If you’ve visited Zuda.com, you may have noticed the dearth of all-ages titles. One of the few featured Zuda artists to go the kid-friendly route is Josh Alves, creator of the adventure series “The Araknid Kid.” After a strong showing in two rounds of Zuda competition, “The Araknid Kid” was picked up by the Sugary Serials website, where you can catch the entire “first season” before it makes the transition to print. Josh was gracious enough to speak to Good Comics for Kids about his work: his background, his inspirations, and his thoughts on what makes for a great all-ages title. You can find out more about Josh and his work by visiting his website.

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Tags: Interviews by Katherine Dacey
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At various times in her life, Misako Takashima, who goes by the pen name Misako Rocks!, has been an exchange student, a puppeteer, and a professional cartoonist. She got her big break, as illustrator of The Onion’s Savage Love column, on the strength of a few doodles she did while having dinner with friends. Now she has two graphic novels in print, Biker Girl and Rock and Roll Love, and a three-book series, Detective Jermain, in the works. The New York Public Library recently named Rock and Roll Love to its 2008 Books for the Teen Age list (PDF). Takashima recently designed a new character for Archie Comics: Kumi, a Japanese exchange student.

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Tags: Interviews by Brigid Alverson
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Sugary Serials is a webcomics site that evokes the spirit of Saturday morning cartoons: The stories are colorful, action-packed, and as easy to digest as a bowl of Lucky Charms. Editor-in-chief Jerzy Drozd has assembled a stable of creators, including Scooby Doo artist Scott Neely and nemu-nemu creators Audra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga, who enjoy making big, bold, adventurous comics that are more wholesome than they appear at first glance.

Drozd, a comics artist and freelance illustrator, was inspired not only by the cartoons of his youth but also by his favorite classic comics. “My introduction to comics was my parents coming home with a huge stack of Silver Age books,” he says. “We lived in a very small town and there was no dedicated comics store. They happened to stop in a used bookstore where they had a huge bin of dime comics—Richie Rich, Archie, Metal Men.

“There was this sense of earnest wonder in the old ’60s books, and so much value added because you got three stories in each issue and it took you 15 minutes to read a comic book.”

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Tags: Interviews by Brigid Alverson
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