While all hell breaks loose in Times Square, Asa and April take a moment to do a little shopping. That fun doesn’t last long because invisible trolls attack. Back in Shard, Blip and Tavish wonder what happened to Blip’s magical frog. Visitors break up the wondering. Beating the trolls with a magical ax, Asa enchants a carpet so that he and April can escape. While they flee, Asa realizes that he has lost something very important. That lost item ends up in some interesting hands.

Issue three executes with a mixture of fun and adventure. The story of Asa’s accidental exile to New York presents the fish-out-of-water story with a magical twist. Silvestri avoids a lot of the standard fantasy clichés to provide readers with an interesting story that has clever plot twists.

Unfortunately, the humor does get bogged down with cliché. The pivotal joke of the book comes from the replacement frog in Blip’s store. Since the amphibian sings and dances (but when no customers are present), we have a bit of homage to the old Warner Brother’s cartoon. Unfortunately, the kids reading the book probably won’t get the reference. If the joke were aimed at adults, we would understand the reference and despise said frog that announced the WB network.

For a book that strives to be unique, the reliance on old jokes bogs down the entertaining tone.

To present a creative product, one needs to be creative. Look at some of the best comedies and see that the jokes are unique and new to the story and not rehashed references.

This book is good. It will be great when it overall breaks from convention.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Marc Silvestri Artists: Sumeyye Kesgin & Tina Valentino Publisher: Image/Top Cow Price: $3.50 Release Date: 8/13/14 Format: Ongoing; Digital, Print