Once upon a time, bearded wizard Jim Pascoe and fresh-faced Jake Myler both lived in Los Angeles. The three of us would get together, scrutinize over Jake's thumbnails, debate Jim's script, and explore the world of Undertown together. These were exciting times. We all felt like we were creating something special. But then tragedy struck--Jake Myler moved to Seattle. It broke my heart, to be honest. He used to bring us cake!

Luckily, Jake Myler is as talented as he is thoughtful. He finished the book while working in rainy Seattle, and his art is absolutely breathtaking. Every page is as delicious as the tasty treats he used to bring to our story sessions. And Jake's character designs are all absolutely brilliant. Without exception. Once you read Undertown, I promise there are images that will stay in your mind long after you put the book down. Thanks for making this project memorable in so many ways, Jake!

And then there's Jim Pascoe. Rock star. Rebel. Guru. In high school, he was probably voted most likely to become a cult leader. But this would be the coolest cult in the world--full of crazy ideas and good vibes. Jim's Undertown script has more layers than any of the cakes that Jake happily fed us. It can certainly be read as a dark fantasy story in the tradition of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz...but it you look closely, you can see many parallels to the complex, strife-filled world in which we currently live. Take sugar, for instance. Sure, it's the reason Jake's cakes were so yummy...but in the world of Undertown, sugar can be read as a metaphor for oil.

Okay, enough words! It's time to feast on Undertown! Satiate your sweet tooth on Jake's scrumptious art...and fill your belly (and head) with Jim's rich, flavorful narrative.

In the depths of a dark and mysterious land, a young boy searches for a secret that can lead to salvation....and more.

Sama is so sad that tears have literally stained his cheeks. His father has fallen gravely ill...and doctors only give him a month to live. With nowhere to turn, Sama grabs his teddy bear and crawls under his bed...magically entering a portal to a fantastic realm called Undertown! Sama looks for the Sugar Stone: a "secret something" that might be able to heal his dad. But The Cloud--the wicked leader of the Insect Insurgents--hunts for the Stone, as well...

From Jim Pascoe, creator of Emmy-Award winning JETIX Cards Live!, and sensational artist Jake Myler, comes an epic voyage into the heart of a strange and beautiful world.

Jim Pascoe, Writer
At various times in his childhood, writer Jim Pascoe believed he was an alien, a lizard, a psychic, and a king. Soon he realized that he was really a storyteller. He grew up to write many things. He created the Emmy® Award winning interactive card game for Disney's JETIX Cards Live! and has written comics and books featuring well-known characters such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kim Possible, and Hellboy. UNDERTOWN is his most personal story to date, because in 2005, on the day after Christmas, his father was sent to the hospital for a heart transplant. That his dad is alive to read this manga is one of the happiest developments of his life. Jim Pascoe no longer believes he is an alien; he does believe in miracles.

Jake Myler, Artist
Growing up in the isolation of the redwoods of Northern California, artist Jake Myler loved to read and create comics to ease the pain and fear caused by the many packs of roving wild dogs that would often attack without warning. But comics were forgotten for years, until after graduating with a degree in animation from Woodbury University. Then he realized that creating comics was his true dream all along! Jake has also illustrated issues of Phantom Rock Entertainment's Dark Butterfly series, issues of Ta-Su's Tasumono series, and created hundreds of The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars collector cards for Topps.

Sama
Sama is our hero, a pre-teen boy who encounters an enormous problem: his dad has been given only a month to live. He's quick to cry, and when he comes to Undertown, his cheeks are stained with dark streaks of tears.

Eddie the Teddy
Sama's stuffed bear, who in Undertown comes to life!

B.W. (a rabbit)
Without a doubt, B.W. is the cheeriest of the group--but also the most afraid.

Joey P.P. (a porcupine)
The rogue, the bad boy. He knows a lot about the insects ... he may even be a spy for them.

Mighty Chireugi (a brown rat)
A warrior rat who has been captured by the Insect Insurgents. Once a member of the Brotherhood of Rats, Mighty continues his fight against the insects.

The Cloud
The evil leader of the Insect Insurgents.

PopCultureShock
While visiting his father in the hospital, ten-year-old Sama meets a creepy stranger in the waiting room. The stranger, sensing Sama’s feelings of futility and guilt over his dad’s condition, lets the boy in on a secret: if he can retrieve the Sugar Stone from Undertown, Sama can cure his father. All Sama has to do is crawl under his bed, close his eyes, and count to ten. As one might guess about advice from creepy strangers, retrieving the Sugar Stone proves anything but easy, as Undertown is a hellish place occupied by oversized insects. No one has seen the Sugar Stone in ages—most of Undertown’s denizens believe it to be a mythological object—and the few that are convinced of its existence seek it for their own twisted purposes. A handful of Furmen, anthropomorphic critters that live under the insects’ yoke, agree to aid Sama in the hope that he holds the key to the insects’ defeat.

Tokyopop gives Undertown a 13+ rating, yet so many details struck me as more appropriate for younger readers. Sama’s teddy bear, for example, comes to life when the two arrive in Undertown, morphing from stuffed animal to wise-cracking sidekick and survivor of a teddy bear holocaust. Remembering my cynical, 13-year-old self, I have a hard time imagining too many teenagers warming to a fantasy whose premise sounds dangerously close to The Care Bears Movie. I also found the artwork wanting. Though Myler is a skilled draftsman, the images were too small and too detailed for a manga-sized, black-and-white treatment; Undertown cries out for a larger trim and broader palette to make Myler’s designs pop. This is especially evident in many of the fight scenes, which are hard to parse owing to the large number of eyes, limbs, and mandibles slashing their way across the page. The biggest disappointment, however, is that Undertown isn’t much fun. Yes, there’s considerable evidence of Pascoe and Myler’s talent in the story’s efficient execution and occasional flashes of inspiration, but the book is joyless and sentimental, faring poorly by comparison with other recent coming-of-age tales like Brave Story.

~Katherine Dacey, PopCultureShock
http://www.popcultureshock.com/weekly-recon-81507/42439/

School Library Journal
PASCOE, Jim. Undertown. vol. 1. illus. by Jake Myler. 204p. Tokyopop. 2007. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-1-4278-0782-3. LC number unavailable.

Gr 8 Up-This original English-language manga starts off at a fast clip, introducing Sama, his teddy bear Eddie, and the fantasy world of Un-dertown. Worried that he has caused his father to have a heart attack, the 10-year-old takes the advice of a mysterious man he meets in the hospital and begins a quest to find the Sugar Stone. But Undertown is nothing like the mysterious man promised: instead of finding a peaceful city, Sama finds himself in the middle of a war between the insects and furmen, humanoid animals. Here, Eddie comes to life, filled with strange half-memories of this place and a quest of his own: finding the teddy bear bell. With the help of the rabbit B.W. and porcupine Joey P.P., Eddie and Sama begin their search, threatened at every turn by the evil leader of the insects, the Cloud. At times, the story has trouble keeping up with its action, and when parts of it are told from the Cloud's perspective, the switch between locations can be jarring. But the art is excellent, and the storytelling style feels true to the manga format. It may be hard to find the right niche for this book, as the character is 10 and has a talking teddy bear, but the world of Undertown is violent and dangerous. Manga fans, however, will feel right at home inside the narrative, and Naruto fans may happily make the switch from ninjas to civil war.-Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Bran-ford, CT