SLJ talks to Jimmy Gownley of Kids Love Comics

Left to Right: Kids Love Comics founders Harold Buchholz and Jimmy Gownley with author Jane Smith Fisher at 2006 Comic Con International, San Diego. Photo credit: Courtesy of Earthdog

Kids Love Comics aims to change that. Founded by authors Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules! [Renaissance Press]) and Harold Buchholz (Apathy Kat [Wild Lion]), the nonprofit advocacy group is assembling a catalog of titles aimed specifically at kid audiences that get the group's "seal of approval." Gownley spoke to SLJ about the criteria for inclusion and his long personal history advocating—okay, reading—comics in schools.

How did Kids for Comics get started?

Harold Buchholz and I both just have a passion for comics. We wanted to get them out to kids. In Amelia, I printed that if any reader sent in $200, I would do a watercolor of their favorite character, and that the money would go to this purpose. I raised about $2,500—that was 15 or 16 watercolors. We put it all into a fund and met up here in Harrisburg with creators, retailers, and editors and hammered out what the organization was going to be.

What makes Kids Love Comics different from the other resources out there that review comics?

We're an advocacy group, but we're not a censorship group. We're not saying all comic books should be for kids, just that these comics with the Kids for Comics "seal of approval" are good for kids. They're really appropriate.

We try to have a wide base of individuals who make up the panel—creators, educators, distributors, retailers—so it really reflects the gamut of people involved in comic-book publishing, including Joe Murray, a comics retailer, and Scott Robins, an editor at Scholastic. He finalized the criteria.

What are the criteria?

It's so long and involved, but the highlights are storytelling, presentation, and talking directly to kids—rather than something that is kid-appropriate but that they might not be interested in.

I noticed there are several books by panelists on the first group of approved titles, including John Gallagher's Buzzboy (sky-dog), Jane Smith Fisher's WJHC: On the Air! (Wilson Place), and your Amelia Rules! Coincidence?

[laughs] Well, we had to recuse ourselves. We couldn't vote on our own work. We also recuse ourselves if we recommend someone. In fact, I recommended a friend, someone I thought was good, but the panel didn't approve it. I felt so bad when he got shot down.

We each nominated four or five books we thought were worthy. In addition to the titles already listed, we have more already approved, so we're up to 13 now. [Raina Telgemeier's] The Babysitter's Club (Scholastic/Graphix), [Mike Bullock's] Lions, Tigers, and Bears (Image Comics), and four more will be on the Web site by September. We'll have 25 titles by the end of year. Next year, we're also going to put out a catalog of approved titles through Diamond Book distributors.

There are hundreds of comics published every month. How do you keep up?

We limit it to trade paperback editions. We don't deal with monthlies. We focus on complete works.

What other resources will Kids Love Comics offer?

We want to have a representative sampling of 10 or 12 pages from each book online so parents or educators can actually see them. Eventually, we'd like to offer teachers lesson plans for these books. We also plan to do a national tour next year that gets writers into schools to talk to kids directly and encourage them to express their creativity through comic books.

What do you think comic books add to libraries?

They help reluctant readers. They help boy readers. I remember I wasn't allowed to bring comic books into school. I was caught with ElfQuest. In fact, in school I did a book report advocating comic-book reading. So I guess I've never stopped.

How did you do on the book report?

I think I got an A, but I still wasn't allowed to bring comic books to school!