I am a professional sous chef and chef instructor (and life-long comic book collector), examine ways comic books, geek culture and food crossover. Today we’ll be looking at the first issue of Richard Starkings and Tyler Shaneline’s The Beef.
What’s Your Beef?
Published by Image Comics, The Beef examines the way food can affect a small town. The Beef is not only a local chain restaurant. It’s also the name of the restaurant’s slaughter house. It is the town of Mudsville’s main source of income and employment. For decades, the owner of The Beef has been a ruthless tyrant, by the name of Vodino, upon his employees and his neighbors. He’s also not afraid to run afoul of the Health Department or the FDA using chemicals to make his beef more addicting. His grandson, G-Row is the town bully, having grown up very little since his school days.
The focus of most of G-Row’s abuse is a young man named Chuck Carter. His father was maimed and later died working at the processing plant. Now Carter is following in his old man’s food steps, being his family’s soul breadwinner after his pop’s untimely death. Chuck’s daily diet has been the burger and fries at The Beef. Decades of chemicals and questionable sanitation appear to be causing havoc within his body. But how much havoc has been caused thanks to The Beef is anybody’s guess.
You are what you eat. And whatever Chuck has become from eating The Beef regularly will be explored further in the remaining four issues of this miniseries.
Welcome to the Jungle
This new series by Richard Starking (Elephantmen) and Tyler Shaneline (Liberty Justice) reminds me of the 1906 novel written by Upton Sinclair: The Jungle. The classic novel was written by Sinclair, a socialist progressive who wanted to expose the cruel labor practices of the meat-packing industry, especially towards immigrants. Instead, his depictions of employees falling into meat grinders and being made into sausages lead the public to demand change. Within a few months, Congress passed a series of acts that created the FDA and the departments that now oversee the inspection of meats and poultry.
Sinclair famously has lamented his unintended influence on government by saying, ‘I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.’
Throughout this first issue, Starkings incorporates factoids about the questionable chemicals in our food. I didn’t know until reading this issue and later fact checking that genes from certain fish have been spliced into strawberries in order to protect the plants from frost. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to eat tuna-fied fruit. But when it comes to The Beef, I think the opposite effect is going to take place.
The Heart of the Matter
Featuring art by A-Men‘s Shaky Kane, this book has an every-man feel to it. Readers could easily put themselves in the shoes of both the victims and tormentors to clearly see all sides of the story. Plus, the realistic packed meat tin on the cover, by Comicraft’s John Roshell, makes this story seem that much more real and ominous.
However, it’s the workers that are picking the berries that I think are going to resonate more with readers. There’s a young Dreamer named Mary-Lynn whom Chuck is in love with. She’s accosted by G-Row and nearly killed when a prank orchestrated by him goes awry. I really think in this current political landscape, it’s the treatment of the workers, especially immigrants both legal and undocumented, that might inspire readers of The Beef to step up for change.
I think through The Beef, Starkings and Shaneline are trying to hit comic readers in their stomachs. But considering how brutal he makes the Vodino family appear and how ultra-sympathetic I was towards both Chuck and Mary-Lynn, I feel that by the end of issue #5, the authors are going to strike at our hearts instead.
The Beef #1 debuted in stores and digital plat forms on February 28th, 2018.
The Beef #1
Writer: Richard Starkings, Tyler Shaneline
Art by Shaky Kane
Cover by John Roshell
Published by Image Comics.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
