REVIEW: Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo #1

This week Image Comics drops the final one-shot adventure of the hell ruling rooster, Poyo. Writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory really did try to end this epic on a bang, but fell just short of that. Rob did a fantastic job on the art, but John“s story this time around was just a little sporadic for my taste.

From the first few pages, it is all too clear to how awesome Rob Guillory can be. Going from a fantastical back story of Poyo, to a children“s book, and landing in an Exorcist parody was nothing, but a clear display of his talent. All of his panels were a ton of fun as well, packed with weird Easter eggs and strange interpretations of St. Nick. There were a couple of moments, however, where a page or two would not feel apart of this story, like the transition from a Christmas village to Poyo locked in a cosmic combat. Though this seems more like a problem with the script, than Rob“s art.

As stated before, John had a lot riding on his shoulders for this issue to be big. While he did do a great job sticking to the fantastical world of Chew, something about this issue just felt off. Sticking a Christmas story in the middle of a child“s demonic possession just did not seem well-connected, or thought out.

In the end, John mocks his own plot and leaves the readers with the moral of the trilogy, giving some decent resolution for deal ol“ Poyo. Oh, and Â he did do a killer job of turning that Christmas story into a poem. That, coupled with the vibrant art of Rob, definitely made this final issue unique. Unfortunately, uniqueness does not imply quality. If you are addicted to Chew, or this trilogy, definitely grab this, but otherwise I would wait until the digital version goes on sale. I give Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo #1 2.5 out of 5 stars.

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Author Profile

Dylan Hicks

I just graduated from MSUD with my BAS in Mathematics. I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend, and our two cats. I work full time for NTIA-ITS as a Computer Scientist. All I really do is engineer mathematical models and write code all day. I took up this second job at Comic Crusaders as a way to become more involved with the comic book community. Since I was a child I have loved comics. I grew up reading Spider-Man, Shi, New Mutants, Spider Woman, and Gen13. As I got older, however, my tastes started to shift from almost exclusively Marvel to various independent labels. Now I read a huge variety of comics: Valiant, Black Mask, Aspen, Avatar, Image, Dynamite, Boom, Aftershock, etc.. If anyone wants to know, my favorite publisher, hands down, is Valiant.
I am also working on writing a few comic books myself. I have about 4 ideas in the fire, but only 1 of them is really getting anywhere; I have 6 of the 10 books finished. In addition to writing, I am also a practicing colorist. If you want to checkout any of my writing samples, or coloring samples, please check out my DeviantArt and let me know what you think.
dirtgrubdylan.deviantart.com.
Some more about me? I love black metal and video games. I usually spend most of my time hanging out with my girlfriend. We have been together for 6 years, so at this point she is basically my best friend. But when I am not with her, I get together with my friends to drink some beer and play some Magic, the Gathering. And, as pretentious as this is, I am also working on starting my own engineering firm. So that involves me reading a lot of textbooks on Mathematics and Computer Science.
So yeah, if you have made it this far thank you very much! I am crazy excited to start my career in writing. Let's see what I can do with this.