THE BEEF

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics

Writers richard starkings, Tyler shainline Artist shaky Kane

This five-issue miniseries utilises Shaky Kane’s pop art-inspired graphic style to subversive ends.

Chuck Carter has spent a humdrum life working in a slaughterhouse; he kills cows, eats burgers and drinks endless amounts of soda. When some local yokels harass the object of his unrequited love, Mary-Lynn, the combination of rage and his diet transforms him into a sort of corned beef Incredible Hulk, armed with “the power of the cow!”

The Beef is as subtle in its politics as it is in its eyeballpopping colours. Richard Starkings and Tyler Shainline’s script is a blunt satire of rampant capitalism, combined with a detailed examination of the everyday horror of the meat industry. Expect to see pages of blood, gristle and some fairly memorable depictions of cattle insemination.

It is, for the most part, very funny, the tone sitting somewhere between Golden Age superhero books and the snark of 2000 AD. That said, not every joke lands – a brutal cop who speaks entirely in The Smiths quotes is funny for a page, but hangs around for an entire issue. And while the book strives to make a point about how women are treated like meat, it’s undermined by the tendency to linger on Mary-Lynn’s breasts. The result is a well-intentioned comic that misses the mark as often as it hits.