For some strange reason over the past few years I have been getting back into comic books again. I think it stemmed from my parents selling my childhood home. One of the things that I needed to remove from my parent's basement was my comic collection. My grandfather drove a New York City newspaper truck and delivered to newsstands throughout Manhattan. One of the perks for my brother and me was the fact that he would bring home the previous month's comics that didn't sell from his buddies that ran the newsstands. They had a slash across the cover, which of course, made them worthless but we were able to amass quite a collection of comics from every genre.
Once my grandfather retired and the freebies stopped, I continued my love of comics, frequenting Mike's Comic Hut in Flushing as often as I could get my mom to drag me there to blow my allowance. My brother was more of a Marvel fan. I was pretty into DC. The Justice League, Teen Titans, Green Lantern and The Flash were favorites. But I also went to the bins in the comic store not typically frequented by the average comic store fan. Richie Rich, Archie, Sad Sack, Dennis the Menace and of course, Disney comics, were all added to my collection regularly.
Taking my three kids to local comic shops, local comic conventions, and to New York Comic Con fairly consistently over the last few years have all helped reignite the comic bug once again. Going through my old boxes of comics, I've been catching up on the heroes I left behind so many years ago and trying to discover some new ones as well. Something that immediately caught my eye upon its release last summer was Disney pairing up with its latest acquisition, Marvel, for a Figment comic book series.
Once Marvel and Disney were united as one, a new comic banner was born, Disney Kingdoms. The intention was to take the very best of Marvel Comics' creative team and pair them with stories taken straight from Disney's Parks and Resorts with Disney Imagineers on board to fill in the details. I was instantly on board with that idea. This wasn't Marvel doing rehashes of Disney films like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. These were going to be all new stories based on the backstories and characters from our favorite Disney attractions and theme park lands.
The first in the series was Seekers of the Weird based on legendary Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump's original concepts for a walk-through Museum of the Weird. His ideas eventually morphed into the Haunted Mansion, but his original plans and designs were dusted off for the creation of this first series of comics. I'll discuss those wonderful books in a future installment of Disney Stuff. Today I'd like to take a closer look at Figment numbers 1-5.
Here are the covers of each installment of the 5 issue series.
Figment #1. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
Figment #2. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
Figment #3. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
Figment #4. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
Figment #5. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
As you might imagine, this series tells the story of two of Disney's most beloved theme park creations, the inventor known as Dreamfinder and the realization of his imagination come to life, the purple dragon Figment. Writer Jim Zub was brought on by Marvel based on his experience with other fantasy titles such as Skullkickers, Samurai Jack and Pathfinders to further explore and expand on the story of these two beloved theme park icons.
Jim and Marvel editor Bill Rosemann placed the fledgling inventor Blarion Mercurial, the character who will eventually transform into who we now know as Dreamfinder, into a steampunk version of early 20th century England. Blair works at an institute and is charged with the task of seeking out new forms of energy. Rather than think conventionally like his peers at the institute, he chooses to focus on the power of the mind as a pathway to find new limitless energy. His crusty old boss chastises him for always, “chasing dreams instead of working with reality.” Thus, the underlying message of Journey into Imagination with Figment, the Epcot attraction, comes into play here in the story.
While working late one night on his machine built to harness the energy of the brain, he brings a figment of his imagination to life in the form of the ever-popular purple dragon and mischief-maker, Figment.
Figment is “discovered” by the future Dreamfinder. © Disney/Marvel Enterprises.
At Figment's encouragement, Blair taps into the power of his imagination and, as you could imagine, chaos ensues. The inventor and the figment of his imagination open up a mind portal and get sucked into a variety of mysterious worlds where they encounter different characters both good and bad on their quest to return home.
Throughout the five issues of the series, Figment and Blair certainly deviate from anything you've ever seen in the venerable Epcot attraction. That doesn't mean, however, that they stray from the underlying message from Journey into Imagination: that your mind and the power of imagination can do amazing things once you set them free. The writers and artists of the series stay true to this original framework, while simultaneously taking us to new, strange, and interesting worlds. They walked a fine line with a pair of characters that have a long-standing relationship with Disney fans but they handled it adeptly.
Figment is a fun, easy read. The illustrations and visuals are striking and impressive. Most importantly justice is done to well-loved characters and overall a good satisfying story is told. If you're a fan of the attraction in any of it's incarnations, give it a try.
If you're so inclined, Figment can be found all over the Internet from comic book dealers. I found one issue in my local comic store and one issue in the Imagination Pavilion gift shop at Epcot last September. It's a five issue series and there have been variant covers produced of each issue. I've seen issue #1 already for sale for upwards of $30, so it seems like Figment is destined to be collectible.
Next up for Disney Kingdoms is another five-issue series. This time, Marvel and Disney are bringing Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to the pages of a comic book. Issue #1 went on sale this week.
As usual, I'd like to hear what you have to say. If you've checked out the Figment comics series, or if this article has intrigued you, click on the link below, let me hear your thoughts and I'll see you next time with more of that great Disney Stuff.
