Chew (comics)
Chew is an American comic book series about a U.S. Food and Drug Administration 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 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 and being unfinished by 2017.
In 2020, two follow-up projects were released – a three-issue crossover with Outer Darkness, 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. 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. He is fired from his job after the Philadelphia PD catches him eating the cook and gets hired on to the FDA by an agent named Mason Savoy, who is also a cibopath.The first case that Tony and Savoy are assigned to is finding out what happened to a Health Inspector named Evan Pepper, based on a finger found inside of a hamburger at a fast-food restaurant. During the investigation, Tony has a hit put out on him by a businessman named Ray Jack Montero. It is eventually discovered that Mason Savoy killed Pepper and when confronted about it, bites off Tony's ear to use it as leverage in case Tony ever comes after him. Savoy runs off to discover what really caused the so-called Bird Flu, and banned all chicken consumption.
In International Flavor, Tony takes some time off and flies with his brother to an island called Yamapalu. Chu is there to investigate a certain plant called a Gallsaberry which tastes exactly like chicken. Chu meets with a United States Department of Agriculture agent, who tells Tony that she will tell him all she knows about Gallsaberry, but unfortunately she's murdered and Tony is framed. Tony has his FDA credentials checked and is released only to find out by biting another prisoner that another murder has taken place, over a rooster named Poyo, a cockfight champion. After confiscating the rooster, Tony goes to the morgue to find out more about Gallsaberries. During this time, the chief of police steals Poyo. Tony than eats a Gallsaberry raw and finds out that it is from outer space. Tony sneaks on the base where Gallsaberries are grown, evacuates several people that are imprisoned there only to find out that the entire crop of Gallsaberries are burning. It turns out that Ray Jack Montero is burning the plants to remove any competition, with a little help from some residents of Yamapalu, who are rebelling due to the capture of Poyo. Tony is shot at by an employee of Montero, but is missed, and has a confrontation with a person known as The Vampire who is also a cibopath.
In Just Desserts, Tony finds out that Poyo had been moved to America, so he retrieves him and shuts down a cockfighting ring. It is revealed that Ray Jack Montero had been changing Frog DNA to make them taste more like chickens, creating a creature called Frickens, or Chogs and packaging their meat and calling it Poult-Free, a chicken substitute. It is also revealed Montero knew that the bird-flu outbreak was going to happen before it did, so Mason Savoy had his partner, Caesar, go undercover inside of Montero's company. Caesar was the one who shot at Tony in Yamapalu and intentionally missed. Montero is captured, and Savoy is surrounded by the FDA when they were watching one of Montero's buildings. Savoy has a confrontation with John and escapes. Amelia finds a toe that was in Tony's fridge, given to him from an old girlfriend. Savoy eats Tony's ear and learns more about him, specifically that Tony has a daughter by the name of Olive. Tony brings Amelia and John with him to his family's Thanksgiving. We meet his friendlier twin sister Toni. While giving grace, there is a 2 car pile-up outside and alien writing in the sky.
A week later, in Flambé, the FDA is making the writing in the sky a priority over the chicken ban. Tony teams up with Mason's old partner Caesar to look for a former FDA agent named Migdalo Daniel who is a [|Voresoph], Migdalo attacked the agents and accidentally killed himself. A Kentucky Fried Chicken imitation restaurant called Mother Clucker's reopens selling chicken. Tony and Colby investigate a food fight that resulted in several students killing each other at Francis Bacon High School. It turns out that a student named Peter Pilaf has a new [|food related power]. After detaining him, Tony finds out that Pilaf had sent a recipe to astronauts on the Fisher-Okroshka International Space Station which exploded shortly afterwards. It turns out that a servant of The Vampire on the Space Station caused the station to explode and escaped with some computer files and a Gallsaberry. While on a mission with the USDA in North Korea, Tony and Colby find out that the FDA are using Poyo as a secret weapon. Tony is transferred to NASA for the day to work with his sister, Toni. They go to Area 51, Area 51 has pieces of the Space Station including the body of an astronaut. Tony bites the astronaut and discovers The Vampire's involvement. Mason drinks Migdalo's blood, and tells Caesar that there is a connection between people with abilities and the writing in the sky. Caesar then informs Mason that the writing disappeared four days ago. Mason decides to kidnap Olive. Tony and Colby are sent to investigate an egg worshiping cult that predicted the disappearance of the sky writing to the minute. They go undercover and sneak inside the church, and while trying to steal their holy book, the other members of the church drink poisoned Kool-Aid to absolve their sin of eating chicken. The cult's book is not written in English and Tony and Colby are fired from the FDA.
In Major League Chew, Tony is transferred to the Municipal Traffic Division. His new boss seems very excited to have him there. Tony then helps to arrest a gang of bank robbers.
''Chew'' #27
Note: After Chew #18, the story then leaps to Chew #27 showing the reader events taking place a year later. It then returns to issue 19.Tony is in the hospital after being injured in some way. Toni goes to visit him and after chatting with Caesar who came to wish him well, heads back to work. An old friend of Toni's shows up, he had gotten his hands on some Chogs that had been bred with some psychoactive frogs he had. He tries to sell them, but D-Bear shows up and steals all of them. Toni and her supervisor, Paneer, go to D-Bear's restaurant to confiscate the Chogs. D-Bear tries to escape but Toni, who had a gun already in her hands, jumps and bites him in the shoulder. She then lets him leave, D-Bear is then hit by a truck and is taken to the hospital. Later, Tony has a mysterious visitor.
Chew #27 went on sale May 11, 2011. A second printing, subtitled "2nd Helping Edition", went on sale June 20, 2012 between the release of issue 26 and issue 28, and included a bonus short story titled "A View to a Pill" which had previously only been published in the Hero Comics 2011 anthology from IDW Publishing. "A View to a Pill" was not included in the trade paperback releases of the series.