Good Comics for Kids

August 13, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Scholastic made a big announcement during this year's San Diego Comic-Con outlining publishing plans for Jeff Smith's Bone for 2009 and beyond. I had an opportunity to speak with Jeff in Toronto just before a signing at Indigo Books where he gave details and background about about Rose, the upcoming Tall Tales collection and the three volume Quest for the Spark series.
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August 12, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

A full audience was treated to a panel of librarians who are also die-hard comic book and graphic novel enthusiasts to speak about graphic novel-related programming in their libraries. They included: Robin Brenner (Brookline Public Library), Snow Wildsmith (Charlotte-Mecklenburge Public Library), Mike Pawuk (Cuyahoga County Public Library), Nick Smith (Pasadena Public Library), Hilary Chang (McCully-Moiliili Public Library) and Jill Patterson (La Habra Branch Library).

The panel kicked off with the successes and challenges of running a graphic novel book club. Most panelists spoke about the difficulty in getting adults interested in joining a club and even simply reading graphic novels. Most successes with book clubs have been with kids ...Read More

July 28, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

It's really hard not to love Owly.



A few weeks ago, it was announced that this lovable character would make the leap to from the page to the 3D screen. An animated short debuted last weeked at San Diego Comic-Con and I had the pleasure to speak with Andy Runton about how the short came to be and where it may take Owly as a cartoon in the future.
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July 26, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

It's Sunday morning here in sunny San Diego and I'm just waking up for the last day of Comic-Con, which is KIDS DAY! There's still many great panels that I need to cover before heading home this evening. Watch this blog for more San Diego Comic-Con coverage over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime here's more great photos from the floor for you to enjoy.



Crowds and line-ups were a theme of this year's show. Here's a shot from just outside the convention center.


My favorite photo of the show - a trio of Coralines!



A mural promoting the new CGI-animted Astro Boy movie base...Read More

July 25, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Despite the sheer number of people on the convention floor, I still managed to pick up a few interesting news bites so far about comics and graphic novels for kids here in San Diego.

- With the big annoucement of further books in Jeff Smith's Bone series, the press release did not mention that a Bone Handbook will be published sometime next year. Scholastic's 'handbooks' are a big staple of their book clubs and book fairs and is the format that put the Pokemon brand into the hands of millions of children across North America. Expect character profiles, activities and more Boneville fun.

- Scholastic will also be publishing a new book by Doug TenNapel in 2010 called ...Read More