It’s funny how this series is celebrating the 15th issue, of all things. But then you realize that we’re already 1/4th of the way done with this series! It’s weird to even think that an amazing series like this has an endpoint but it does. So this celebration of the series so far seems well worth it. In fact, what am I saying? It is worth it! For fourteen issues, Chew has been easily the best comic on the stands today (with Sweet Tooth a very close second). We also have to remember that this is the final issue in the ‘Just Desserts’ arc. So can this issue end an arc with a bang and also give us something to root for the future?

One thing that makes me curious about the apparent TV adaptation is that: Can it deliver on the visual humor that this comic is known for? Rob Guillory is just a force when it comes to giving us so much detail with each panel but also giving us ‘hidden’ jokes to find.  Guillory is seriously on his ‘A’ game with this issue. Yes a lot of the jokes present here are by Layman’s own script; but the way Guillory draws them is so hilarious. Stuff like drawing Chu’s entire family or Applebee depressed at his home gets even funnier with his art. But, once again, there are a ton of easter eggs and hidden jokes to find with this issue. My favorite?

On page seventeen look at the newspaper headline framed on the wall: “CHOW ELECTED HONOARY MAYOR OF AWESOME TOWN”

Guillory does some amazing sequences though in each issue. I defy you to tell me that the opening sequence with Savoy doesn’t knock your socks off. Just a visually impressive feat by him and if it doesn’t get him the Eisner then I will sue!

Let me not ignore the fantastic writing that John Layman gives us here though. When he isn’t giving us some hilarious sequences in here; he is giving us amazing character development and revelations. I seriously gasped at the end of this issue because I was not expecting it. (It also implies Tony is much older then originally thought…) But Layman seems to have a knack with the character interactions and when the plot continues to move along he gives us some weird developments in the plot. I’m not sure what is happening at the end of the issue (also brilliantly drawn by Guillory) but it’s gonna be something huge for issues to come I’m sure of it.

I’ve made this series my pick of the week five times now. This series gives me everything I would want in a comic book. It delivers on the laughs, the action, a complex plot, and also gives me some of the best art in a comic book period. Just think of it: we’re ONLY a 1/4th of the way finished but Layman/Guillory has given us plotlines that could’ve spanned an entire series. I cannot wait to see where these two men are gonna take us for the next 1/4th of this series.