Chew Volume 6: Space Cakes - Book Review

Post

Subscribe

"Antonelle Chu, agent of NASA. I'm here to lick your paintings sir."

When mysterious fiery writing appeared in the sky, visible all over the world, overnight NASA became the most powerful government agency on the planet. This is good news for Toni Chu, an agent of the Science Crimes division of NASA, and twin sister of Tony, former FDA agent and hero of the story so far. Like her brother, Toni has a mysterious, food-related ability. She is cibovoyant, meaning that when she bites into something alive she has visions of upcoming events in the being's life. As this only works with living things, it isn't particularly useful in her job the way her brother's ability is in his. On the plus side, this means that nobody has ever forced her to bite into the corpses of former baseball stars to find out the sordid details of their love lives.

In this volume, we follow Toni's exploits for a while, as Tony is in hospital after the injuries he suffered during his kidnapping in Chew Volume 5: Major League . Toni agrees to help her older brother, Chow, the former TV chef to investigate a case of suspected art fraud, although she doesn't really see what the case has to do with her or why Chow is involved. The paintings in question are the work of a 'sabiopictor', who has the ability to make paintings taste like the thing they depict. This makes the painter ideal prey for a mysterious figure known as 'the vampire', a cibopath from Serbia who drinks blood instead of eating bites of people to learn about them and gain their abilities. The vampire considers himself a collector, and is a threat to anyone with powers, including the Chu twins.

Toni also has to contend with the ongoing issues around chogs, the genetically engineered chicken-frog hybrids created to get around the laws against chicken, as they have now cross-bred with hallucinogenic frogs. This volume also contains exploding cows, a mysterious rain of sheep and the return of Secret Agent Poyo, the seriously badass cybernetic rooster, who might just have a taste for chogs.

Chew Volume 6: Space Cakes is as weird, complicated, funny and violent as ever, but also just a tiny bit heartbreaking. Tony Chu will return in Chew Volume 7: Bad Apples.

Published: 2012

#book-reviews
#books-writing
#comics
#misc
#arts_culture
%wneverywhere


More articles by Jennifer Muirhead:
Chew Volume 7: Bad Apples
Chew Volume 8: Chicken Tenders
Chew Volume 11: Last Suppers
Chew Volume 12: Sour Grapes
Ever After - Book Review