layman does a great job with the story. The sheer ridiculousness of it all, while still being compelling and interesting is a great balance act that Layman performs well. The best part about the issue is the use of Toni as the main character. We find out a lot about her, including her cibovoyance, which allows her to see the future concerning a living thing after she bites it. The fact that she has such a power, and the fact that Tony and Olive both have their powers, leads me to believe that food-related abilities run in the family, and causes me to wonder whether or not Chow has any such abilities. Of course this is all speculation and could be completely wrong, but the fact that the story makes me wonder so much is the sign of a good writer, I think.
Artwise, Rob Guillory kills it. His art is Chew’s signature. There is literally no other artist that I can imagine doing Chew at this point. His attention to details, such as random signage and writing on wrappers adds depth to the Chew-niverse and overall story. While doing so, it doesn’t distract from the main story.
The way the art and writing mesh so well together shows you how great a working relationship Guillory and Layman have. The two obviously work well together and because of this, they’re able to make a great comic month after month. Truly, one of my favorite series and one I look forward to every month.
Art: 9/10
Script:9/10
Parental concern: Mild. Some blood, harsh language, and cartoony cannibalism
