Chew #11

When I first picked up Chew, I knew I'd like it.
I mean come on. The guy solves crime by eating the grossest things you can think of....like corpses. Awesome.

So issue #11 was extremely amusing. The end (which I wont relate in detail but lets just say 'just desserts's is an appropriate arc title) is especially 'aw yeah' inducing. Makes you want to give someone a high five.

But I digress.

#11 begins a new arc starting with Chu hot on the case of a murdered politician's son. The delicious (a matter of opinion, since he eats an unsavory....dish) evidence leads towads the beautiful Amelia Mintz and an exotic animal eatery (Chu eats a dead endangered marmet...yummy).

What I like best about Chew is the art. I don't think the story would work nearly as well without the artwork done by Rob Guillory. The happy, bubbly cartoonish figures are doing the grossest and most disgusting things. There's a scene of a dead guy with a rodent shoved down his throat with a pitchfork stuffed in his chest. The potential for someone being put off (ok maybe i'm desensatized but i'm not put off) is so huge but is prevented because of how slightly silly (in an awesome comic book way not a sad Dagwood way) Chu and Colby (whose cyborg face is totally awesome btw) standing there gaping at the dead guy with a rat in his mouth and you KNOW Chu is going to take a honkin' bite out of the rat-thing and its just gross enough to be silly and wince-inducing but not like "omg I'm never reading this again."

I thoroughly enjoy Chew. The entire comic is refreshing morbid and sneakily funny (like watching Chu trying to hit on Amelia Mintz).

Read it. You will love it.
 
Unless you're lame. Then you won't.

Crossed: Family Values #1

Let me tell you something about Brits and their apocalypic fascination. For some reason people from the British Isles love to discuss the end of the world. Whether it is Alan Moore (Watchmen), Alex Garland (28 Days Later), Neil Marshall (Doomsday), Terry Hayes (Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), and Garth Ennis (Crossed), British people love to talk about the end of the world.

So when I picked up the first Crossed issue after seeing an ad for it in Avatar back in 2008, I knew I was in for an end of the world shtick.

I was not, however, prepared for what Garth Ennis had in store for me. The man must have seen something extremely traumatizing as a child....the dude obviously has issues.  The depravity became addictive and the story told through the horror was engrossing.

Granted, the Zombie angle has been gone over and over, especially in the past few years as the Zombie Renaissance has emerged. "Zombies that are still alive" has been done with 28 Days Later, so its not a totally new angle, but Ennis does a good job keeping you turning the page with a wince, expecting a new level of gross that you just can't help but gawk at.

So now the torch has passed to Eisner-award winning David Lapham.

First things first:
Don't worry, the creepy horrible-ness has not been lost in the author transfer.  Lapham is a gifted story teller and the level of depravity has not lessened with his hands at the wheel.

What I like about the book is that it is really a study on different levels of horror. Lapham makes you chose whom to hate more, those not infected with the Crossed Plague and those who are infected. Lapham draws you in and I think Avatar did a great job picking him.

What I find somewhat troublesome is the switch between artists. I thoroughly enjoyed Jacen Burrows approach to the extremely gory scenes (the horse penis and the legless and armless guy being prime examples of his skill in horror). I am not sure if I like Javier Barreno as much as Burrows. His drawings seem more flat and less detailed (yes, I looked for detail in my gore. so do you, shut up).  I will however give him the benefit of the doubt.


All in all its a good book and a definate must-read for the gore-enthusiast.
I await the next issue eagerly.