It'd be difficult to find a comic out there with a premise as dementedly original as this one, or one that follows through to the outer limits of the surreal logic of that premise. Tony Chu is a cibopath - whenever he eats something he gets sensations of what that thing experiences when it was alive. Since Chu is also a cop, this sounds like a particularly odd pitch for a procedural, special powers being used to solve weekly murders. It starts out that way, sort of, but by the time we reach the end of volume one, it's already heading out for shores unknown to any police procedural ever seen on this planet before.

In the world of Chew, chicken has been banned after an outbreak of avian flu. After a bloody encounter in a chicken speakeasy reveals his gift, Chu is drafted into the FDA, whereupon things start to get really weird and sinister not to mention grotesque and violent, but mostly hilarious. Poor Chu's gift is a terrible one, but the story twists and turns and veers of constantly in unexpected directions and can go from madcap to heartbreakingly horrifying in a single panel transition. At the end of this volume one, Chu is sorer, sadder, but not much wiser about what the heck is going on. Chew is a wild ride, and it's barely getting started.