Navigating the world of manga can be an over-whelming thing, especially if you’re a parent who’s just discovered it because your son/daughter has told you they want to read it.  Walk into a Barnes and Noble, or worse, a Borders, and you are greeted with rows and rows of titles covering just about every age group and genre.  But, you don’t want to go through every single title trying to find a book rated for All Ages or Everyone, the manga publisher’s equivelant to Hollywood’s Rated G.

You could go online and try and search the publisher’s websites, but most of them are unwieldy and make you click several pages in before finding an age rating for their titles.  Well, lucky for you, I’ve gone and done all that work for you!  My personal blog, Manga Xanadu, has a page dedicated to all the All Ages Manga available from all the manga publishers, with links to the title’s pages.  The page is up to date through July 2008, and I will continue updating it as new titles come out.  I chose only to include titles that are currently available.  Tokyopop and Viz have had other titles that are now out of print, but would require lots of searching to find, and I didn’t want to make this complicated.

Having said that, if you decide to check out the page, I would really like to hear about any suggestions you might have for improving it.  I want to make the page as helpful as possible to parents (and any other uninitiated looking for information).  Leave a comment here, or on this post on my blog.

Tags: News, Useful sites by Lori Henderson
1 Comment »

Here’s your required reading for the day: At Thought Balloonists, Charles Hatfield has an extended meditation on the first three releases from Toon Books. Craig Fischer responds. Charles and Craig don’t just review the books, they talk about their place in the reading universe, how they function vis a vis other children’s books, and how a reader would relate to them. Good stuff. (Sample page from Otto’s Orange Day, by Frank Cammuso and Jay Lynch, swiped from the Toon Books website.)

Minx has put something new up on their website: tools for making your own comics. Go ahead, you know you want to.

Holly Black, author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, will be writing a series of graphic novels, entitled Kin, for Scholastic’s Graphix imprint, according to ICv2. Courtney Crumrin creator Ted Naifeh will illustrate the books, which will be hardback, full color, 144 pages, and sell for $16.99. The plot will revolve around Rue Silver, a character from Black’s The Good Neighbors, who is a “faerie” who must fight a dark fairy to regain her parents’ freedom. The first volume will be published in October.

Dave Ferraro reviews Joann Sfar’s Little Vampire at Comics-and-More.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
1 Comment »

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Kate Culkin talks to Brenda Bowen about her plans for Bowen Press, her children’s book imprint at HarperCollins.

ICv2 reports that Top Shelf will publish a collection of YAM, by Corey Barba. Some of the comics have run already in Nickelodeon magazine, while others will be new. A YAM story appeared in the Owly Free Comic Book Day comic, which is available from Top Shelf for a penny if you missed the big day.

Here’s a useful resource: teenbit, which links to webcomics about teenagers and includes a blog as well.

New Zealand writer Tim Bollinger discusses five comics he loved as a kid. (Via The Comics Reporter.)

I love history and I read a lot of nonfiction, so I’m a total pushover for books like this: John E. Mitchell reviews Rick Geary’s The Fatal Bullet, the story of the Garfield assassination, at Shuffleboil. He also reviews Flight Explorer, Silly Lilly, Little Vampire, and three titles from Minx: Burnout, Water Baby, and Janes in Love.

At Prospero’s Manga, reviewer Ferdinand (Billy Aguiar) takes a look at Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! vol. 1 and explains how a manga written to a formula can still be pretty good. And he gives Flight Explorer four stars.

Greg McElhatton reviews Little Vampire and vol. 12 of the kid-friendly Hikaru no Go at his website, Read About Comics.

At Comics Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore looks at two of the Y.Kids Manga Literary Classics (they’re actually from Singapore), The Prince and the Pauper and Daddy-Long-Legs.

Tom Spurgeon reviews Matt Loux’s Salt Water Taffy at The Comics Reporter.

James A. Woods and Shaenon Garrity review the comics of Free Comic Book Day.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
No Comments »

At Newsarama, Tracy, Shelby, and Sarah Edmunds interview Landry Walker about the new Supergirl comics in which Supergirl looks like a girl. They also review Andi Watson’s Princess at Midnight, and they tip us to Riverside Reads, a comics website run by Scott Tingley’s third-grade class. Take a look at their interview with Andy Runton, creator of Owly. Mr. Tingley is already famous on the internet as the guy behind the useful site Comics in the Classroom. (Image swiped from Newsarama.)

Tokyopop, best known for bringing manga to the masses, is moving in a new direction: Full color graphic novels from around the world David Welsh talks to Tokyopop’s Bryce Coleman about the new line at The Comics Reporter. Here’s Coleman’s description of the intended audience:

So, while the scope I think will be expansive in both genre and tone, we’re looking at attracting an audience demo of both girls and guys, in the teen to older teen range. We’re definitely not doing “kiddie books” with these graphic novels, but while some will be more real world and sophisticated, others will simply be awesome tales of fantasy and adventure.

Staying with that teen demographic for a minute, David Welsh reviews Life Sucks, the teen-vampire graphic novel by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece, and admits that he has a personal reaction to some of the plot twists.

The Kids Love Comics folks post their NYCC pix, and Karen Gownley has some delightful news: Three issues of Amelia Rules can be downloaded for free from Wowio.

The folks at Archie Comics are planning a Katy Keene graphic novel.

Marina Neira reviews yet another classic from Dark Horse, Little Lulu vol. 7: Lulu’s Umbrella Service.

And another blast from the past: Tangognat presents some scans from a childhood favorite, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.

Tom Spurgeon reviews Flight Explorer at The Comics Reporter and is less enamored of it than most of the other reviewers I have read.

Greg McElhatton checks out Kaput & Zosky at Read About Comics.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
No Comments »

ICv2 talks to Mark Smylie about Tom Siddell’s Gunnerkrigg Court, the next graphic novel due out from Archaia Studios, publishers of Mouse Guard. If you can’t wait for the book, the webcomic is here. (Image (c) Tom Siddell.)

MySpace has a preview of Life Sucks, the new graphic novel about a teenage vampire working as a convenience store clerk, and Dave Ferraro reviews it at Comics-and-More.

Newsarama’s Zack Smith has a pun-filled interview with Scott Morse, creator of the Magic Pickle books, about the differences between prose and graphic novels and the joys of being an all-ages creator. (Via Journalista.)

I saw some previews of Ross Campbell’s Water Baby at the Minx panel at NYCC and I thought it looked kind of interesting, but Kevin Church not only doesn’t like it but finds it a bit creepy. And he does raise the interesting question of how interested teenage girls are in boobs and butts anyway. On the other hand, Kristy Valenti writes about two Minx titles she really liked, Burnout and The New York Four, in her latest column at comiXology.

At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson gives two thumbs up to Little Vampires.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh really likes Matthew Loux’s Salt Water Taffy.

Marina Neira reviews a classic collection, Little Lulu vol. 6: Letters to Santa.

Hope Larson’s Chiggers gets thoughtful reviews from Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter and Greg McElhatton at Read About Comics.

Andrew Wheeler takes a look at the fiction/biography hybrid Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow at ComicMix.

Shuffleboil is an interesting blog on various things, including the creators’ own work and reviews of graphic novels; here are John’s takes on Amulet, Jessica Farm, and Kaput and Zosky.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
2 Comments »

Hey everyone! Like the new logo? We changed the name and URL of this site because of an unfortunate coincidence, but don’t worry—the old URL will still get you here, at least for a while.

There’s a preview of the YA (15+) vampire graphic novel Life Sucks up at MySpace right now, and here’s an old-ish review by Elizabeth Bird at the School Library Journal. I’m reading it right now myself, so watch for a review in a few weeks.

Xavier Guilbert interviews Linda Medley about Castle Waiting at the French zine du9. (Link is to the English version.)

ComicMix goes the extra mile and has an actual kid, Lillian Baker (daughter of Kyle) do the reporting on the Archie panel from NYCC’s Kids Day.

At Comics in the Classroom, Scott Tingley reviews Ray Friesen’s Another Dirt Sandwich, after a failed attempt to get his wife to do the heavy lifting.

Chris Wilson checks out the first three issues of White Picket Fences and recommends it with some reservations at The Graphic Classroom.

Greg McElhatton has a nice review of vol. 1 of Jellaby at Read About Comics.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
4 Comments »

I’m working on writing up the ICv2 panel on graphic novels for tweens, but real life keeps getting in the way. In the meantime, check out this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week, which has extensive coverage of NYCC, including this roundup of children’s publishing panels and short takes on a variety of other events, including the girls’ comics panel and the Minx panel.

Blog@Newsarama gets a peek at the new Supergirl, from DC’s upcoming Supergirl: Tales of an Eighth Grade Something. And hey, she looks like a kid! Newsarama also has a video of Dan Didio talking to DC coordinating editor Jann Jones about the kid-friendly Tiny Titans line.

Some nice reviews out this week: At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton enjoys vol. 1 of Salt Water Taffy, and at Thought Balloonists, Charles Hatfield discusses Joann Sfar’s Little Vampire and Craig Fischer adds his two cents.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
No Comments »

Here’s a preview of Kid Houdini and the Silver-Dollar Misfits, a graphic novel due out from Viper Press in June. Newsarama recently interviewed the creator, Dwight McPherson.

Gon is an interesting title; because it is wordless, and about animals, and has a cute dinosaur on the cover, you might think it’s a children’s book. But the inside art is more detailed and intense than the covers, and the action can be a bit much for children. John Jakala has an interesting story about his two-year-old daughter picking it up and instinctively reading it the right way, but she didn’t do as well with vol. 2. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson’s daughter Krissy also remarked that it was too violent. Grownups love it, though.

If you’re in the Boston area, check this out: Josh Elder, writer of Mail Order Ninja and one of the guiding spirits behind Kids Love Comics, will be answering questions about comics at the main branch of the Boston Public Library this evening, April 22, at 7 p.m.

Marina Neira checks out another of the Harvey Comics Classics reprints, this one of Hot Stuff, the adorable little devil.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
No Comments »

Kids and tweens [graphic novels] are due for a big explosion this year.

That’s what ICv2 publisher and comics maven Milton Greipp said yesterday at the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference. I’m here in New York for the New York Comic-Con, and it seems like everyone is talking about how comics suddenly are going to be for kids again. I’ll be posting about the panels at the con as the weekend goes on. If you’re thinking about coming, check out Blog@Newsarama’s post on five things kids, teens, and parents can do at NYCC.

I loved the Harvey Comics line as a child—Richie Rich, Little Audrey, all the gang. So I’m interested to see that Dark Horse is publishing some collected versions. Marina Neira has a review of vol. 2 of Richie Rich and some news about a collection of the Harvey Girls comics.

At Manga Life, Park Cooper talks to teenage girls about why they like manga.

Reviews: At Comics-and-more, Dave Ferraro reviews Flight Explorer, which is one of those books everyone is talking about at the moment, probably with good reason. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Veronica #187 at Comics Worth Reading. Andrew Wheeler of ComicMix has brief reviews of three kids’s titles, Gumby Collected #1, Sardine in Outer Space, and Little Vampire.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
1 Comment »

The Minx folks have put up a preview of the upcoming title Emiko Superstar, by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Rolston, on MySpace.

Jimmy Gownley is mighty pleased, and he ought to be: He and Amelia Rules garnered four Eisner nominations. And he has issue number 18, which got the nomination for best single issue, up for free download.

Archie comics, which at the moment look exactly like the Archie comics I read as a child, are mixing it up a bit with two new writers, Jesus Gil Holguin and Misako Takashima, and two new characters, Toño Diaz and Kumi Tamura. (Via Comics Worth Reading.)

Also at Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews a handful of DC titles, including Tiny Titans #3.

New York Magazine reviewer Dan Kols credits manga for bringing kids to graphic novels, and he reviews two non-manga titles, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

First encounters: At the Forbidden Planet blog, Katherine Farmar recalls her first graphic novel, although they probably weren’t called that then: A Donald Duck paperback. (Via Journalista.)

Tangognat spots yet another YA novel going the manga route, Bad Kitty, but she’s a bit dubious.

Greg McElhatton reviews Andi Watson’s Princess at Midnight at Read About Comics, and he has some interesting comments on length.

Illustrator Marina Neira reviews vol. 3 of Owly and vol. 1 of Yakari and Great Eagle.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
No Comments »