"Joe the Barbarian" is an epic story of danger, courage and redemption. Armies clash, cities are destroyed, beloved leaders are exposed as shallow cowards, ancient vows of isolation are cast aside. In its hour of greatest need, a world turns to its prophesied hero, the Dying Boy. 
 That's one way of looking at it. Another is that Joe is suffering hallucinations caused by hypoglycemic shock, and needs to get to the kitchen and drink a soda. 
 The entire eight-chapter graphic novel (originally an eight-issue limited series comic book) takes place over the course of a single evening, within the walls of Joe's home (which is on the brink of foreclosure). Joe is an introverted boy whose father died in Iraq. Left at home alone, he has to get that soda / save the world on his own. 
 Is Joe only hallucinating, or is the strange world he finds himself in a real place? The story seems to be stacked in favor of its being just a dream, since the people he encounters look like fantastic versions of his toys and his pet rat, and the world itself is a reflection of the stairs and furniture and even the pipes of the house. 
 Then again, I never believed that Oz was "just a dream", either. 
 [*SPOILER BELOW*] 
 In his hallucination, Joe is promised that he will "hear his father's voice again" if he succeeds in his quest. This takes the form of a letter his father left, just before he deployed, for his wife to find, and the deed to the house. With the deed, the foreclosure can be prevented. 
 I objected at first glance -- if the bank was about to foreclose, there must be a mortgage, which would not have been granted unless title to the house were established. 
 Then my wife reminded me that in fact banks have foreclosed upon thousands of homes which had never had a mortgage. 
 So, even if the marvelous realm saved by the Dying Boy was nothing more than a fragment of an uneaten potato, Joe still gets to triumph over a truly monstrous evil in his own world