A Hundred Thousand Worlds

A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Valerie Torrey used to play a part on a (fictional) sci-fi show called Anomaly. Then 6 years ago, she took her son, Alex, and fled to New York, where she started her new life. When a custody agreement forces Valerie to come back to the West Coast to give Alex back to his father, Andrew (her costar on the old TV show), Valerie decides to make her way west making appearances on the comic convention circuit as her former character, taking her son in tow, who in his isolation, takes refuge in the world of comics and all their hundred thousand worlds.

May we take a moment to celebrate the reliable, durable, timeless joy of the road trip as a metaphor, as a storyline, a vehicle through which a story travels? It works so often for a number of reasons: giving a story a destination also gives the story a place to go, literally. The road trip is where thoughts are expressed, where dreams are revealed, where fears are laid out. We find them so enjoyable because deep down we all want to be on the move, to be going somewhere else, experiencing the joy of unknown possibility. And the road trip at the heart of this wonderful story was key in my own reaction to this wonderful book, as I already loved it before I was even 30 pages in…

I loved this book. You don’t need to know anything about comics to appreciate it, though if you do, you will recognize some of the tropes and the characters upon which the made-up superheroes of this world are based. And just to ground it in a little reality, the sections are bookended by quotes from the great (and very real) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Alex is a sweet, likable kid who learns of Valerie’s former show through her bedtime stories, in which she retells old episodes of Anomaly. And all throughout, we are reminded of the unbridled joy that can come from loving something silly to the point of nerdy exhaustion. Bob Proehl, an obvious comic book aficionado himself, really nailed it.

I couldn’t wait to get to the end so I could write this review. I highly recommend this one.





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