The Bark in Space: Chicagoland Detective Agency

By: Trina Robbins
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Publication Date: January 2013
ISBN: 978-1467707251
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: April 2013

Raf Hernandez was hard at work in his Hernandez & Sons Pet Supply Store. Well, sort of because he’d been finishing up work on his new app, the iDog2. Bradley, a partner in the Chicagoland Detective Agency, was a talking dog and Raf wasn’t going to use it on him. He explained to Raf that “If you can speak human, it’s only fair that Megan and I should understand dogs.” Megan Yamamura, age 13 1/2, a gal who was into haiku-speak, was their other partner. It wasn’t long before William came in with his dog, Prince. It would be the perfect opportunity to try out the iDog2.

Much to Raf’s disappointment, the iDog2 didn’t seem to work. All of a sudden, Bradley heard a stray musical tone coming through the door. “Ping!” Raf didn’t hear a thing, but later that night Bradley began to hear it again and hopped out of bed to investigate. Ping, ping, ping! There was a flying saucer overhead in the dark of night. “Beam me up!” Bradley disappeared into the night. Raf and Megan were frantic the next day and began making flyers to distribute. Where on earth could Bradley have gone to?

The search was on, but no Bradley. Nightfall came again and the flying saucer came back. “YIIIIII!!” It sucked Raf and Megan through a beam into the saucer where they found Bradley. Zork-Tar and Dex-org were dogs from the planet Fnarf III and were glad to meet Bradley’s “Earth puppies.” They began to bark away, but Raf’s iDog2 kicked in and began to translate. They’d come to get the “greatest dog detective on Earth” because somehow Princess Zu-La had vanished. She was supposed to succeed Queen Zee-Za who had recently died. Was the Chicagoland Detective agency up to finding their beloved Princess Zu-La? “Ruff ruff arf! Yip yap!”

This is a wild and crazy case from outer space for Chicagoland Detective Agency. There is “No case too weird” for the trio of detectives, but when they are hired by extraterrestrials, they just might have a challenge on their hands. Of course things get really hairy when crazy Dr. Vorschak arrives on the scene to really stir things up. She was the crazy scientist who ran experiments on Bradley and turned him into a “doggie Einstein.” The exciting and very busy artwork is rendered in black and white, a typical manga style. Yes, the Chicagoland Detective Agency is still on the job in one of their wildest, weirdest, and wackiest cases ever!

Quill says: If you have a reluctant reader who's into graphic novels and likes them weird and wacky, the Chicagoland Detective Agency invites them to help them solve some cases!