Uncanny Valley Vol. 1

Uncanny Valley #1-5

by Tony Fleecs, Dave Wachter (Artist), Pat Brosseau (Letterer)

Saturday morning cartoons meet the real world and comic fantasy in a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for a new generation!

Oliver is different. His mother’s history in Burbank, California isn’t the only thing that sets him apart from other 12-year-olds–he has unexplainable, campy powers that more often than not land him in trouble… But the most outlandish and astonishing is yet to come, as a dark presence pursues Oliver from the most whimsical recesses of the unknown… and the strange and mysterious past of his family will be more than he ever could have imagined. Harvey Award-nominated writer Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs) and acclaimed artist Dave Wachter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) bring this multi-dimensional crossover coming-of-age fantasy to life and remind us that when cartoons get real, the truth is stranger than celluloid. Collects Uncanny Valley #1-5.

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Tony Fleecs is the writer and artist of In My Lifetime, an autobiographical comic book. First published in 2006, ‘Lifetime was an immediate critical success, featured twice in Wizard Magazine, in the Comic Buyer’s Guide and on the Ain’t-It-Cool-News.

Fleecs has since been a contributor to anthologies including; Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened (nominated for the 2008 Eisner and Harvey awards for best anthology), Boom Studios’ Pulp Tales and C.B. Cebulski’s Wonderlost. He and writer, Josh Fialkov, provided the Li’l FireBreather backup stories for Phil Hester’s 2nd FireBreather series at Image Comics. Last year saw his first work for hire writing work when he scripted the comic book adaptation of the classic John Holmes film, Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here, widely regarded as the first comic book based on a porno to not be completely awful.

This year, Tony will co-write and illustrate the graphic novel Jeff Steinberg: Champion of Earth (again with Fialkov) for Oni Press.

His company Fleecs Design (who’s talent roster includes only himself) has a client list that features Disney, 20th Century Fox, Bongo Comics, Marvel/Rittenhouse, The Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinatti Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Monster Garage, Taco John’s, major hospitals, insurance providers and banks.

His comics have been published by Random House (Villard), Image Comics, Silent Devil Productions, Boom!, IDW and Terminal Press.

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The comics version of a mixed live action/animated feature, à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Space Jam. With Uncanny Valley, Tony Fleecs and Dave Wachter play with the concept of cartoons breaking into our known reality. Following the story of 12-year old Oliver and his single mom, Margaret, and how their lives change when a cartoon cowboy arrives to save them from a coming threat. Oliver learns that cartoons are part of his own heritage, with the cowboy being his own grandfather. Separated from his mother, Oliver and his grandpa go on a little journey to avoid the oncoming attacks from other toons while he learns more about his own strange heritage.

The story in this first volume is a little thin and laden with "chosen one" tropes, but really the comic carries the mixed illustration style well. It's clear Wachter is having a ton of fun with the concept, utilizing the Looney Toons-esque action to its full impact. Fleecs maximizes the action with a light and campy script, but also delivers on the general coming-of-age story as well. As a first volume, it does enough to build out the world and characters, but somewhat feels lacking in the substance of what the ongoing story will be like. But Wachter's artwork alone kept me interested enough, and interested enough to follow the story along into the next volume.

[Paul W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the creativity and ideas in this book so much, it makes up for a bit of the weakness in the narrative. It's a bit too long and stretched.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the idea behind this graphic novel - that of cartoons invading the "real" world, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit - was really interesting, and I liked how it was implemented in the medium (basically by having the "real world" be drawn more naturalistic, and the cartoons be more, er, cartoony). However, the plot so far is very thin, with twelve year old Oliver mostly just on the run with his granddad, while being chased by minions of "the First". We have a few other characters: Oliver's mum, who does very little other than panic; and some cartoon characters who get nothing to do but appear on the page, hit a few things and then die horribly.

There are some nice nods to the genre, like hovering over a cliff until you realise you should be falling, or painting a tunnel into a cliff to be able to run into, but it's thin stuff. There's more plot towards the end, and the cliffhanger does make me want to find out more. The internet does, at least, tell me that it's a limited series, and the forthcoming volume 2 should complete the story. Hopefully there will less running and more more plot progression in that.

[Ilan Preskovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

File this under one of those comics I really wish I liked more. There's certainly what to like here, especially in terms of the art, but Uncanny Valley suffers from feeling very light on story, even for a modern day five-issue trade, and the premise is so overly familiar that it struggles to set itself apart from other "chosen one" stories. It's a perfectly entertaining read, don't get me wrong, and the way artist Dave Wachter integrates the "real" and "cartoon" worlds is genuinely quite impressive, but unless I hear that the series picks up significantly with the next volume, I doubt I'll continue with it.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun comic about a boy who is part cartoon. Think Harry Potter meets Roger Rabbit. I do wish there was more plot advancement. It feels like a shorter story that was stretched out to more issues which is more or less exactly what happened. That being said, it's still a really cool book. Dave Wachter's art is inventive. I really like the different look of the cartoon versus "real" characters. Looking real forward to more.

[Josh Cleverplacehölder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun stuff here-smarter readers will recognize “the first” faster than I did. Also believe giving Oliver the surname “Peet” might be an homage to artist/cartoonist Bill Peet. Overall, very enjoyable and interested to see where the story goes!

[Tom Zilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

[Dolores · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a lot of fun.

[Trevor ComicFan · Rating 4 out of 5]

80

Had an interesting start but ended kind of blah.

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s different in a good way. Though I feel like its toon stars felt more like knock offs than germane characters.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if...cartoons were real? What if they lived in an entirely different world from ours, and could venture across to see us? And what if...one of your parents was one?

Yeah, that's an insane premise - but this is a fun book that combines the whimsy of old Saturday morning kids cartoons with a darker edge without falling into grimdark gritty territory, something Tony Fleecs has been doing with some of his other indie books like Stray Dogs and Feral to great success.

Dave Wachter's having a ball on art, with the realistic literally butting up against the cartoonish to great effect. I'm used to Wachter's stuff from TMNT, and this is very different from that. Guy's got range.

Also, this is what happens when Mickey Mouse ends up in the public domain. I'll just...let that sink in while you go read this for yourself.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Uncanny Valley" is a mostly fun but not fabulous tribute to the world of American Children's cartoons that dabbles in meta-fiction as well. Focusing on a boy with strange cartoon-like powers, the book very quickly breaks into intense and frenetic action as various cartoon characters enter the "real" world and the protagonist is dragged into a "Toon" power struggle. Although, there is a lot of action there is actually very little real plot development and much of the action itself is repetitive. Additionally, the final cliff hanger resolution to this first volume is a sudden and cheap plot device that leaves the reader hanging just when the book is beginning to show some promise.


Note: I read this in single issues and will revise this review as needed when the trade comes out.
Three and a half stars rounded to three.