Today we have two brief books, each a “fractured fairy tale” version of Snow White. First up, Catherynne Valente’s Six-Gun Snow White shares connections with a couple of recent posts on this site. As the first half of the title should make clear, it shares with Six-Gun Tarot a Western setting, but also partakes of the same intense genre-blending [...]
Thoughts on Alex: My Friend Dahmer
By on January 31, 2013
We review a lot of graphic novels around here (thanks in large part to super-reviewer Francisca Goldsmith) so, as we said on Monday, Angela and I were very happy to see a GN on the Alex Awards list this year. As I somewhat embarrassingly indicated, though, I hadn’t read Derf Backderf’s My Friend Dahmer, so I [...]
Review: Benny and Penny in Lights Out!
By on January 30, 2013
Benny and Penny in Lights Out! by Geoffrey Hayes Toon Books/Candlewick Press 978-1-935179-20-7, 32 pp. $12.95 Toon Books once again brings us the adventures of Benny and his little sister Penny in Lights Out! It’s a story all too familiar with parents: little sister Penny is getting ready for bed—she’s brushed her teeth and getting [...]
Review: Big Nate, Foxtrot, and Lio (AMP Kids)
By on January 28, 2013
About a year and a half ago, I was walking through the exhibit hall at Book Expo America and noticed a publisher I wasn’t all that familiar with and a title that had just become the hottest thing in my middle school library. I’m talking about Andrews McMeel Publishing. The series was Big Nate, the [...]
Preview: Garfield, vol. 8
By on January 19, 2013
Garfield is off to solve a mystery in the latest graphic novel from Papercutz: His food bowl is gone. Oh the humanity! Check out our preview of vol. 8 of Garfield, below, and keep an eye out for the book, which just came out this week.
Interview: Jane Yolen on Curses: Foiled Again
By on January 17, 2013
Teenager Aliera Carstairs has a pretty good head on her shoulders. She doesn’t have much patience for angst or drama; she describes herself as “A smart, lonely girl with a singular talent for swordplay.” By swordplay, she means fencing, which she is serious about and which forms the motif for both Yolen’s first book, Foiled, [...]
Commercial Success May Hide a Multitude of Secrets
By on January 16, 2013
from regular AB4T graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Cortés gained popular stature last year with his sweetly counterpoint art in satiric Go the F**k to Sleep. That’s part of his genius: giving the eye important information barely hinted at in the text. In “The Secret History” series, of which this exploration of Coffee, Coca, and [...]
Preview: Lego Ninjago, vol. 6: Warriors of Stone
By on January 12, 2013
Who would have thought that one of the most successful graphic novels of the past few years would be about Lego ninja warriors? Actually, anyone who gave it any thought at all—Lego is awesome, ninjas are awesome, and graphic novels are awesome. It’s three great tastes that taste great together. In this latest volume, the [...]
Links: The Phoenix Debuts
By on January 7, 2013
Quite a bit happened while we were away on hiatus; here are the highlights. I’ve been waiting for this for a while: The UK children’s comic The Phoenix is finally available as an iPad app; before this, you could only buy it in a specific grocery store in the UK. The app includes a free [...]
Review: Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking
By on December 17, 2012
Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking By Charles M. Schulz Fantagraphics Review by J. Caleb Mozzocco Form coincides with content in Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking, a new collection of two 1960s picture-book style comics efforts from Charles Schulz. The title story concerns the Peanuts gang’s musings on the stocking tradition (and good old Charlie Brown’s dilemma of [...]
Review: Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown
By on December 12, 2012
Please welcome our newest blogger here at Good Comics for Kids, J. Caleb Mozzocco. Caleb is so new that he doesn’t even have his avatar yet, but he couldn’t wait to get started, so here’s his first review. Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown By Carl Barks Fantagraphics It must be getting close to Christmas. [...]
Roundtable: Our favorite holiday graphic novels
By on December 10, 2012
With the air filled with holiday tunes and the TV schedule filled with holiday specials, we thought it would be an opportune time to recommend some of our favorite holiday-themed graphic novels as well.
I’ll start with Craig Yoe’s Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories. I love a big, colorful treasury like this, and Yoe [...]
Roundtable: Our favorite holiday graphic novels
By on December 10, 2012
With the air filled with holiday tunes and the TV schedule filled with holiday specials, we thought it would be an opportune time to recommend some of our favorite holiday-themed graphic novels as well. I’ll start with Craig Yoe’s Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories. I love a big, colorful treasury like this, and [...]
Preview: Annoying Orange
By on December 8, 2012
With a lineup that includes Ninjago, the Three Stooges, and Power Rangers, the Papercutz folks are all about having fun. And what could be more fun than Annoying Orange? Here’s a look at their Annoying Orange graphic novel, due out in stores next week.
In case you missed it (easy to do if you’re an adult), [...]
Preview: Annoying Orange
By on December 8, 2012
With a lineup that includes Ninjago, the Three Stooges, and Power Rangers, the Papercutz folks are all about having fun. And what could be more fun than Annoying Orange? Here’s a look at their Annoying Orange graphic novel, due out in stores next week.
In case you missed it (easy to do if you’re an adult), [...]
Preview: Annoying Orange
By on December 8, 2012
With a lineup that includes Ninjago, the Three Stooges, and Power Rangers, the Papercutz folks are all about having fun. And what could be more fun than Annoying Orange? Here’s a look at their Annoying Orange graphic novel, due out in stores next week. In case you missed it (easy to do if you’re an [...]
Styled with Simplicity, Achieving Eloquence
By on December 6, 2012
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith:
No reader, teen or adult, need be an aesthete or an art historian to be aware of the multiplicity of styles imagery can take. Awareness is one matter, but when faced with a style that is abundant with detail, color, line and light/dark interplay, awareness is awakened to a [...]
Review: Baggage
By on December 6, 2012
Here’s another review by our newest writer, Michael May—that’s him over on the right!
Baggage
by the Etherington Brothers
David Fickling Books
The Etherington Brothers, Robin and Lorenzo, aren’t household names in the U.S., but they do very well for themselves in their native U.K. I first became aware of them through their black-and-white, self-published Malcolm Magic series—following the [...]
On the Radar: Top Picks from the Editors at Junior Library Guild: Great Graphic Novels to Use in Your Common Core Classroom
By on December 3, 2012 1 Comment
These graphic novels that include tales of space travel, American history, and more, will entertain middle grade readers while also satisfying Common Core standards.
Preview: Ernest & Rebecca, vol. 3
By on December 1, 2012
Ernest & Rebecca is an intriguing little series about a girl and her friend, a germ. Rebecca’s going through some stuff—she’s sickly, which makes having a germ buddy rather problematic, and her parents are fighting in the first book and separated by the third. In this volume she is living with her grandparents out in [...]
