This gorgeous comic starts out as Toy Story and ends up as the gospels re-imagined as the (toy) battle over a little boy’s soul—that’s a hell of a transition, and it makes for a hell of a read. The unfortunately, punnily named The Stuff of Legend begins with that tired cliché that toys are real when your young and not looking. We’re in the midst of World War II, and the closet boogeyman has just kidnapped the son of a Soldier serving on the Western front. In response, his favorite cutely drawn toys elect to enter the dark of the closet and rescue him. And then things get mythic. As they enter the dark, the toys transform into the real versions of themselves and engage in shockingly bloody fight with the overwhelming forces of the boogeyman. Instead of a silly little adventure, the story hits us with moments of true courage and betrayal, climaxing in a biblical allegory as a character trades the life of the noblest toy for gold coins. The Stuff of Legends can be read as a straight, almost-children’s fairy tale, or it can easily be interpreted as an allegory for a child faced with becoming a man, and how the toys and fantasies he once clung to can help and impede that development. Either way the narrative is handled with confidence, the characters are quickly and well established, and the story itself is gripping, leaving you in heightened anticipation for the next page and eventually the next issue. Finally, as anyone who has opened the book will see Wilson’s art is astounding, perfectly complementing the story by taking children’s story book-like illustrations and injecting these actors with adult emotions and horrors. One piece of advice, read the whole issue through before judging it. I started off reading this one scoffing at its rip off of old ideas and by the end I was praising its originality. Hell of a transition indeed.