So, I got an email from Jason (Continuity) McNamara yesterday that I wanted to share with the lot of you (He’s given his okay, so it’s not as if I’m suddenly putting up secret messages or anything):
Two years ago, my partner Tony Talbert and I were at the Eisner’s and heard Michael Chabon give a great speech about making comics for kids. It echoed our own fears that comics were not cultivating the next generation of readers. We both learned how to read from Spider-Man comics before we went to school. Being introduced to comics at such a young age helped us, and many others, develop an adventurous life for ourselves.
So Tony and I came up with First Moon [Chris Arrant talked to Jason about it here, Blogarama readers]. Aimed at the 8-30 crowd, its the story of the lost colony of Roanoke and how it ties into Native American werewolves. We wanted to do a book we could see in a class room. It’s got historic and positive family values.The only down side we thought was that we would get lost in the avalanche of all ages material coming out after Chabon’s moving speech. The wave never hit. At least not on the Internet. I went to the Isotope the other day bitching about how nobody gives a shit about getting kids on comics (Cigarette companies are all about renewing their customer pool, does anybody think that’s an industry that’s not going to be here in 20 years?). I assumed he was going to play the Bone card on me. Much to my surprise and shame, there are a lot of great material out there for kids. I’d just never heard of it.
Clan Apis by Jay Husler, Terrabella Snoot and the unsung monsters, Courageous Princess by Rod Espinosa, The Wizards Tale by Kurt Busiek. How come I never heard of a book by KURT [expletive deleted because we're still on the main blog page] BUSIEK? Am I just not looking? Or has comics journalism hit the Plado Ceiling?
He adds, later, “[N]ot to knock Bone. I’ve been giving copies to my girlfriends nephew to help him read,” so Jeff Smith lovers, rest easy. More interestingly, he also mentions that he and Talbot “won a Xeric Grant for First Moon. The basis of my grant was to donating copies to Juvenile detention centers,” which, you know, is pretty awesome in and of itself (AiT/PlanetLar is handling distribution to stores). But to get back to his point - He’s right, isn’t he? Why isn’t there more writing about kids’ comics? I used to check Scott Robins’ All Ages when it ran, but aside from some reviews on Johanna’s blog, I can’t think of anywhere else that does regular look at all ages titles. What am I missing, or is the entire comicinternetosphere missing out altogether?
December 5th, 2006 at 10:28 am
Tracy Edmunds does a weekly feature every sunday on Newsarama.com called “All Ages Reads”. That’s the first one that comes to mind.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Comics - The Holiday Gift
December 5th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Comics - The Holiday Gift for kids http://blog.newsarama.com/2006/10/25/candys-dandy-but/
(ack, double post!)
December 5th, 2006 at 11:31 am
It’s not a blog, but the No Flying, No Tights sites are great sources for comics recommendations for younger readers: http://www.noflyingnotights.com/
December 5th, 2006 at 11:43 am
I never read any “comics for kids” when I was a kid. I jumped right into X-men classics at age 7.
There are plenty of all ages titles; Action Comics, Ultimate Spider Man, Incredible Hulk and Justice Society.
Kids are smart, they wanna be in the know… not segregated to out of continuity titles.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Kids don’t care about continuity.
Kids care about a good story, characters they can idolize or identify with. And oh yeah, making that three dollar allowance stretch.
But mostly kids would have to know where to find comics.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
John your right kids are smart and so were we at that age. They can tell when they’re being sat at the kids table. My concern with todays mainstream comics is that there hard to penetrate.
I give away my comics after I’ve read them and I have a hard time picking which ones can be read or understood on their own (I had to give up on the x-men after 15 years because I couldn’t follow it anymore).
But yes, when you put ‘all ages’ on a book you risk scaring away kids who don’t want to be talked down to. The same thing happens on Newsarama when a great article on Scholastic and Bone (sigh) is put under a big banner called ‘All Ages Reads’. It’s marketing to the parents not the kids.
I think Bone is a wonderful and sophisticated book. It should reveiwed and discusses alongside Civil War, Blue Monday, Clan Apis, Action Comics and Courageous Princess. When you put something in a smaller category it’s easier to ignore.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
The problem is so much of comics journalism is narrowcasted to a subset of comics fandom.
That’s the problem with fanboy/professionals at all levels of the business. Especially when they let their inner fanboy prevent them from broadening their perspective to improve the professionalism. There’s not enough attention given to things outside of their personal tastes.
This goes for retailers as well as journalists.
Look at films:
Roger Ebert doesn’t just review movies within a single genre. Multiplexes and “Art Houses” both stretch to accommodate the Esoteric and Mainstream tastes in film in order to survive.
Comics professionals must look beyond their preferred niche if they hope to broaden the market.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I agree, titles are hard to penetrate today.
Maybe the answer isn’t content then, it’s format?
If graphic novels or mini-series were set to replace smaller titles that have trouble staying afloat anyway, you might see new audiences creeping in knowing they’ll at least get a beginning, middle and end for their troubles.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
There’s plenty of discussion about comics and graphic novels for people of different ages if you know where to look for it - check out some library sites! Graphic novels for different age groups are reviewed in just about every professional library journal out there. And reviews for great kids’ comics and graphic novels appear online at Diamond Book Distributors’ Bookshelf website (I write ‘em). Booklist, the review journal for the American Library Association, includes reviews for all age groups, and the March 15 2006 issue, its annual Graphic Novel Showcase, featured a core list of graphic novel titles for younger readers (12 and UNDER). The 19th edition of the Children’s Catalog, a standard catalog for libraries serving children, which was published last month, includes a section on chldren’s graphic novels (in the 741.5 section of nonfiction, which is where the Library of Congress puts all comics). Several major book distributors, led by Brodart, provide lists of graphic novels suitable for the different age levels - I select those lists.
It’s fine and dandy for someone who’s starting with comics at age 12 or so to jump right in with the super heroes, but I started reading comics when I was 6 years old (a long time ago), and no way would my parents let me read super hero stuff. I read Baby Huey, Little Lulu, Richie Rich, Nancy and Sluggo, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and those types of comics. Titles along those lines are only slowly coming back, with creators such as John Gallagher, Jimmy Gownley, Jane Smith Fisher, Jeff Smith, Alex de Campi, Scott Christian Sava, Mike Kunkel, Scott Morse, and a growing host of others.
Come on, people, libraries are the gateway to comics for kids. That’s where they can find good, fun stuff to read and decide if they like it. And that’s where a lot of the discussion is going on. Just ask Robin Brenner of No Flying No Tights, Michele Gorman (head of the ImaginOn - one of the most fantastic libraries for youth in the country, and it’s in Charlotte, NC!), Dawn Rutherford in Seattle (she’s chair of the Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee for the Young Adult Library Services Association), Mike Pawuk in Cuyahoga County, OH (he’s a Young Adult librarian whose book on graphic novels will be coming out in late December - from Libraries Unlimited). You will find a lot of librarians who are ignorant about comics, but more and more of us are getting them for their libraries, and more and more of us are teaching the others.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:43 am
I agree with the fine Mr. Zito. There are plenty of comics for kids. I see no need to tailor “special” comics for them. Usually these are just politically correct and patronizing material not suitable for anyone who wants to read.
First Moon is good though and so is Jay Hosler’s Clan Apis not as good as Cow Boy though. But stuff like Marvel Adventures and much of the DC kiddie stuff is really weak even for superhero material. Spidey F*KS MJ is boring to the point of tears.
As a child I loved old back issues of Kamandi, Stalker, Tomb of Dracula,and current stuff from Dr. Strange, Batman and Thor. Today, I imagine kids would love Conan, the Dark Horse Horror “Book of” anthologies, and good super hero books like JSA. X-men is a perennial favorite across all age groups. Kids can handle material that isn’t written for four year olds. Many crave it. As a young teenager, I remember being outraged when retailers did not want to sell me Hellblazer despite the fact I’d been reading it for two years and Swamp Thing before that. Generally, kids don’t need a lot of protection from reading material especially that found in mainstream american comics.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
I’m one of those 30-something guys who grew up on superhero comics. Back then, they didn’t need to be labled ‘kids comics’. They were for all ages and even when I read an upsetting story about Spider-Man’s friend suffering from drug addiction or his girlfriend’s father killed by Doc Ock, it was done in such a way that was upsetting but not innapropriate. Now, if I want to give away any of the superhero comics to kids since Joe Quesada and Dan Didio took over Marvel and DC respectively I can’t, because they’re not appropriate, unless they’re part of the kid’s line of books. It’s absurd that I can’t give an 8 year old a Batman or Spider-Man comic book because the majority of editors, creators and readers are so embarassed to be working on and reading superhero comics that they’ve had to make them ‘edgy’ or ‘mature’, when in reality, they’re just as goofy if not moreso, than they were when I was a kid. The only difference is, anyone or any age could read them.