Madame Xanadu #28

Written by Matt Wagner
Art by Marian Churchland

I haven't been all that interested in this title, but when I saw that this issue was a one-off featuring art by Marian Churchland, I knew that I'd be picking it up.

Churchland is the creator of The Beast, a very interesting graphic novel, and is an equally interesting artist.  Her watercolour (I assume) approach to her art is perfect for this story of Carly, a young medical student who, in New York in 1966, decides to experiment with LSD with her boyfriend.

Their trip has consequences for Carly - afterwards, she suffers from Tony Chu-like flashes of memory caused by everything she eats.  Basically, she becomes a cibopath, and finds that she can't eat or drink anything at all (I guess she didn't try beets).  That the story is so remarkably similar to the premise of Chew, the indie darling comic series, doesn't really detract from things here; the two stories are very different.

For a comic that is supposed to be about Madame Xanadu, she plays only a very peripheral role here, but the story is intriguing and quite beautiful.  Had the series started out like this (the next issue will be the last), I would have bought its entire run.