Top of the Pile - 10/17/12

Chew #29
Story by John Layman

Art by Rob Guillory

There wasn’t a huge pile this week. Just 8 books. So what ended up at the top of the pile this week was Chew #29. Chew is an interesting book from John Layman and Rob Guillory about a post bird flu world where chicken is outlawed. Government agencies like the FDA, NASA and USDA have extraordinary powers police powers to maintain order.

This books been going on for a couple years now and it’s established its style. John Layman writes ridiculous plots and characters that are laugh out loud funny. And there is fun artwork by Rob Guillory with many little background elements that make you look extra-long at each page. And some weird cliff hanger that leaves you guessing until the next issue. One thing that was missing was all the damn cat pictures at the end of the book. (I’m not a cat person…)

This issue is part 4 of a 5 part story called Space Cakes. It’s not the best issue of Chew that I have read, but it was still fun. I don’t know if Space Cakes has the most concise plot and I’m sure to have fun as it wraps up. This is the type of series you would lost reading if you picked it up in the middle. So as a single issue I can’t really recommend it. But as a series, it’s been one of my favorites. Does that make sense?

As for adding Chew to public library collections, it is a good book to select. I have purchased the first two volumes of the collected volumes. They are in the adult non-fiction area for the profane language and cannibalism. They check out pretty well but unfortunately I don’t select in that area anymore.