Publisher: Outlaw Entertainment
Writer: Jason M. Burns
Artist: Dustin Evans
Price: $ 7.99 US
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Comments: The International Imaginary Persons Bureau is real and they need Rex (an Indiana Jones look alike) to handle a rogue imaginary friend who wants more than to just be an imaginary friend. Valentine wants more out of life. Rex's team is an odd bunch. A kid, a beauty queen, a skeleton and a clown, yes a clown make up the team. The oddest part though is that this team is made up of and lead by people that do not really exist. They even have a man/elk on the team. This is the strangest team of heroes you are ever likely to see. This odd ball team is drawn oddly. They appear as one mismatched group.
As the story advances the little red haired girl is so cute in her actions. She doesn't say a lot but contributes much. Touring the imaginary world of imaginary friends takes you on a wild ride through a land that only exists in your mind. The Boogeyman even an imaginary one can be scary. He preys on your fears. He knows what you fear most.
Shift Valentine our villain here is full of surprises. The land of imaginary friends just keeps getting weirder and weirder. You will not see any of this coming.
The characters are all fun and amusing to follow along with. The art matches the story telling perfectly. The humor is laced throughout this fantasy adventure. It will hold you, you will not be able to put this down from page one.
Original Review at: http://forums.jazmaonline.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1061
Turns out, those imaginary friends you had when you were a child are real, and they all work for the International Imaginary Persons Bureau. Thanks to the advancements in the video game industry, the demand for imaginary friends has gone down in recent years and the IIPB has suffered losses. Despite these budgets cuts, there are still several committed imaginary people out there, making a difference through children's creativity.
Rex is the best he is at what he does. Garbed like Indiana Jones, it is no surprise that Rex happens to be the primo adventure junkie in the Imaginary circuit, so when Swift Valentine (a rogue Imaginary person whose former real world friends include Charles Manson and Hitler) decides to try and invade the Real World, the head of the IIPB calls Rex to help save the world, both real and imaginary. Yet this is no ordinary assignment, so Mr. Arm introduces Rex to his new teammates.
In a comic about imaginary people, one would expect an eclectic and random assortment of characters, and the author does not disappoint. There's Deer John, half man, half deer with a perpetual surly expression on his face; Bones Magee lives up to his namesake and is the annoying wisecrack of the crew; Jojo the clown isn't very jolly, but is a deft hand at balloon animals; Veronica is the imaginary friend of any hetero male who has reached puberty and beyond; little Cindy has been the friend of traumatized children for years, and in absorbing their anger and despair became the most powerful imaginary person in existence.
They all have their own special talents, strengths and personal hang ups which combine to create a lively, bickering and occasionally affectionate team who defy the odds, face off with the Boogeyman and confront the evil Swift Valentine over the fate of all creation.
Rife with pop culture references and clever quips, Burns does an excellent job of keeping the reader laughing at the believable ridiculousness of the crew, groaning at Bones Magee's cheesy jokes, and staring speechlessly at a few particularly grotesque scenes. Burns starts with a unique concept and maintains the excitement with entertaining dialogue and unexpected surprises. Evans's art displays a nice balance between comic and cartoon styles, offering slightly exaggerated features appropriately tempered with realistic proportions. Rex is just as sharp as the hero who's closet he raided, and Valentine is one damn creepy character, both in looks and personality.
IMAGINARY FRIENDS is definitely a horse of a different color, a darkly humorous and weird ride which is hard to put down. For anyone who grew up with an imaginary friend, or was jealous of the people who did, this is a comic guaranteed to either corrupt cherished memories or bring them back with a wry smile on your smile.
Avril Brown
Original Review at: http://reviews.comicswaitingroom.com/2009/05/07/imaginary-friends.aspx
Writer: Jason M. Burns
Artist: Dustin Evans
When I was a kid, my imagination worked overtime. I didn't have one imaginary friend who followed me around for years at a time, but I could create not just characters, but entire worlds with just a little creative visualization. Not once did I stop to think about why I was doing this, and what the type of situations my imagination put me in said about who I was. Imaginary Friends made me think about all of this, even though I am now in my twenties and have long outgrown playing make-believe. That is only one of the things I loved about this book.
Imagine, if you will, that all imaginary friends not only exist in an alternative imaginary dimension, but that most of them work for the International Imaginary Persons Bureau (IIPB), an organization that assigns and tracks imaginary friends. Within the IIPB, Rex Montana is an exceptional employee. An explorer who appears to be modeled after Indiana Jones, Rex is usually befriended by children looking for adventure, which he knows how to deliver. It is because of his abilities that Rex is assigned a special mission, and not alone: a ragtag bunch of misfits will be joining him, and the fate of the real world lies within his imaginary hands.
The wacky but surprisingly deep characters are another thing that makes Imaginary Friends such a great read. There's Jojo, a clown who is afraid of clowns and can make anything out of balloons; Veronica, a beauty queen who can conjure any kind of meat out of thin air, is every man's fantasy; Bones, a skeleton prone to breaking apart who comes with an instruction manual; half-man, half-deer Deer John; and finally, Cindy, an adorably precocious and shockingly powerful friend who refuses to speak. All of them have been brought into existence for very different reasons, but their current goal is the same: to stop rogue figment Shift Valentine, who has found a way to cross over into the real world. Shift's diabolical plans will destroy the real world, thus giving the imaginary friends no reason to exist.
Writer Jason M. Burns did a terrific job of making this story come to life. There is plenty of humor within these pages, but there are also plenty of dark and disturbing moments. The artwork of Dustin Evans is a perfect compliment to the tone of the story. Much like the group of imaginary friends themselves, the book is deceptively innocent, but soon gives way to much deeper themes. Evans can handle these subtle distinctions, creating a visual world that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.
The Imaginary Friends trade paperback hits comic shops in July, and at $7.99 it's definitely worth picking up.
View the original review at: http://thequarterbin.com/?p=5855
