Good Comics for Kids

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

October 14, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

K.was raised in an orphanage by a woman who abused the children and forced them into a life of crime as thieves and pickpockets. Now that the orphanage has been freed from her clutches, K. is starting over. She's been invited to the Bellsong Academy for Girls by an aunt she never knew she had. But all is not right at Bellsong and K. soon finds that her thieving days are not yet behind her.

Cat Burglar Black
Richard Sala
First Second, September 2009, ISBN: 978-1-59643-144-7
128 pages, $16.99

Sala's middle school noir title has an outlandishly fun plot that is almost too big for his book. In a mere 128 pages, Sala packs in an orphan girl, a mysterious academy, a secret society of ...Read More

October 7, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Beatrice "Bea" Whaley might be losing her mind. Each night she dreams that she has journeyed back to Massachusetts in 1776, where a Revolutionary War soldier named Alan Warren is in love with her. He's gorgeous and her nightly adventures are exciting, but aren't they just dreams? Are they worth sacrificing real world happiness for? Or are her nighttime travels more than just fantasy?

The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale, vol. 1
Lora Innes
Rated 13+
IDW Publishing, July 2009, ISBN: 978-1600104657
160 pages, $19.99

...Read More