Good Comics for Kids

November 19, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Kit doesn't care about much of anything. Life in his low-rent part of town is rough, but it mostly passes him by. Then one summer his brother kicks him out of the house for two hours and Kit discovers a world of homeless cats. Soon he is feeding almost twenty of them, which catches the eye of both his mother, who orders him to stop, and Jess, a cool girl who hangs out with a tough group of guys. As tensions build, Kit feels trapped between doing what is right for the cats and the local cat lady he befriends and doing what is easiest to get by in the world.

Katman
Kevin C. Pyle
Ages 13+, grades 8-12
Henry Holt, September 2009, ISBN: 978-0-8050-8285-2
144 pages, $12.99

Pyle's Katman succeeds because of its honesty. He doesn't try to make it an afterschool spec...Read More

November 11, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Makoto Tateno is best known in the United States as a creator of yaoi, or boys love, manga for women, but she's also been a shojo manga creator for over 20 years. Recently, Digital Manga Publishing has released two of her shojo titles for teens, so whether teen readers are fantasy/adventure fans (Angelic Runes), or if they are looking for light comedy (Happy Boys), they won't have to look very far for a fun read.

Angelic Runes, vol. 1
Makoto Tateno
Age Rating: YA/16+
Digital Manga Publishing, July 2009, ISBN 978-1-56970-122-5
200 pages, $12.95

Sowil is a wanderer. Compelled to try to discover the mysteries of his birth, he uses his rune magic to help him along his way. When he rescue...Read More

November 5, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

Geronimo Stilton, editor of the Rodent Gazette and writer of adventure stories, is now a comic book creator as well. In his first two graphic novel adventures, he is sent back to the past by his good friend Professor Volt. Geronimo's job is to stop the evil Pirate Cats from changing history. First they try to prevent Columbus from discovering America by sowing the seeds of mutiny and then they go all the way back to Ancient Egypt to try to trick the pharaoh into putting a cat's face onto the Great Sphinx. Can Geronimo and his friends stop them in time to save history or is the Pirate Cats' plan too "purr"fect to fail?

Geronimo Stilton, #1: The Discovery of America
Ages 8-12
Papercutz, August 2009, ISBN 978-1-59707-158-1
56 pages, $9.95

October 28, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Learning to fly turns out to be the least of Mikey's problems. As G-Man he must cope with a host of unpleasant surprises, such as the bratty son of a superhero, the crazy activities at the Sunnyside Superhero Summercamp, the Christmas Tree of Doom, and, worst of all, his brother Dave, aka Great Man.

G-Man: Learning to Fly
Chris Giarrusso
All-Ages
Image, June 2009, ISBN 978-1-60706-087-1
96 pages, $9.99

Part of the fun of reading G-Man as an adult is getting all of the inside jokes about superheroes and superhero comics. The last few comics in the book are a long series of jokes about ultimate crisises and reworkings of backstories that pick gentle fun at recent events in the Marvel and DC Comics universes. But the nice thing about G-Ma...Read More

October 21, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Happyloo is a place where friends come together and have fun. Meet Tickle, Meatsauce, and Koolie--and the bullies Devon and Squirm--as they all have adventures together.

Happyloo: friends, foes, and fun
Mark Mariano
All Ages
My Pal Mark, April 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9823750-0-6
136 pages, $11.99

Mariano's book is half wordless graphic novel and half craft and activity book. It's unique combination that manages to be fun without seeming too much like a "Book for Educational Purposes." Each chapter is a story, usually with a gentle moral or lesson to be learned, and that story is followed by Happyloo @ Home which features suggestions for activities that follow up on the story. What makes those activities work is that Mariano varies them nicely. He offe...Read More