Graphic Novel Reading Group discussion

Hi everybody. So the poll has ended and our optional read will be Chew, Vol. 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman and Rob Guillory.


Please post your comments, questions, etc. on this thread.


The reading starts on March 19th to give our members time to get a hold of the book. However, if you have the book in hand, or have already read the book, and feel like posting, the please feel free to do so.


To make the discussion more interesting and focused it would be great to have a Discussion Leader who would provide a set of questions/topics of discussion. If you want volunteer to help out with this you can say it right here. Thanks.

(Note: It would be up to you if you want to provide all the questions in the beginning or provide them as the discussion progresses.)


If your post will contain spoilers, then please type SPOILERS in capital letters at the top of your post so that members who are still reading or have not yet read the book can avoid critical details that can spoil their reading.


Enjoy our optional book discussion everyone.

I just read this in December I believe, I am actually reading vol. 3 at the moment. I loved it. It kind of gave me a Palahniuk vibe, a definite plus. I had my doubts going in as I felt it would be a one trick pony relying too heavily on the gimmick of the main character's power, but it expands on the idea so much that it keeps you hooked. The art work was also very clean and fun. All in all, while not mind blowing or life changing, i love it in the same way I love Hellboy, namely it's just ridiculously fun to read and look at.

I was really surprised by Chew. Didn't expect anything much but it was more than good. Storytelling wasn't so great (though characterization and plotting are in top 10% of current US mainstream) but drawing was really good.

It's fluid, energetic, executed well and rather refreshing (though someone might comment negatively on it's animation-like quality and rather, hmm, brave usage of color palette).

Though, as far as I can see, from the end of vol. 1 everything goes down the hill. Vol. 3 being the worse of the lot for now...

I absolutely loved this piece!! So much so that I have ordered the other volumes from the library!

I was hooked immediately by the tale, the artwork, and the characters. I can hardly wait for more.

Even the "surprise" gross out only added to the overall feel of the tale.

Loved it!

I was less of the "love it" fan. The premise was interesting to me but as Matko conjectures, I wasn't a big fan of the "animation-like quality" of the artwork. What's this series trying to be? With the whole cannibalism and psychic impressions Chu receives you could really be looking into people's souls. That opens up the possibility of interesting and unexpected revelations on character motivation and feelings. But with this "clean and fun" (thanks Jonathan, see above) artwork the book seems to be stuck in a superficial corrupt police/government story. I expected/wanted something a little darker, but we never got that. At all. So although I enjoyed it, I couldn't get over how much I wanted it to be better.

I can see how one might find the tone of this book to be a little inconsistant. The subject matter is quite dark, but the story is told like a joke. Lots of one liners and punchlines.

I also felt like, at least with volume one, the story might have been more enjoyable in smaller, er, servings. Each issue was written as a jumping-on point, with a lot retread. Bravo to the writer for not "writing for the trade."

Because the writing was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I found Guillory's boisterous artwork to be quite appropriate and enjoyable. Taken too seriously, this subject could get overly macabre. The balance here is perfect.

I did find the side story concerning the love interest to be problematic. That whole episode was like a gross-out romantic comedy, and added little to the ongoing storyline. As a stand-alone issue, it's fun and well-written. As a chapter in this book, it stands out like a sore thumb.

Started Vol 2 yesterday and Vol 3 is sitting in the wings! This is a great little series!

I really liked the book as well. The volume feels to me very much like it is setting the tone, characters and situations that will hopefully be explored further in the series. Like a lot of ongoing series, the book felt a bit fragmented and incomplete as Tony was involved in a new case with each chapter. But there was enough of a tying together of the separate story lines to satisfy me and enough left open to intrigue me and make me want to read on.

Interesting to compare this book to iZombie from Vertigo which has a lead character with a similar power - Gwen a zombie who sees the memories of the person whose brain she eats.

Wesley now I am hungry for iZombie.... Thanks for the nudge.

Just read the fifth story arc recently.....I don't know, it may be just me but it's getting worse by the issue. There are funny and energetic bits every now and then, but it lost its momentum. Too many fillers and meandering without any kind of character development or main plot development that would keep me going.

It keeps doing that single trick pony routine but apparently they still manage to pull it off and keep readers interested enough.

I’m sorry but I have to disagree with most of you guys again.

I thought the story was compelling enough, there were a lot of things happening, so I was kept entertained and the protagonist was likable and unpretentious, I didn’t mind following him around. But I was never blown away by the story.

Using bird flu as a main theme made this feel really dated for me, although this is a pretty recent comic.

About the art, I really didn’t like it even though I like cartoony art. I didn’t connect with Rob Guillory’s style at all, neither with his character designs or the way he draws backgrounds (I should say “doesn’t draw backgrounds”, actually).

Just read this book and I really loved it!!! I will admit that I was a little hestitant about reading this book at first because it looked like a comic that I wouldn't read, but after reading this, I was absolutely blown away by the creative concept of this book! I liked the idea that the main character has powers where he can find out information about the crime scene by tasting the dead bodies and seeing what happened in his mind (sounds gross, but was pretty interesting!) The artwork really fitted well with this type of story and I really can't wait to see more from this series!!!

I read it when it first came out in hardcover, and absolutely love it! It's funny... In a very sick way, I admit. And it just gets funnier with each story arc.

It's unpretentious and makes fun of just about everything; like Southpark, nothing is sacred. I've loaned out both of the volumes I have (I have the volumes that contain TWO regular volumes each) and everyone I've loaned to have become hooked on them.

Part of why we like it, I think, is because these special "powers" are so unlike the Superhero powers, which many of us are just sick to beyond death of. And having a great big laugh is very pleasant, especially when unexpected...

(Though I admit, I was intrigues when I first heard of the premise.) I will be reading all of Chew, however long it runs.

Meran wrote: "I read it when it first came out in hardcover, and absolutely love it! It's funny... In a very sick way, I admit. And it just gets funnier with each story arc.

It's unpretentious and makes fun of ..."

I loved the fact that this super power that Tony has is very unique and it was never set in a superhero setting. I definitely would love to read the rest of this series too!