Well the Holidays are coming up and in this newest issue of Chew, Tony and his pals are celebrating Thanksgiving, a holiday that requires family to get together and enjoy a cooked bird. How appropriate considering that eating bird is prohibited by the F.D.A. so you know this is going to be a great day for our pal Tony.
The issue starts with Mason Savoy enjoying his own Thanksgiving meal complete with wine, cheese, and a chunk of Tony’s ear that he bit off several issues ago. As Savoy chews the chunk of meat he uses his cibopathic abilities to see all of Tony’s loved ones and focuses in on a girl that we are not yet familiar with. Cut to Tony’s family home where he is given a very cold greeting from his older sister and brother in law. Then Tony’s fraternal twin, Antonelle jumps through the door tackling her brother, despite the tension in the family Antonelle, or Toni, is the peace keeper of the house and makes sure everyone gets along for the holiday. We are then introduced to the rest of the family, including a transvestite younger brother and Tony’s eldest brother Chow who is suffering from a broken jaw thanks to Tony. By the way the next person to to ring the bell happens to be a process server who serves Tony with a subpoena stating Chow is suing Tony over the jaw-breaking incident.
Just when things couldn’t get any more awkward Tony’s partner Colby shows up with Tony’s girlfriend Amelia. Colby makes himself at home and starts chatting away with Toni while Tony and Amelia try to fumble their way through a reconciliation after Amelia found a frozen toe in Tony’s freezer that belonged to his psychotic ex-girlfriend. We are now introduced to the girl that Savoy saw in his vision, her name is Olive and while she is willing to greet Colby she walks away the second Tony wishes her a happy Thanksgiving. Then it’s time for dinner, the whole family sits down for grace which is the responsibility of the oldest male, but Chow is incapacitated and the duty now falls to Tony. Tony barely gets past his his opening about how illegal turkey is when a loud crash is heard outside. Tony runs outside to see two cars that crashed head-first into each other, he checks on the people involved and then looks into the sky to see what distracted the drivers, a giant ray beam flying through the sky. As Tony’s family comes outside to check on it, Tony takes this poorly chosen opportunity to introduce Amelia to Olive, his daughter.
That’s the end of the third story-arc, Just Desserts and while it wasn’t as climactic as I would have expected, it was another great issue that has set up book four very well. I love how absolutely crazy Tony’s family is, and even when he has a transvestite brother with a stage name of “Miso Honey” Tony is still the black sheep of the family. Everything in this issue is so awkward and funny it just makes for a great read. And finding out that Tony has a teenage daughter was pretty big wrench to throw in, I’m curious to see where she came from. Lastly I have to mention the cover of this book, it’s a giant fold-out cover depicting the characters in a “Last Supper” scenario, which has been done before, but is really cool to see with these characters drawn by Rob Guillory. And the book is still only $2.99, I know what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving!
Ken Zeider
Ken@ComicImpact.com