Chew, Vol. 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman

Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He's been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

Collects CHEW issues #1-5.

Tony Chu has a weird psychic ability: he can sense the individual history of any food he eats. He's also a detective. You can probably figure out what disgusting-but-hilarious road this is heading down.

The fun surprise for me was the world this is set in - it's not just a cibopathic detective functioning in our modern society, but rather a near-future America where there's a thriving black market for chicken, and the conspiracy theorists might be on to something with their distrust of the most powerful federal agency in the government: the FDA.

A title centered around a cibopathic FDA agent solving crimes in Philadelphia where chicken has been outlawed due to bird flu insanity?

Yes please. This book is hilarious and the art is great. Highly recommended.

I love the premise of this series. I love the artwork. I love the in medias res starts to each comic. I am excited to see where it goes...and grossed out.

Chew is the story of Tony Chu, a special agent of the US Food and Drug Administration. What makes Tony a special agent is that he's a cibopath; that means he gets psychic impressions from anything that he eats, and can see the history of the food, where it came from, etc. In a world where avian flu has killed tens of millions of people, and the USFDA's been given wide-reaching powers to ban the consumption of poultry as a result, it's a handy power to have.

This was a fun, fast-paced read that built from an interesting premise in surprising ways. Layman tells the story in a dark, humourous way that prevents it from becoming too gross or bizarre.