Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Chew #26
Image Comics
Layman & Guillory
This issue of Chew is a rarity in a couple of ways. First of all, it’s a one-shot and secondly the comic book doesn’t really involve any of the primary characters from the previous twenty-five issues. The book is still executed to perfection (what else would you expect) in terms of story, artwork and pace. However, the book’s focus as a spotlight for Tony’s sister, Toni, doesn’t make for the greatest character profile issue or jump-on point to the overall series. Still, this book is highly entertaining and manages to keep up the same level of charm mixed with oddities that we’ve come to expect from Chew. You simply can’t go wrong with this issue.
The gist of the story is that Toni is recruited by her brother, Chow, to help him track down someone he feels isn’t on the up-and-up. This character also may, just may, have done something to Chow that he wants rectified.
Like Tony, Toni has a power that involves eating things. Her ability, though, is to see into the future by taking a bite from a living being. Not quite the same power when used against the dead or objects. In any case, Chow enlists her help and things accelerate from there.
It’s a good read. There is a little bit of plot misdirection which is always nice to see. The comic book contains the usual amount of laughs which is also something I appreciate from this book. The comic also provides some very familiar scenes that the long time reader will smile about because we have seen some of them with various characters three or four times. Overall, the book is a solid read.
If you ever wondered what Chew would be like without Tony, Colby, Savoy or many of the other mainstays then this is the issue to figure that out. Based on the next one-shot to drop (Poyo) I think we will be better equipped to assess how these one-offs support the overall story. For now, this seems like a mostly self-contained comic book.
Guillory is tremendous as always. He doesn’t leave out any detail and continues to fill out each scene with little knick-knacks in the background that just add that much more visually to the pages. Guillory manages to support the humorous parts of the issue very well and make the scenes that much more entertaining. This is a terrific visual story and unlike anything else on the stands today.
Chew is a fantastic book. Sometimes you have amazing issues and sometimes you have ones that are less amazing. All are great reads and all of them are fantastic entertainment. This issue is a focus on a character that really hasn’t gotten too much attention and her story provides a compelling read. This is a fun one-shot to sample if you are new to Chew. Whatever your exposure (or lack of) to the book you won’t be disappointed.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
