Author: Doug TenNaple
Publisher: Scholastic
Rating: WORTHY!
This was one of the most entertaining and amusing graphic novels I've read in a long time. Now I'm on the look-out for other works by this author. It's a bit of a Frankenstein story about a creation which gets out of control. I read the whole thing while waiting in line for a sneak preview of the execrable Jupiter Ascending, and it was the highlight of my night! Thank you, Doug TenNaple!
This beautifully (and rib-ticklingly) illustrated book is the size of a regular print book (smaller than a graphic novel typically is), but illustrated all the way, with sparse but effective text - just the way I like 'em! It's a fat little tome, but a fast read. The premise is that this poor guy is down on his uppers, having been out of work for too long. He's a single dad, and it's his son's birthday and he can't even afford to buy him a cheap 99 cent pirate sword as a present.
The curious man who runs the toy stall makes him an offer: a cardboard box for 78 cents (which is all the guy has). Desperate for something, and knowing his son has the imagination to make a go even of this pathetic gift, the guy buys it and takes it home, much to the amusement off his rich and snotty neighbor. The guy at the toy stall made the down-and-out dad swear to obey only two rules: he cannot come back and ask for more cardboard, and he must return all the scraps he doesn't use when he's done building whatever he builds from the box.
The guy and his son build a life-size model of a boxer, and overnight, it comes to life. Surprised but largely unfazed by this, the two of them adopt the boxer guy, and he starts giving boxing lessons to the son. One day, while having fun with this outside, the two are approached by the snotty neighbor's kid and his pink-eyed friend. They claim to be fascinated, and that they want to do an experiment, whereupon they begin squirting the cardboard boxer with water, causing his legs to buckle.
The boxer guy is now in dire straits - dying, it looks like. The kid's dad decides there might be one way to fix him. Unable to get more cardboard from the guy at the toy stall (rule #1!), the dad comes up with a plan: using a couple of remaining scraps of cardboard, the dad makes a cardboard-making machine, and produces enough pieces to fix the boxer's legs. It's touch and go, but he does recover.
Seeing the boxer guy is whole again, the snotty neighbor's kid, feigning contrition and interest, manages to steal the cardboard-making machine and employs it to create a whole bunch of "monsters" which he plans on using to do all his chores, but the monsters rebel and start tearing down his home to make a monster city of their own. No longer king of his own creations, the snotty kid and his innocent neighbor become hunted, and even begin bonding as they desperately seek to escape the monsters hunting them.
