Publisher's Synopsis
Stuart "Stu" Miley is a disillusioned cartoonist whose comic character, a rascal monkey named Monkeybone, is getting a cartoon show. Stu plans to propose to Dr. Julie McElroy, a sleep institute worker who helped him deal with his terrible nightmares by changing his drawing hand.
One night, Stu crashes his car after accidentally activating an inflatable Monkeybone raft, causing him to fall into a coma. His spirit ends up in Down Town, a surreal, limbo-like carnival landscape populated by human beings, strange figures, mythical creatures and figments of people's imaginations where nightmares are entertainment.
In Down Town, Monkeybone is real. During that time, Stu befriends a catgirl named Miss Kitty. When Stu learns that his sister Kimmy is about to pull the plug on him, he asks Hypnos, God of Sleep, for advice. Hypnos tells Stu that to get back to the living, he has to infiltrate the Land of Death to steal an Exit Pass from Death which are given out to coma victims by Reapers giving them permission to leave Down Town and awaken from their coma. Stu successfully steals an Exit Pass, but Monkeybone steals it from him in turn and enters the Land of the Living in Stu's body through the Revive-O as Hypnos states that they have plans for Stu's body.
Stu later finds himself locked up in a jail cell with Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper, and Stephen King, who reveals his nightmare of Cujo pulled the same trick Monkeybone pulled on Stu. Hypnos arrives and explains to Stu that he plans to use Stu's body to get a chemical substance called the "Oneirix" that Julie developed that gives people and animals nightmares, which gives him more power. Upon being sent to the institute by Hypnos upon reminding him of his mission, Monkeybone (in Stu's body) ends up successfully stealing the Oneirix, switching it with another juice. Monkeybone obtains the Oneirix and puts it inside stuffed monkey toys of himself so that those who come in contact with them will be infected and given nightmares.
