A review by crookedtreehouse
Chew, Vol. 7: Bad Apples by John Layman
5.0
When a comic book or graphic novel takes a turn involving the plot or a main character going from happy-go-lucky, to driven and vengeful, the colors of the book almost always go from bright and shiny to thick lines and muted colors. A literal darkening or muddying of tones (see Marvel's entire comic line during Dark Reign).
The end of volume six heralded a huge shift in tone for Chew. The humor is still there, the wacky plots and food powers are still being introduced at a gatling gun pace, but the lead character, Tony Chu, has grown and is interacting with the world in a more focused way.
Rob Guillory not only pencils and inks Chew, he also does the colors, and while his entire run on this book has been gorgeous, bold, and unique, it's in this volume that the coloring game goes up several notches. When a character is out of phase with who they used to be (not always literally, often just as a result of character growth), they are colored to look out of place, not muted or shadowed, but differently colored.
I don't always pick up on artistic details like this on first read unless the process is obvious or clumsy. This book is neither but I noticed early on that Guillory was ramping up his art as Layman was ramping up the plot. It's truly impressive that a series that started this good, continues to get even better.
The end of volume six heralded a huge shift in tone for Chew. The humor is still there, the wacky plots and food powers are still being introduced at a gatling gun pace, but the lead character, Tony Chu, has grown and is interacting with the world in a more focused way.
Rob Guillory not only pencils and inks Chew, he also does the colors, and while his entire run on this book has been gorgeous, bold, and unique, it's in this volume that the coloring game goes up several notches. When a character is out of phase with who they used to be (not always literally, often just as a result of character growth), they are colored to look out of place, not muted or shadowed, but differently colored.
I don't always pick up on artistic details like this on first read unless the process is obvious or clumsy. This book is neither but I noticed early on that Guillory was ramping up his art as Layman was ramping up the plot. It's truly impressive that a series that started this good, continues to get even better.