Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Vol. 4

Chew Omnivore Edition #4

by John Layman, Rob Guillory (Illustrations)

A glorious Hardcover collection of CHEW #31-#40 with all the fixin's.

Anthony and Antonelle Chu are fraternal twins. Tony and Toni. Each with their an extraordinary, albeit diametrically opposed, ability. Tony is Cibopathic, able to get psychic sensations of the past of anything he bites into or ingests. Toni is Cibovoyant, able to flash onto a vision of the future of any living thing she bit into or ingested. Tony is alive. Toni is dead. Toni has been murdered. Tony has vowed to catch her killer. Toni is going to help.

Presenting a new storyline of the New York Times Best Selling, Harvey and multiple Eisner Award-winning series about cops, crooks, cooks, cannibals, and clairvoyants.

Collects issues 31-40.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Comic Book, Fantasy

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 29, 2014

About the author

John Steele Layman is an American comic book writer and letterer. Layman is most known for writing Chew, published by Image Comics.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this graphic novel series - it's ridiculous and makes me laugh. Next please!

[JT · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of the volumes so far. I laughed out loud so many times. There was a lot of great moments. Only complaint... we needed more of POYO!

[Torie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing and the art pair perfectly. I laughed out loud a few times throughout this book and have become thoroughly charmed by the zany world they live in. Really love all the characters and the storyline. I’m so glad I started this.

[Michael Stockinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sick, wrong, and bizarre. I loved every minute of it!

[Soteralzobooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 biblio

[A. Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did re-read the end of Volume 3 to remind myself of what was going on but this volume was definitely a fun one. Chew always has great humour and a high level of entertainment and this is no exception. A great continuation of the series and now I extra can't wait for the next volume!!

[Alex Memus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge improvement over the last book, but at least I won't have nightmares after this one. It doesn't introduce anything new and beats to death its EGG and Yamapalu bits. But at least Olive gest some action and Colby and Chu get a good trip (is this book pro or anti psychedelics propaganda in the end?)

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
Hot damn, if this isn't one of the most spectacularly consistent comics stories I've read in quite some time. And whilst volume four might ever so slightly be my least favourite of the four so far, the standard has remained stratospherically high since it started. Seriously, how many indie books have you read that have gone on for forty issues with little to no drop in overall quality. Not very fricken' many, that's how many. Robs art continues to be stellar, with John's tight, focused and rather endearing scripts (that also quite clearly are working towards a resolution he had in mind all along), continue to keep this funny little funny book ticking along quite nicely. I expected the wheels to have fallen off and the quality to have dropped a while back. Here's to the final two volumes maintaining this standard, and we'll have ourselves an all timer for sure. 4/5


OmniBen.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh that cliff hanger, so annoying.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a long time off after issue 30, and I'm glad I did—glad also that I came back. But I think the book worked a lot better as a result of letting the end of issue 30 sit for a while.

[Ville-Markus Nevalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having read the top reviews of this edition, I feel like I'm being gaslighted or something. I really, really loved the beginning of Chew, but now feel as if they are trying to pump out as much of it as they can while the demand is still high. To me, that's the worst fate it can have. The concise story arcs in the beginning where little was revealed at a time and all felt as if they were tied together is long gone in favor of Flavor of the Week (pun intended) villain or power or anything while the main story moves at a snail's pace. And, personally, the sidestories seem to just get more and more bizzare and not in that good, quirky way.

It's gotten to the point that the few callbacks to previous things seem bizarre and almost off-putting, instead of being cool, "Damn, I was waiting for them to come back to it"-moments. The splash pages are more and more numerous and unfortunately they don't have the same wow-effect as they previously had, perhaps because as I see them, I know that its cannibalizing more and more story in favor of a wow-so-fun-Poyo poster.

And I know that I'm starting to sound like a guy who hates fun, but it's not that - I just miss the original story that had a ton of potential and questions that are still unanswered and that feel like they are never going to go anywhere. The cliffhangers feel like desperate attempts to push it off for another issue instead of truly feeling deserved. It's gotten to the point from where I first envisioned this as a great HBO-show with a quirky premise to where I just want to find out what it was all about and if there were any answers to begin with.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chew just gets better and better. The fourth volume of the Omnivore Edition, featuring Bad Apples and Family Recipe has the same quirky humour to which we've become accustomed and each chapter has its own short case for one of the main characters to work through. We also see parts of the longer story arcs come together, as Gallsaberries, the Avian Flu, the "Vampire", chicken baron Montero, the mysterious writing in the sky and NASA all start to be woven together that little bit more. But what makes this volume stand out is the depth of feeling it generates as Tony Chu works through his grief for the death of his sister Toni while simultaneously trying to revive his relationship with his daughter, Olive.

Layman's writing is fantastic and blends seamlessly with Guillory's artwork. Guillory has captured the characters emotions flawlessly bringing individuality and life to each. He also peppers the pages with jokes and visual cues that help readers put together events and their relative significance. The whole thing is just brilliant.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. The main story about the Cibopath Agent Chu in the FDA after the chicken apocalypse is brilliantly absurd and super fun! Main characters are well written and the plot line is more or less in constant development.

Sadly the series as a whole is somewhat difficult to read due to psychedelic trips into nonsense.

The first 40ish isues of Chew are just excellent ranging from 4 to 5 stars - but around vol 8 the absurdist side stories about devilish cyberneticly enhanced fda animal agents takes the series a bit of a detour towards unreadable - maybe if you kick some of those psychedelic chogs you’d be able to keep up but alas - I didn’t have any available. Vol 11 / issues 49-55 remedy the nonsensical a bit and land on 3 stars but the last 10 issues are also marred with sporadic detours away from the center story about Agent Chu into Hell ect and land on 2 stars.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that Layman and Guillory brought some heavy drama to the series and I'm still blown away with how well the world of Chew manages to blend genres and does so with its patent Chew charm. While it could have focused a bit more on the family element for the ending, it has all the usual enjoyable things that you have come to love from this series and that won't distract you at all. Rob Guillroy's art is, as usual, amazing. A perfect half-pair to Layman's whimsical writing style if there ever was one. If you have been reading the series up to this point, the quality remains as great as always, with its unique looking characters and their neat expressions and amusing sight gags.

[Kyle Spishock · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Tony in mourning, this is where the series hits a slight snag. There’s some good content here - Mason Savoy’s Silence of the Lambs prison break, Tony hallucinating to continue communicating with his late twin sister Toni - but the repetition of jokes that used to be original and creative art that used to be eye-popping starts to feel like filler until the inevitable ending. The consultation by the spirit of his sister are heartbreaking; the lack of forward progress on the detective’s learnings about The Vampire’s weaknesses can be frustrating.

[Myra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am far too amused by these books, really. I did get a bit annoyed by all of the extra characters with special skills (and the corresponding really bizarre names for the skills), but I still really enjoy this series. I especially love the little extra humor hidden in the pictures. You really need to read the book, and then go back through it and just study all of the art. So much embedded humor in there.

[Adam Spanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazingly funny and creative team of Layman and Guillory have done it again. Volume 4 of Chew is just as exciting and mysterious as all previous volumes. Get into this story now and you won't regret it. The Omnivore Editions are as cheaply priced and overly beautiful as you can get. Image Comics great production continues as these books are made to last.

[Mee Too · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are fun, albeit a bit redundant. I feel like the humor and ideas start to dry out a bit on these long running GN. I couldn't imagine purchasing these for a book collection.

I honestly believe it could have just been one really good graphic novel, and i understand people gotta make their money.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's starting to get weird for weird's sake and convoluted. The "food-abilities" are getting goofy and repetitive. "This guy can make weapons out of chocolate." "This guy can make weapons out of... uh, let's say, Jell-o." It's not as funny the third or fourth time.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked how much Chu progressed in this book.
Real rating: 4.5 stars: Too little poyo ;)

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how Olive is bonding with Amelia. So really cool art done in other styles. Great extras at end.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this series to the end, but found it to pall about half-way through. In the end the jokes were quite irritating.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

My least favorite of the series so far.

[Cameo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy this series!

[Matt Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man. When I wanted Chew, this is the volume I wanted. This had everything, the emotional pathos, the wacky bananas, the driving plot, Olive, Toni. God yes. I am so energized.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chu using all the drug stuff was a little slow, but the rest of the book was really great.

[Seroxx83 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Matthew WK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is where the series really turned the corner from 4 to 5 stars! So much goodness here and some of my favorite issues with the psychedelic chogs!

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't get enough of these!

El Pollo FOREVER!!

[Mohammed Awais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a fun series!