Chew (comics)
American comic book series
Chew is an American comic book series about a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agent, Tony Chu, who solves crimes by receiving psychic impressions from whatever he consumes as food, no matter what. It is written by John Layman with art by Rob Guillory and published by Image Comics across the storylines Taster's Choice, International Flavor, Just Desserts, Flambé, Major League Chew, Space Cakes, Bad Apples, Family Recipes, Chicken Tenders, Blood Puddin', The Last Suppers, and Sour Grapes. The series has won two Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards.
Chew's first issue was released in June 2009, and the series concluded with its 60th issue in November 2016, with a crossover one-shot, I Hate Fairyland – I Hate Image, following in May 2017. An animated film/television adaptation starring the voices of Steven Yeun, Felicia Day, and Robin Williams began production in 2014, going into development hell following Williams' death (despite him being recast with David Tennant in 2015) and being unfinished by 2017.
In 2020, two follow-up projects were released – a three-issue crossover with Outer Darkness (another comic series written by Layman), and the beginning of a spin-off series titled Chu, comprising the "Chewniverse".
Plot summary
Set in a world where all chicken and other bird meats are illegal, after a catastrophic outbreak of the bird flu that killed 23 million Americans, Chew centers on Tony Chu, a police detective who is a cibopath (pronounced "SEE-bo-path"). Tony becomes a vice cop with the Philadelphia Police Department, and when on assignment in Taster's Choice, trying to find people smuggling chicken, he enters a black market chicken restaurant on invitation from the U.S. FDA. He has a bowl of chicken soup only to find he gets a psychic impression of the cook killing people and putting them into the soup. He goes to bust the cook, only for the cook to kill himself outside the restaurant. Chu eats a bite of the cooks tongue to find out the names of the rest of the victims.
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