For the last while, I’ve been hearing that the 44th issue of “Chew” was going to be a game changer, and not in a Marvel hype sort of way, but in a very real one. Something big was going to happen, the team behind the book has hinted. I’ve been dreading it for the last while, but now that it’s here, I wanted to shine a light on it as we all go to comic shops for one big reason:
It’s every bit the game changer they’ve led us to believe.
Written by John Layman
Illustrated by Rob Guillory“CHICKEN TENDERS,” Part Four
Warning: Sissies will need an adult diaper before reading this one. No joke. No lie. This will be the most talked about issue of CHEW in years.
After more than five years of existence, “Chew” is a book that is in a very weird place. It has two big things that makes it hard for it to be the comic du jour, even though it deserves that reputation every bit as much as many of its Image Comics brethren. Those two things?
One: It’s comedic in nature.
Two: It’s, like, so old.
That latter one is a weird thing to say, as we’re talking about a comic on issue #44, but did you know that out of the comics that finished in the top 200 in September’s sales charts, “Chew” has the fourth highest issue number? FOURTH! It’s absurd, but in 2014 when Marvel and DC relaunch comics as often as Tony Chu’s FDA boss Mike Applebee doesn’t change his disgusting sweat stained clothing, it’s bizarrely true. In a weird way, the opposite of an old problem in comics has become a new reality: how do you sustain a comic past its early run, and keep the same momentum in the process? Launching a book is tough. Keeping it going is much harder.
What John Layman and Rob Guillory have done with “Chew” is the textbook for how to make just that happen, and this 44th issue? Well, it’s the pièce de résistance, as it culminates five years of story lines into a moment we’ve all been waiting for – the showdown with the Collector – and in the process show that it’s so much more than just a literal funny book.
That’s not to say this issue isn’t funny. Quite the contrary, as there are two bits (one featuring a new power the Collector has gathered and the other in the origin story of a new USDA heavy) that rival the hilarity of any moment in the series. But this issue finds Layman tying together so many elements into one issue and one moment that it underlines how cleverly made this series has been the whole time. Relationships and situations that have been developed in the previous 43 issues give this book and its events – much of which are bloody and may make it hard for certain characters to come back from – a tremendous amount of weight, and it is a truly shocking issue in a way that many books promise to be but few deliver on.
The actions characters like Colby and Applebee have taken in the past come back to haunt them in a big way here, and much of it is strangely built on relationships and elements that were previously played for laughs. It’s not like this issue was the culmination of a 43 issue rope-a-dope routine, with what happens in its pages (and presumably the next issue) being the big haymaker we never expected. It’s exceptional plotting and characterization that very few titles can match.
This is a book built both for monthly readers and for trade waiters, and for both of those sets of readers, the events in this issue feel like they’re the tipping point for the push to the end of the series. We know it’s going to wrap with issue #60, and you can just feel that we’re at a point of no return after reading this one. For once in a comic, nothing really will ever be the same.
One thing that is always the same with this book, though, is Guillory’s art. He’s an artist that can deliver appropriate blood and gore to convey the horror of a situation, but his style and delivery allows it a certain level of levity to not overwhelm the reader. He delivers the story in an extremely effective and efficient fashion, and there are some moments in this issue that rival his very best work in the series (I’m looking at you, second page of the Olive vs. The Collector section).
Continued belowThe brutality and energy to some of the fight sequences are elements we haven’t gotten to see a lot of from Guillory before, but he knocks those moments out of the park. There’s one page towards the end featuring Savoy, Olive and The Collector that really blew me away in how visceral Guillory made it all feel. It’s a potent sequence, and when you pair that with something like the page laying out the aforementioned USDA heavy origin, it shows the diversity Guillory has an artist.
Also, I wanted to give major props to color assistant Taylor Wells. I’m not entirely sure how she and Guillory work together to color the book, but the colors were such a perfect emotional barometer in this issue. The bold reds when things were dark and the innocent greens and the triumphant gold at a certain point elevated scenes in the best way, escalating our emotions but never distracting from the situation.
“Chew” #44 very much is the issue that the whole series has been building to for a very, very long time, and next issue easily could be even crazier. And that makes sense. As a series, it’s always hit hard every 15 issues, and I fully expect next one to shock me even more. But nothing about this issue is forced or inorganic in how it delivers the thrills. It’s just naturally working off of everything that preceded it, and using that history to deliver an even more impactful story. Is it a perfect comic? Not at all, as the whole Poyo splash page trick might be losing its juice (I can’t believe I said that) and there are some pretty big questions asked here that don’t really have obvious answers.
But it is a great comic, and it’s a great one at least partially because of those very reasons I listed as potential roadblocks for it at the beginning of this review. As it enters its home stretch, John Layman and Rob Guillory’s “Chew” is as strong – like, Viresarantheacist strong – as it ever has been, and issues like this are ones I’d put up against damn near anything in comics. I really can’t wait for what’s next, even though I know odds are it will be tearing my heart out with a butter knife (metaphorically speaking).
