Thanks in no small part to the Disney Channel, my daughter became a die-hard Lilo & Stitch fan when she was five years old, and because I was fully immersed in the films and series while watching them over and over again with her for the last sixteen years, I’ve also become a staunch devotee of the dysfunctional duo, and their insanely funny escapades. So when the debut issue of Pak and Giacomino’s Lilo & Stich arrived, I dived straight in without pausing for breath or a moment’s hesitation. And I’m glad I did.

Beat for beat, it could be a lost episode of the series, or the opening act of the next chapter in the film franchise, as Greg Pak has nailed the characteristion, dialogue, and themes that made the series and movies so incredibly enjoyable. He innately understands the idea that lies at the heart of Lilo and Stitch’s relationship, ‘Ohana’ and what it means to them to be part of their wonderfully weird family, and uses it to launch straight into a tale that threatens the stability and security of the Galactic Federation, in which Stitch is destined to play a pivotal, if unwilling, role.

Then there’s Giulia Giacomnio’s art, which is nothing short of mesmerising, and more than a little visually intoxicating, as it plunges you head over heels into Stitch and Lilo’s little corner of heaven in Maui and fills out and cements Pak’s plot. Lilo & Stitch is one of the strongest first issues I’ve read in a long, long time and based on this opening entry, needs to be added to the pull list of every Disney addict in the four-colour universe, as it promises to be, as Dave Bowman once said, something wonderful… Tim Cundle