Lerner Publishing Group’s My Boyfriend is a Monster series has two popular publishing trends covered: Graphic novels and post-Twilight YA paranormal romance. The series of standalone, black-and-white, hardcover graphic novels by different creative teams all feature fast-paced, rather light melodramas in which a teenage girl falls for a boy who’s not quite human (but close [...]
Review: Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas
By on April 9, 2013
Benjamin Bear’s bright ideas include unique methods of getting rid of fleas, herding sheep, and making two things out of nothing, but even the bear’s brightest ideas are out-shined by those of Phillipe Coudray, the artist/author who created Benajmin and, therefore, does all of his thinking for him. Bright Ideas is Coudray’s second offering through [...]
Review: DC Super Friends
By on March 21, 2013
Among the latest offerings from Capstone’s fruitful relationship with DC Comics are a line of hardcovers reprinting some of the latter’s kid-friendly comics. Not collections of groups of comics, but single-issue reprints, differentiated from the original comics only by their hard, sturdy covers and spines—actual comic books never seem to last long in libraries, no [...]
Review: Barry’s Best Buddy
By on March 11, 2013
Anyone who’s read many of Renée French’s highly-detailed black-and-white comics, like her surreal, dark and disturbing meditation on migraines and ants h day, or perhaps her off-kilter family melodrama about deformity and surgery The Ticking, may be a little surprised to hear her name in the same sentence as the words “kids comic.” But then, [...]
Interview: Joey Weiser on Mermin Vol. 1
By on March 7, 2013
Cartoonist Joey Weiser’s latest work, Mermin Vol. 1: Out of Water, is about as close to a literal fish-out-of-water story as one would probably want to encounter in a comic book. After the title character, a young mer-boy, rescues a young surface-dweller boy from a shark, he’s invited to stay with the boy’s family and [...]
Review: The Baby Smurf
By on March 4, 2013
The fourteenth volume of Papercutz’s Smurfs collections introduces a brand-new character into the village, a character who the volume is named after: Baby Smurf. And where, exactly, do baby Smurfs come from? Well, a stork delivers this Baby Smurf, on the night of a blue moon, which cartoonist Peyo’s translated narration assures us is when [...]
Review: Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll Vol. 5
By on February 4, 2013
Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll Vol. 5 By Yumi Tsukirino Viz Media The fifth volume of this series is also its final volume, and it probably shouldn’t prove all that surprising that at its end it simply stops rather than concludes. Based on a super-simple, super-cute Sanrio character that’s only a few degrees more complicated than [...]
Review: Salvatore Vol. 1: Transports of Love
By on January 29, 2013
Salvatore Vol. 1: Transports of Love By Nicolas De Crécy NBM The title character in French cartoonist Nicolas De Crécy’s Salvatore is a little dog who is also a fantastic auto mechanic. That is not all that extraordinary a fact in the world of De Crécy’s meandering romantic adventure comedy, as its a world populated almost exclusively with [...]
Review: Owly & Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights
By on January 21, 2013
Owly & Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights By Andy Runton Atheneum Books Andy Runton’s Owly and Wormy have returned for a second outing in their still rather new-ish format. After years of publishing wordless graphic novels starring his silent, spherical owl character with Top Shelf Productions, cartoonist Runton elevated sidekick Wormy to co-star status and [...]
Interview: Roger Langridge on Popeye
By on January 14, 2013
Given Popeye’s penchant for mumbling and mangling pronunciations, one almost never knows what’s going to come out of the sailor’s misshapen mouth—unless the one in question is cartoonist Roger Langridge, who has been putting words into Popeye’s mouth as the writer of IDW’s new Popeye comic book series. Langridge has been making comics since the [...]
