Time Travel Fridge. (Super Agent Jon Le Bon!, 5). Alex A. Translated by Rhonda Mullins. Montreal, QC: Adventure Press, 2016. 132 pp., trade pbk., pdf, epub & Kindle, $12.95 (pbk.). ISBN 978-1-77285-004-8 (pbk.). Grades 3-6 / Ages 8-11. Review by Cate Carlyle. ***1/2 /4

excerpt:

“So…last week there was an incident in one of our underground labs.”

“For the past few months, we’ve been trying to create a passageway to another dimension.”

“Using photon accelerators we invented…”

“We succeeded.”

“Unfortunately, the breach we created was highly unstable.”

“A creature we call ‘the entity’ was sucked in and spit back out into our world. It landed in our lab.”

“Visibly hostile, this… monster destroyed everything and escaped on a ray of light, taking with him…”

“My daughter Maple… who was nearby at the time.”

“Oh, that’s not cool.”

“According to our scientific data, which followed the creature’s energy trail, it teletransported somewhere on earth…”

“200,000 years ago.”

The “Super Agent Jon Le Bon!” series is presently comprised of five volumes and was originally published in French. These bestselling Canadian graphic novels are written and illustrated by comic artist Alex A. Book 5, Time Travel Fridge, follows Jon Le Bon as he travels back in time at the request of the President. The President’s daughter is missing in the Stone Age where a creature called the “Entity” is also on the loose as a result of an experiment gone wrong. Le Bon is a member of “The Agency”, a top secret group of misfit characters (Big Beaver, Mr Shorthand, Agent WXT) who, with a unique cadre of inventions, are seeking to save the planet from self-destruction. Armed with a water gun, a nuclear watch and a portable hang glider, Le Bon travels back 200, 000 years, saves the President’s daughter, destroys the Entity, and takes down her corrupt father, all with a smile and a wink.

      Alex A.’s Time Travel Fridge, and the entire Jon Le Bon series, seems to have been influenced by secret agents and spies from feature films and television. Martha, the leader of the Agency, is reminiscent of James Bond’s “M” as are the Agency’s Bond-like inventions and weapons. The Time Travel Fridge is told in true comic book fashion with day glo illustrations perfect for adaptation to the small screen as an animated series. Le Bon, himself, is an uber-positive character, brilliant, unconditionally happy and full of puppy-like energy. The novel is fast-paced and humourous, with a number of tongue in cheek asides throughout to gamer and comic culture. Reference is made to the “lunar stone”, a large wall of stone in the Stone Age where “Comilia draws the future”:

Le Bon: “Oh, so like a giant comic strip?”

Maple (President’s daughter): “Yes, comics being the oldest art form, and therefore the most noble.”

Le Bon & Maple: “We always knew it…”

     The “Jon Le Bon “series is a perfect addition to the growing Canadian English language graphic novel market. Readers interested in a humourous, action packed story with characters and scenarios pulled straight from video games and spy movies will not be disappointed.

Highly Recommended.

Cate Carlyle, a former elementary teacher, currently resides in Halifax, NS, where she is a librarian at Mount Saint Vincent University.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

 

Next Review | Table of Contents For This Issue - December 2, 2016
CM Home | Back Issues | Search | CM Archive | Profiles Archive