(H/T Angry Asian Man)
It’s stuff like this that makes me wish I had the money and time to go to Comic-Con. Turns out that this year in San Diego, Circle of Confusion (the same production company bringing us this year’s AMC TV series based on The Walking Dead) is also working on a TV series adaptation of Chew.
Chew is an amazing, and incredibly funny, comic that follows protagonist Tony Chu, who is “cibopathic”. That is, he gets psychic impressions from any food that he eats (… except, weirdly, beets…). Chu uses those abilities to solve crimes — including murder. (You can use your imagination to figure out how he does that.) Chu lives in a world where chicken has been outlawed due to a mass outbreak of avian flu, where fried chicken is sold on the black market in underground fine dining bistros, and where the FDA is the most powerful agency in the United States.
Chew‘s first few issues were so wildly popular, that they (and their reprints) immediately sold out. The series has also since won an Eisner Award for “Best New Series”. I first caught onto Chew when it was reprinted in full with a Walking Dead issue (explained in the letters section as a decision reflecting the high demand for the first issue). Since then, the first three issues of Chew are as hard to come by as two drumsticks and a wing — pretty much the only way to catch up on the series is through the book’s two trades.
What’s striking to me about Chew is how strongly Tony Chu visually and narratively embodies his inspiration, actor Ken Leung. In fact, the whole series exudes the kind of straight man, sardonic wit that Leung brings to each of his on-screen roles — which demonstrates the strength of the writing in the books. Couple that with the rich detail of the dark, chicken-less world in which Chu lives, and you’ve got yourself pure comic book genius.
So, with Circle of Confusion working on bringing Chew to television, I’m not even going to entertain the possibility that Tony Chu’s character will be white-washed. Twenty bucks down says that when Chew goes into the casting process, Ken Leung’s agent will be the first person called.
And who couldn’t use more Ken Leung on TV?
