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elenavarg's review
3.0
I’m fascinated by imaginary friends and creepy ones are even better! The art in this book was great and the story interesting, but the pacing felt a bit off. I’m guessing Imaginary Fiends was supposed as an ongoing series but sadly only got this one story arc. I would have liked to see more.
sjones08's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
unsquare's review
4.0
In the world of this book, imaginary friends are real but are also trans-dimensional vampires that feed on fear, among other emotions. The main character, Melba Li, is a young woman committed to an insane asylum as a teenager after stabbing her best friend a dozen times because Polly Peachpit, her imaginary friend, told her to do it. The FBI recruits the now adult Melba to help solve a case that may involve another imaginary friend.
The art in this book is pretty great, and the story goes to some bizarre, oftentimes dark, places. I like the idea of someone who can only solve crimes with the help of a manipulative invisible monster. It’s an absurd trope, but it’s fun to see it play out in this scenario.
Unfortunately, I think this book was a casualty of DC shuttering Vertigo, and it seems unlikely the story will continue. At least the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, and this story arc can easily stand alone even if there is plenty of potential for more in this world.
The art in this book is pretty great, and the story goes to some bizarre, oftentimes dark, places. I like the idea of someone who can only solve crimes with the help of a manipulative invisible monster. It’s an absurd trope, but it’s fun to see it play out in this scenario.
Unfortunately, I think this book was a casualty of DC shuttering Vertigo, and it seems unlikely the story will continue. At least the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, and this story arc can easily stand alone even if there is plenty of potential for more in this world.
alexauthorshay's review
3.0
I really liked the idea behind this comic, and how the art brought it to life. It's like if our imaginary friends weren't 100% created by us or controllable by us, and some of them were actually evil. It's creepy but in a really neat sort of way, the kind of gross fascination you don't want to look at but can't help to.
I suppose I was expecting something more like Revival in terms of presentation, because that is also by Seeley. But this comic had a weird habit of narrating everything in third person about where every character was at the beginning of every issue and it really threw me out of the comic. Especially because the way some of those parts were worded, it took a few reads to figure out who was being talked about. In the very first comic I was super confused, because there was a bunch of names being mentioned and you have no idea who anyone is yet, and the language used by the 'narrator' is very dense and convoluted, i.e. not the easiest to understand as your reading it.
I also felt like the story fell apart the longer it went on. It started out with the mention of a fish on a bike or something, and then it side tracked into another plot, but was supposed to connect with the original because of the missing children or something? I couldn't quite follow it. I get the gist of what happened but it feels like there's some holes along the way, and that also tugged my attention from the story several times because I was waiting for more information mentioned in one part of the comic while reading further, and that information never came, and this happened a few times. A few characters involved also don't get developed beyond their names for most of the comic and then suddenly play a prevalent part later in the comic, but by then I had forgotten who they were and how they were related to the characters. Not the kind of comic you can read passively.
I suppose I was expecting something more like Revival in terms of presentation, because that is also by Seeley. But this comic had a weird habit of narrating everything in third person about where every character was at the beginning of every issue and it really threw me out of the comic. Especially because the way some of those parts were worded, it took a few reads to figure out who was being talked about. In the very first comic I was super confused, because there was a bunch of names being mentioned and you have no idea who anyone is yet, and the language used by the 'narrator' is very dense and convoluted, i.e. not the easiest to understand as your reading it.
I also felt like the story fell apart the longer it went on. It started out with the mention of a fish on a bike or something, and then it side tracked into another plot, but was supposed to connect with the original because of the missing children or something? I couldn't quite follow it. I get the gist of what happened but it feels like there's some holes along the way, and that also tugged my attention from the story several times because I was waiting for more information mentioned in one part of the comic while reading further, and that information never came, and this happened a few times. A few characters involved also don't get developed beyond their names for most of the comic and then suddenly play a prevalent part later in the comic, but by then I had forgotten who they were and how they were related to the characters. Not the kind of comic you can read passively.
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