Written by John Layman
Illustrated by Rob Guillory‘BASEBALL, HOT DOGS AND APPLE PIE,’ Part One Mike Applebee’s good day, Tony Chu’s first day and John Colby’s last day. An issue of beginning and endings, as we head into the fifth story arc of the multi-Eisner award nominated series about cops, crooks, cooks, cannibals, clairvoyants and–meter maids?
It’s time for Big League Chew! Baseball, Hot Dogs, and Apple Pie? That’s good too, but this is BIG LEAGUE CHEW!
I hadn’t even read the solicit until putting this introduction together, but I know this is going to be my favorite arc just because of the name. Plus, 21 happens to be my lucky number, so that just increases the odds for this issue being great.
Am I right? Or am I right? Find out after the cut.
Like most of the Image line, it’s actually quite difficult to review this book on a month to month basis because it plays by different rules than, say, your average Marvel or DC book. Sure, it’s an ongoing, and sure, it’s a monthly, and yes, you’re right, it is in fact a comic book, but there is something that sets Chew rather radically apart from the rest of the bunch. Specifically, Chew is a difficult book to review because every month it’s just so damn great, and it becomes tough to come at an individual issue for this series and try and figure out new ways to express why Chew is so great.
But now we have Big League Chew Part 1, so let’s give it a shot.
What never ceases to amaze me about a title like Chew is just how effortlessly the book seems put together. While I can only imagine how many hours went into writing and illustrating and coloring and lettering and editing the title (and anything else I missed), the finished product reads like a cool breeze through a wind. If a single issue of Chew was a childhood memory, it’d be akin to that of you and your best friends hanging out, palling around and just having a great time before someone’s mom gives you a lift to a local fast food joint to chow down on some greasy goodness. That’s Chew in a nutshell: it’s a damn great time.
The latest arc of Chew finds our hero Tony Chu in a new job as a meter maid, skirt kilt and all. Meter miads are actually my sworn enemy in real life, so I can’t say there wasn’t a certain level of personal amusement that went into watching Tony get downgraded to such a low level position after being a special agent/hero cop, which the book also takes a point of humorously noting. (And let’s all be honest here — who doesn’t hate meter maids and want to see a somewhat degrading representation of them?) What entails with this new issue is a day in the life of a meter maid in the post-chicken world, where Chu is left struggling to regain some sense of normalcy in a new department that has anything but.
I can’t imagine that John Layman and Rob Guillory don’t have a blast when putting together any given issue of Chew, as right from the first page Chew begins with a joke that leaves the reader (me) chuckling, and the fun doesn’t let up throughout the duration. Layman and Guillory combined are arguably one of the most powerful duos in comics, making some sort of hilarious Voltron-esque creation that shoots out jokes by the second and uses a pen instead of a sword (based on the old metonymic adage, of course). Chew combines humor and storytelling in a potent combination that both draws the reader in to the ongoing story but also reminds reader what great humor is in a comic book medium, using both the written and visual medium to it’s advantage. I hate to name names, but there are a few books designed for “comedy” that are anything but; if every other humor-based comic book are the equivalent of struggling stand-up comics, Chew is the comedic powerhouse of Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais and Chris Rock sitting in a room and shooting the breeze (perhaps as an HBO special). Nothing is forced, and everything works.
Continued belowWhat really makes Chew unique, however, is that the duo always seem to make new arcs new reader accessible. Every book usually spouts that it is a perfect jumping on point for new readers, but this isn’t always neccesarily true, especially for a book that is a) rather involved in an ongoing storyline b) features a big curious mystery and c) did I mention that there is a rather involved ongoing story? Yet Chew always opens itself up for new readers somehow, and it’s quite an impressive feat. As the new arc begins, the story gives a very quick synopsis of previous events before launching into a new storyline that is as easy to follow as it is to read from left to right. Sure, there might be a few bits that take a second or two to process for a new reader (“Wait, he has a daughter? Why does this guy have half a robot face?”), but it’s all generally easy enough to follow. The synopsis doesn’t take away from the previous readers’ enjoyment, and the book jam packs a great ton into such a tiny little space that it is almost assured to please everyone. Layman has always been quite good in his writing with making this book open for anyone who chooses to read it, and given the strong start of the fifth arc I can’t imagine that things will be any different now as the story progresses.
Of course, in any given issue of Chew, time must be spent sitting and admiring the art of Rob Guillory. Guillory isn’t like other artists, in that he treats every tiny space of a given page as a possibility. The average artist is rather content to at least create a background for characters to exist upon, but Guillory uses the added space to offer up extra humor and flesh out the universe of Chew, akin to the likes of Brandon Graham or James Stokoe. In his own way, Guillory writes a secondary script to Chew with his art, as is evidenced by the newspapers on the first and last day of the page, and it’s that aspect of his art that makes Chew even more unique in it’s execution. Guillory’s art essentially demands your attention, and if it were possible for the book to grab your eye balls and force you to roll over the pages slowly to absorb the background material then I’m sure Guillory’s art would do so. Given that it can’t (yet — they’re probably saving this for a later arc), just make a note to step back, smell the art and look at the roses. Or, something to that effect.
The fact that a book like Chew exists seems more like a gift to readers, and that is about as hyperbolic as I’ll let myself get before I feel I’ve gone too far. It was rather easy (unfortunately) to forget that there was a whole other side of comics last month with the DCnU and everyone putting so much focus on that, but with the hoopla from that endeavor dying down and October beginning, it’s impossible not to note that Image is already off to a stronger start for the month than other publishers. It’s not a universal truth (because I think that is a literal impossibility), but chances are that if it is on the stands from Image this week, you’re going to want to get it — and if the title of that book happens to be Chew, then you’re going to want to buy three.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Let’s all meet back here next month to see what happens next!
Why three? For the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou pick up the comic from the rack. Then, shalt thou collect up to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt collect, and the number of the collecting shall be three. Four shalt thou not collect neither collect thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once at the number three, being the third number to be reached, then, pay thou comic at the register and read in front of thy cats, who, being adorable in My sight, shall sleep on it later.”
