David Yurkovich Death by Chocolate: Redux

Annotation

On a visit to a peculiar candy factory in Switzerland, a tourist falls into a vat of liquid chocolate that's infused with an alien life form. Mutated into a being of pure chocolate, with the power to similarly transform objects and even other humans, he goes on a criminal rampage. Captured, he is convinced to use his strange abilities to benefit humanity via the FBI's Food-Crime Division. Newly christened Agent Swete, he and his partner investigate such paranormal cases as the theft of the Eternity Pasta (the key to everlasting life) and the appearance of a talking dog from an alternate universe. Touching various comics genres--crime, sf, superheroes--without fitting comfortably in any of them, Yurkovich's bizarre tale is told largely in first-person narration that goes well with the artwork's noirish tone. Yurkovich's distinctive drawing style is jarringly angular, with figures bordering on abstraction; he anchors the outlandish proceedings by presenting the drawings in standard-comics-style rectilinear panels. This fanciful hard-boiled saga should appeal to those who prefer their chocolate dark.