A deadly plague has killed millions of Americans, and the official explanation from the federal government is a particularly nasty outbreak of avian flu. As a result, all domestic and game fowl have been branded as unfit for human consumption, and the production and distribution of poultry meat has become a serious felony. Enforcement of these new laws has fallen on the Food and Drug Administration, which has since become the most powerful arm of the government.
Tony Chu is a detective in this chicken-free world. He’s also a cibopath, which means he gets psychic visions from anything that he eats (except for beets, which, for some reason, are free of mojo vibes). This ability serves him well in busting poultry-based criminals, but Chu discovers that it can also be used in more conventional police work: any time he needs to find out more about who a murder victim is or what a perp is hiding, he can simply take a bite out of them and find out.
This revelation during an otherwise routine chicken-smuggling bust catches the attention of the FDA, and Chu is recruited and offered the chance to see what his cannibalistic ability can really do. From there, he begins to discover how deep the rabbit hole really goes: are there more people like him? What’s the real story behind the bird flu outbreak? Why are some members of the government so interested in an Earth-like planet light-years away? Will his new bosses ever stop asking him to snack on half-decomposed body parts?
Tell me this isn’t awesome.
The description sounds like bizarro fiction, but Layman plays everything as straight as it can be, and the resulting volume is both as funny as it sounds and surprisingly suspenseful. Most of the collected issues are fairly grim and exceedingly gory, but they never inch past the realm of believability, and never get quite to the point where the reader is forced to take things too seriously. Layman manages to create something that is over-the-top without being campy, and high-concept without being self-important. Guillory’s artwork complements the story perfectly, with an angular, occasionally grimy feel that’s just cartoonish enough to carry a note of the ridiculous.
This is the most fun I’ve had with a comic in years, and I’m sad that it took me this long to discover it.
Verdict: 5 / 5
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