A whole new year, indeed, decade, will spring many exciting announcements from the Monster Caves – and I for one am giddy with excitement!

Even in the dank caves we managed to get our grubby mitts on some excellent books which we’ll review over the next few months. I was delighted to read a graphic novel called CHEW, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (published by Image Comics)  I’m always on the look out for something unusual to trigger my brain cells (I find it  helps to ensure my ideas are original and fresh), and this was exactly what I needed!

CHEW follows the career of Tony Chu, a detective with a rather cool (and stomach churning) secret: he’s Cibopathic… which means he gets a psychic impression from whatever he eats.  If he eats an orange, he has visions of the orchard, the person who picked the orange, etc.  If he eats a hamburger, Chu gets more gruesome visions of the cow’s life… right up to the slaughterhouse…

In a world where bird flu has caused a global pandemic, chicken is now off the menu.  The police now are forced to stop illegal chicken kitchens and the mob’s underground chicken movement – criminal activities that inevitably lead to murder.  This is were Chu’s powers come into play – when the police have a rotting putrefying finger for evidence, the only way they can trace the killer is if Chu takes a nibble from the rotting digit…

CHEW is not for the squeamish, aimed towards teenage or older readers – but it’s great original fun!