Good Comics for Kids

May 7, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

What have you been up to lately? I've been helping put together a comics festival! If you're in the Toronto area, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival is happening this weekend, May 9th and 10th at the Toronto Reference Library. Below is a selection of the programming -- check out the Books for Boys panel :-). Sunday is the dedicated Owlkids Day and will include tons of great kids programming (Readings! Live Drawings!) and other fun activities (Make Your Own Super Hero Masks! Make Your Own Mini Comic Strips!), plus giveaways and some very cool prizes donated by publishers (Ahem...Bone figurines).

Click here to see the entire programming...Read More

April 11, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

In January at the ALA Midwinter conference, project manager, Jim Zubkavich introduced the library world to the new UDON Kids line with an impassioned speech recounting how comics and specifically manga turned him into a lifelong reader. And now he’s on a mission to do with same with kids today, with the help of librarians, of course.

Diamond Books Kids Director Janna Morishima suggested that UDON take a look at look at the line of manga that would become UDON Kids. Morishima described the books as “the Scholastic of Japan.”

UDON promises that this new line of manga for kids will not only be packed full of fun, appealing adventures for an upcoming generation of readers but the books will not have any surprise nudity, inappropriate language or over-the-top violence, which has been something librarians have had to keep a close eye on especiall...Read More

November 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Christopher Butcher over at comics212.net has the scoop on a new graphic novel series called THE ELSEWHERE CHRONICLES debuting from Lerner Publishing this upcoming Spring. More details on the story and inside-page preview art can be found at www.elsewherechronicles.com.

This looks like some great stuff - finally, more fantasy aimed at a 9-12 age group with great clean artwork and fun character design. Two interesting things to note here: this is a real departure from the recent output of Lerner's Graphic Universe imprint with clearly more emphasis as a trade graphic novel rather than a strictly high-interest educ...Read More

November 10, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Jimmy Gownley rules. Why? At the beginning of October, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing announced that it had acquired his graphic novel series AMELIA RULES!, a favorite among both critics and fans. Called “a PEANUTS for the 21st century” by Comic Buyers Guide, AMELIA RULES! had been self-published by Gownley’s Renaissance Press since 2001.

Shortly after that I met Jimmy at a San Diego Comic-Con and our first conversation kind of went like this:
Scott: Hey, people should be doing more comics like yours! Kids will love this!
Jimmy: I agree!

And from there Jimmy went on to start ...Read More

October 20, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Flashback to Comic-Con 2008 - one of the better panel discussions I attended at this year's show was the Kids Draw! panel that featured Nick Abadzis (Laika), Debbie Huey (Bumper Boy), Johane Matte (Flight Explorer), Scot Morse (Magic Pickle), Andy Runton (Owly), Kean Soo (Jellaby) and hosted by Dave Roman from Nickelodeon Magazine.

It was an early Sunday morning and the panel started with a room half full of kids and their parents. By the time the panel got into full swing the room was packed with enthusiastic would-be cartoonists listening intently to the advice of the group of creators and scribbling their own drawings to be share with the audience at the end of the panel. When you work in comics whether it's publishing or promoting sometimes you just get tired of hearing your own voice reminding everyone tha...Read More