Imaginary Fiends
Tim Seeley, writer; Stephen Molnar, artist; Quinton Winter, colors
Vertigo Comics, 2019
Another imaginative concept from horror writing veteran Tim Seeley and artist Stephen Molnar. The key element is that childhood imaginary friends are real--hence the word play of the title--and are in fact Interdimensional Mental Parasites (IMPs) who prey on the minds of humans. The story opens with a horrifying childhood stabbing, then shifts to six years later in a juvenile detention center. Melba Li (who did the stabbing) is a patient having a rocky eighteenth birthday. She receives a surprise visit from an FBI agent with a surprising proposition: he wants to recruit her to the IMP unit. Seems that he believes in the existence of IMPs, but only human hosts can see them. He wants Melba and her IMP Polly Peachpit to join the Bureau as field consultants.
Since her alternative is transfer to a tough adult prison, Melba agrees. Her first case takes her to a small town in the middle of nowhere, investigating a missing child. Special Agent Crockett is interested because the boy was on a watch list of potential IMP hosts. Meanwhile (unbeknownst to Li and Crockett) the brother of Li's childhood best friend and victim is on his way to them, with the aid of his own IMP. On top of that, the missing child case starts to point towards some sort of local conspiracy. And there's even a brief detour to explain how the IMPs came to our world from a higher dimension: this story is based on a novel cosmology.
The town's conspiracy centered around another IMP, and the grand finale finds the conspiracy circle falling one by one, while the two strongest IMPs fight each other for supremacy. Melba finally comes to terms with her past trauma, and she and Crockett solve the case (along with Polly Peachpit). Not exactly a happy ending, but a nice resolution. The final scene shows her, Crockett and Polly leaving the FBI offices for a new case.
Pretty crazy concept here, although I suppose it's no harder to accept than parts of Swamp Thing, The Invisibles, or even Sandman. Molnar has a generally realistic style, but he does a convincing job illustrating the other-dimensional beings, and his humans are also distinctive.
Replies