A Hundred Thousand Worlds

Nine-year-old Alex and his mother, Val, are on a cross-country road trip, stopping at comic book conventions en route to Los Angeles. Actress Val is best known for her role as Agent Bethany Frazier from the cult sf television show Anomaly, and her gigs signing autographs for geeky fans help pay the bills and prolong the time she has with her son before she has to deliver him to his estranged father. It has been six years since Val fled her costar ex-husband, taking Alex with her to start a new life in New York. Now she must make good on their custody arrangement, only she hasn't admitted to Alex what's in store. Alex is precocious but still a kid, sweet but increasingly savvy. He strikes up friendships with Brett, a struggling illustrator, and Gail, a lesbian comics writer, and a bevy of costumed women on the comic-con circuit—Red Emma, Ferret Lass, ExSanguina, and Astounding Woman—helps him understand that he's in charge of writing his own story.