The Toy Box #1

Written by Kevin Grevioux

Art and cover by Javier Giangiacomo

 

"Where do old toys go when you grow up?" the cover of this new Alias series asks. The answer’s within: If you're like Tommy's dad, when you grow up your toys go into a magic sea chest that once belonged to Santa Claus, and there they'll magically go to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, waiting for you to save them.

 

Creator Kevin Grevioux writes this all-ages fantasy, and when I say "all-ages" I mean it in the way that the rest of the comics industry usually does, as "for kids." As an adult, I admired some of Grevioux's ideas and artist Javier Giangiacomo's craftsmanship, but couldn't get into the story. The feeling that this is not for me, but a little kid instead, wouldn't leave me, and some of the gags and attempts at a moral were so obvious that it was clear they were meant for someone who hasn't seen decades' worth of films and TV shows already.

 

The book opens with a double fake-out, something I didn't notice until a second reading, so perhaps a single one would have sufficed. We see some nice-looking toys making a final stand against some evil-looking toys, and then on the next page we're in Tommy's imagination, where he's sidekick to a hero that looks suspiciously like his father, fighting off alien invaders. Turns out it's all in his imagination; he was just playing with his toys.

 

Outside his imagination, he thinks his dad hates him because he's always telling him not to spend so much time playing and to start paying more attention to his chores and responsibilities. Meanwhile, Santa Claus and an elf are combing the neighborhood for a magic sea chest they lost, and Tommy's Grandpa finds an old toy box full of Tommy's dad's old toys (the ones we saw at the opening). By the climax, father and son both find themselves trapped inside the chest, in a land of toys called Hobbyville.

 

Grevioux has a great idea for an adventure here in almost any medium, and the twist of the father coming with Tommy is particularly inspired (When the children in these types of stories go off to Neverland or Narnia or the Cupboard or wherever, they never bring their parents along do they?).

 

The problem facing the title is that all the best toys are name brand ones, so it's not like Tommy and his dad will be fighting Cobra Commander, Skeletor and Megatron, flirting with Barbie or rearranging Mr. Potatohead's face in future issues. Of course, there's nothing stopping Grevioux and Giangiacomo from using clever analogues to name brand toys, and they try to do so here, but the results aren't exactly up to snuff. The hero Tommy fantasizes about is called Megaman (a Superman-type with a name borrowed from a videogame character), and he runs afoul of alien Zyronites and a Frankenstein with metal fists called Frankenborg. Not terribly inspiring—I wouldn't want to play with toys like those, nor would a toy company want to make them, and thus it makes the task of suspension of disbelief all the harder.

 

The premise was fun enough that I'm down for issue #2 though, so The Toy Box #1 at least accomplishes the bare minimum of what a new comic book must do—convince a new reader to come back next time.

 

Rating – 4