ADVENTURES UNLIMITED

The search for a misplaced rabbit’s foot leads two adventurers into encounters with a bull who’s lost his temper, much missing treasure, and many, many single socks.

Clad anonymously in custom-made adventure suits that cover them head to toe, the never-named narrator (“Me”) and sidekick (“You”) drive their supposedly “uncrashable” adventure car through an interdimensional hole into the truly crowded place where all lost things go. There they run into both a tree and treasure hunter Johnny Knucklehead. Johnny, whose head is a giant clenched fist, had been reported lost in the jungle. This meeting is just the beginning of a long series of random encounters during which even the plot is lost (and then found again), Johnny is reunited with his mirror twin, Jimmy, and a lost lucky charm is recovered—only to become a bargaining chip after the adventurers are captured by a peg-legged rabbit pirate. Unlike that elusive plot, Griffiths has no trouble at all keeping firm hold on his intention to keep chortling readers entertained from start to final high-five. Hope’s lively cartoon illustrations add visual action and sight gags to every page, and along with tacking on instructions for a personal homemade adventure helmet, he even takes over occasional two-page spreads for an intricate map, montage, or mini comic.

Give a hand, or two, to this surreal, headlong romp.