Rating: 4/5 – Imaginary friends can be a real threat.
What if all the imaginary friends that kids had were real? Further, what happens to those IFs when the child gets older & stops believing in them (or, more appropriately, hits the age where they suddenly just can’t see/interact with them any more)? That’s where the I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Agents come in. Their job is to keep a handle on IFs, kind of like the Men in Black do with aliens on Earth. IMAGINE, by the way, is an acronym for Institute of the Management, Acclimation, Guardianship and Incarceration of Notional Entities. The Agents get the IFs acclimated to their lives without their child companions OR they lock them up.
Brian Joins has created a series here that is just plain fun. We follow our main character Elliott and his IF Furdlegurr as they run afoul of a plot by the evil IF Dapple who has a nefarious plan to take revenge on the humans who he feels have abandoned him and other IFs. Elliott is apprehensive in this issue about the whereabouts of Furdlegurr who never returned after his encounter with Dapple in issue #1. Elliott isn;t going to take Furdlegurr’s disappearance lying down, like any great kid starring in an adventure story. He’s off to set matters right and that provides the hook for the action that will wrap up in issues #3 and 4 to come.
Joines has created a really wonderfully fun world here. Another truly “all ages” comic that can be enjoyed by young and old equally without talking down to younger readers like so many kids comics tend to. This would be a great book to read to your kids, with your kids, or (if you don’t have kids) just read it to reignite the kid in all of us.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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