Imagine this as an anthology line-up: Grass Green, Bill Fugate, Fred Hembeck, Neal Yamamoto, Don Lomax, Michael T. Gilbert, Tom Doyle, Elliot R. Brown, Cliff Kurowski, Daniel Murray and of course others.

Now stop imagining, because it exists in the form of Tales of the Terminal Diner, a fantastic collection of stories in a brilliant framing device.  Devised, edited and engineered by Children’s book marvel Justine & Ron Fontes (who also deliver their own story as well as the interstitials) Terminal Diner is a place you’ll love to visit, but for the food, even if it is good.

Justine and Ron us to Genie X and a crew of others who live out of a traveling diner thousands of years old and host to millions of adventures.

This framing device is a great book on its own, deftly drawn by Ron in a wonderful traditional comics style.  We meet young Sam Levesque, bearer of the Rupa ring of Atzlan and Genie’s employees Skelly and Sugah and of course Genie X herself.  All four or so well thought out and designed that not a single one of the artists had trouble them or incorporating them as secondary framing devices o their content.

The stories range from autobiography to comedy with fantasy and myth throw in.  A fair share flesh out the Terminal diner characters or add to the great little universe the Fontes’ have made, while other are just awesome anecdotes.

In Batton Lash’s quote on the back he says there’s “enough concepts” “for three separate series!”  I don’t know about all that, but a regular series from Justin & Ron would be quite nice or in the very least another anthology bringing in more legends or contemporaries to visualize the diner.

At the end of the book Sam is begging us not to close the book (it’s an essential plot point) and I have to admit I really didn’t want to. 

Tales of the Terminal Diner is available from Sonic Publishing   for $10.00 U.S. plus $3.00 shipping and handling!

Order your copy at soniccomics@gwi.net, or send a check or money order to Ron and Justine Fontes, POB 585 Readfield, ME 04355