Chew. Vol. 1, Taster's Choice by John Laymon (writer) and Rob Guillory (artist). 128 p.
This book has a really interesting premise: Tony Chu is "cibopathic," which means that when he eats something, he learns all about it. If he eats an apple, he knows what tree it grew it, what pesticides were used on it, when it was picked. If he eats beef, he learns about the cow--including how it died. Needless to say, he's a skinny guy who eats a lot of beets (for some reason his ability doesn't work on beets). After he eats some soup that a serial killer accidentally bled in, he learns some limited information about the killer's victims. When the serial killer commits suicide rather than tell Tony any more, he decides that his need to find out the information trumps the gross-out factor of having to eat part of the guy to find out more. His abilities bring him to the notice of the F.D.A., which is terribly powerful because chicken is illegal following a bird flu epidemic, although of course there are many conspiracy theories about what the govenment is really covering up.... Anyway, I find all of this set up really interesting, but the actual execution lacks something that I can't put my finger on. Partly it's that I don't like any of the characters, and I don't particularly care for the art, although it works well enough for the story being told. I'm curious about where the story will go, but probably not curious enough to bother reading it.
No comments:
Post a Comment