Flight: Explorer, Vol. 1
Edited by Kazu Kibuishi
Villard Books, $10.95
Ages: 7-12

Kazu Kibuishi has assembled some of the most imaginative artists working in animation and comics, giving them free reign to create stories of varying length, subject matter, and style for a younger audience. The result is Flight: Explorer, a trimmer, kid-friendly edition of his popular Flight series.

The anthology gets off to a great start with Kibuishi’s contribution, “Copper: Mushroom Crossing.” (Adult readers may recognize Copper and his sardonic dog Fred from previous installments of Flight.) In this episode, boy and dog leapfrog across a gorge filled with sequoia-sized toadstools. Fred makes an excellent child surrogate, voicing the right mixture of fear—he’s initially reluctant to cross the ravine—and bravado—he delights in his new-found skill as he learns how to hop from mushroom cap to mushroom cap.

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Tags: Reviews by Katherine Dacey
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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
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Finding comics for kids can be a real hassle. When we started looking in 2002 for my oldest daughter, there wasn’t much beyond DC Kids and Archie Comics. In the last few years, publishers seem to have rediscovered this market, with more comics for kids and all ages coming out all the time. Every month I will wade through the mire of Previews and bring highlights of the new titles as well as recommendations of titles for kids.

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Tags: Reviews by Lori Henderson
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One of the most interesting things about the manga phenomenon is the way fans make it their own; even more than traditional comics, manga seems to inspire readers to go off and make their own books. Here’s a story about two adult sisters, Danielle and Nicole Pelham, who started off watching Sailor Moon and now publish their own manga, including As Told By, a kid-friendly retelling of fairy tales in manga style, via NDP Comics. (Image taken from NDP’s Deviantart site.)

This is a bit of an odd couple, but Wizard magazine named Bone #1 as the seventh best and third most valuable comic in Wizard history. (Yeah, check your back issues, because they claim issue 1 is going for $250.)

I’m eagerly awaiting Hope Larson’s Chiggers, which looks like a really nice book. Rob Clough has an interview with Larson that features a peek at the art as well at Sequart.

If you’re in the Boston area, check this out: Mail Order Ninja creator and Kids Love Comics member Josh Elder will be answering questions about comics at the Boston Public Library on April 22.

Newsarama interviewed Matt Sturges about Blue Beetle, and he had some interesting thoughts:

One thing that’s really important to me is that I want Blue Beetle to continue to be a book that’s as fun for my twelve-year-old nephew as it is for me and my friends. I think you do that by being smart but not oblique, and clear but not condescending. Kids don’t want dumbed-down versions of grown-up comics; they want smart comics about things that matter to everybody, and without the adult content that would send them either to therapy or detention.

(Via Journalista; Blue Beetle cover art from DC Comics.)

Also at Newsarama: Mother-daughters collaboration Tracy, Sarah, and Shelby Edmunds review Flight Explorer.

Johanna Draper Carlson, who to my knowledge is the only person who reviews Archie comics regularly, has some reflections on Jughead #190 (spoiler alert: he eats a lot!).

And some news from across the pond: Artist and writer Garen Ewing e-mailed to alert me to The DFC, a children’s comic that will be launching in the UK on May 30. Ewing will be a contributor, and his comic The Rainbow Orchid has been picked up by UK publisher Egmont as well.

It’s not quite comics, but HarperCollins is producing a series of I Can Read books featuring Spider-Man.

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
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The Eisner Awards have been announced, and amid all of the commentary and snarky asides on its way (and is, admittedly, a great part of the fun of going through the nominees), I wanted to highlight how fantastic I think it is that the Eisners decided to break the category recognizing comics for younger readers, Best Title for a Younger Audience, into two separate categories: Best Publication for Kids and Best Publication for Teens. As anyone who works with kids or teens knows, they are a diverse and ravenous bunch when it comes to comics and graphic novels. However, no “young reader” is reading the same thing at 6 as they are reading at 16 (unless perhaps it’s Calvin and Hobbes.) The idea of trying to figure out a shortlist for every Eisner category is demanding enough, but the task of picking five or six titles to represent all the comics, graphic novels, and strips aimed at folks under 18 is nigh impossible. [Read more →]

Tags: Opinion by Robin Brenner
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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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Welcome to the link posts at Word Balloons! This is where we gather the best of the news, commentary, and reviews of children’s books from all over the web and present it in a handy set of links for you to pick and choose. We’re just getting started here, so if you know of an outstanding site that covers kids’ books regularly, drop us a line at the e-mail address on the upper right.

The big news of the week is the launch of Francoise Mouly’s imprint for beginning readers, Toon Books, and Christopher Mautner has a meaty interview with Mouly at his blog, Panels and Pixels, in which she discusses the challenges of starting what is basically a new publishing niche. Over at Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton has a glowing review of Otto’s Orange Day, one Toon’s three releases for spring, and ICv2 has the details of their fall lineup.

Salt Water Taffy, due out next month, is another title that’s getting some buzz; this week, Will Moss interviews creator Matt Loux for Publishers Weekly Comics Week, and at Comic Book Resources, Shaun Manning takes a long look at it, complete with sample pages.

Also at CBR: Tim Callahan reviews Tiny Titans #3, which both his kids find delightful.

The manga publisher Viz has just announced they are licensing the two-volume Legend of Zelda series, and it’s going to be rated All Ages according to this report at ICv2:

Viz Media has had considerable success with another “all ages” series based on a popular Nintendo game — the Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red made the “BookScan Top 20″ list for March (see “BookScan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for March”) and the property has become a fixture in top 10 on ICv2’s authoritative “Top 50 Manga Properties List”.

The books will sell for the (relatively) kid-friendly price of $7.99 per volume.

Kristy Valenti has a two part article up at ComiXology about the gender divide among middle school readers, with some interesting insights into differing reading habits and how the industry reflects that.

Newsweek’s Malcolm Jones remembers Classics Illustrated Comics and looks at a few of the modern incarnations, even going so far as to read the original of The Wind and the Willows alongside the comic book version.

At the French zine du9, Jeanine Floreani writes about Ce que je sais de ma maman (What I know about my mother), a children’s graphic novel with surprisingly somber overtones. (The review has been translated into English.)

If you haven’t already, check out the new Amelia Rules! website, complete with blog.

Librarian/blogger Tangognat posts brief reviews of two children’s titles, Swinging for the Fences and The Lonesome Puppy.

I grew up reading The Beano, and I still have some vintage weekly issues as well as the full-colo(u)r annuals lying around, so I find this very disappointing: Kids in the UK voted The Beano one of their ten Most Loathed Reads, along with homework, Shakespeare, and music scores (eh?).

Dave Karlen’s Original Art Blog takes a look at the work of Steve Muffatti, artist for Little Audrey, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and many of the other Harvey comic books I loved as a child. (Via Journalista.)

Tags: News by Brigid Alverson
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Tiger Moth: the fortune cookies of Weevil
Written by Aaron Reynolds; illustrated by Erik Lervold
Ages: 8-10; Reading Level: 3.3
Stone Arch Books, $4.95

Tiger Moth, fourth-grade ninja, and his sidekick Kung Pow face a mysterious new foe in this third book in the Tiger Moth series. Mysterious clues and dastardly villians abound as Tiger Moth tries to find out who is organizing the bad bugs of the town.

Reynold and Lervold’s story is cute and certainly has potential to appeal to kids, but its extremely short page count leaves readers hanging just when they’ve gotten into the story. Adults reading along with their kids will find that Tiger Moth’s adventures harken back to older comics in both feel and wording, especially when Tiger Moth is speaking. Kung Pow is a traditional sidekick, offering a mirror to reflect the hero and being on hand to add comic relief. Making the characters bugs is an inspired choice. It allows for a number of puns and also helps keep the light, fantastical feel that the book needs. Lervold’s art is eye-catching in its full-color. His panels stick mostly to square and rectangular and his backgrounds are not detailed at all, giving the entire work a Saturday-morning-cartoon feel.

Though this is the third book in the series, readers will be able to dive in and follow the main storyline with no problem. Some background details are probably explained in earlier volumes, but lack of knowledge about them shouldn’t frustrate so much as inspire readers to seek out the other books. A glossary, discussion questions, and a brief history of secret messages are included, as are three well-chosen and very interesting writing prompts, making this a possible choice for use by a book group or classroom. Teachers might want to supplement the Tiger Moth works with more substantial fare, but even with the thinness of the story, Reynolds’ and Lervold’s action comic will appeal to readers, especially boys.

Tags: Reviews by Snow Wildsmith
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Word Balloons is a group blog about comics for kids. We will cover all ages from preschool through young adult, but we won’t lump all ages together; we’re smart enough to know that a three-year-old has different abilities and interests than a 13-year-old.

Our goal is to be the morning newspaper for anyone interested in kids’ comics: creators, editors, teachers, librarians, retailers, and most importantly, readers. We will present interviews, reviews, and opinions and link to the best of what other folks are writing. We expect to have frequent guest posts, and we invite our readers to send us a heads-up whenever they see something interesting about kids’ comics on the internet or even in print.

Also, we will cover all the comics kids read, as opposed to the comics grownups think they should read. That means we will cover works of great literary and artistic merit, but we won’t ignore the formulaic crap either. If it’s fun, it’s in.

So pour yourself some milk, grab the cookies, and join in the conversation!

Tags: Opinion by Brigid Alverson
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