Writing for ComicMix, Martha Thomases recently complained about how nobody is making comics for kids anymore:

For more than twenty years, those of us who love comics have insisted that the medium is one that can support great literature and complex ideas. We’re right. We’ve said “Comics aren’t just for kids,” and that’s true. Just as prose can be written for different audiences, graphic storytelling can reach many different audiences and tastes.

And yet, for some reason, a lot of people think that comics shouldn’t be for kids. I’m not just talking about the arts police, the ones who think every kind of entertainment needs a rating and a warning sticker. When I worked at a major comics publisher, my boss (who was a vice-president of marketing) once explained to me how the company would make plenty of money if no kid ever bought another comic, and our audience was exclusively males in the prized 18-to-25 demographic.

[snip]

Even these good comic book stores have relatively few comics for kids. American publishers aren’t publishing them. Manga is great, but there’s an awful lot of it, with lots of extended stories, and it’s hard for a newbie to jump in without a guide.

Comics may not be just for kids anymore, but do we have to shut them out?

It’s a complaint I’ve heard or read about more than once. That somehow, because we’re making comics for grown-ups, the wee ones are getting left out.

There’s a problem with this theory, however, in that it’s complete and utter horse manure. This is a fantastic time for kids comics — I can’t remember a better one — though they may not always be located in the most obvious or expected places.

Let’s start off with the indie publishers. First off there’s Top Shelf, with their Owly and now Korgi series. First Second has been working hard at wooing the pre-teen market with the Sardine in Outer Space books and Tiny Tyrant, not to mention young adult titles like American Born Chinese. In fact First Second editor Mark Seigel recently drew the all-ages graphic novel To Dance with his wife, Siena.

Linda Medley has brought back the delightful Castle Waiting. Kyle Baker has the winningly sweet The Bakers. The last time I checked, Jeff Smith’s Bone was still readily available in stores (and his take on Captain Marvel is one of the more kid-friendly superhero comics I’ve read in ages). Aaron Reiner has Spiral-Bound. Jimmy Gownley’s got Amelia Rules and even started the Kids Love Comics group to promote worthwhile all-ages sequential art.

Then there’s the huge amount of classic comic strip material that is being produced faster than we can keep up with. What better way to get your kids in the comics-reading habit than by introducing them to Peanuts, Popeye, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, Dennis the Menace, Gasoline Alley, Pogo and Carl Barks’ Donald Duck stories? Not to mention the fact that Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke are all still in print and easily available? My own five-year-old daughter is, as I’ve mentioned before, completely besotten with Little Lulu and I thank my stars and garters every night that Dark Horse is republishing these great comics.

Oh, and then there’s manga. Despite what Thomases says, it’s not terribly hard to find quality manga for kids, although I admit that depending upon the age of your children or your concerns regarding sexual or violent material, a bit of digging may be required. Still, there’s plenty of fine books like Yotsuba?!, Hikaru No Go and The Prince of Tennis to introduce your kids to.

But the real comics breakthrough these days can be found in the children’s section of your local bookstore. I am constantly astounded by the number of cartoonists that are producing children’s books these days, including Mark Newgarden (Bow Wow Bugs a Bug), Dave Cooper (I can’t find the book — he’s writing under a pen name — but I’ll post an update later today once I find the catalog I saw it in), Sara Varon (Chicken and Cat) and Rutu Modan (Dad Runs Away With the Circus).

Just the other week I received a copy of Phooey! by Marc Rosenthal, a delightful story of a boy who finds his home town utterly boring despite all evidence to the contrary. And despite what perhaps some marketers would like to say, there’s no mistaking this as anything other than a comic.

Meanwhile, artists like David Weisner and Mo Willems have been incorporating comics into their children’s books for ages now. Willems’ fantastic and hilarious Pigeon series, for example, doesn’t pretend to be anything but comics, albeit with panels that take up an entire page.

Weisner, meanwhile, has been indulding in the type of formal play that we usually associate with folks like Chris Ware. His Three Little Pigs, for example, or his more recent Fathom (both of which won Caldecott Medals) constantly pull at the medium’s abilities, all the while still squarely aimed at the elementary school set.

One of my tasks at the Patriot-News used to be books page editor (which disappeared due to a shrinking page count) As a result, I got and still receive catalogs from most of the major childrens’ book publishers highlighting their upcoming books. You know what? There’s not a single one in recent years that isn’t making some stab at publishing a graphic novel, no matter how half-hearted. Scholastic (you know, the folks who publish Harry Potter) even have THEIR OWN GRAPHIC NOVEL LINE, which publishes, among other things, Bone.
Gosh, all that and I didn’t even mention Archie. I think though, with a list like that (and really, that’s just off the top of my head) it’s safe to say there’s no need to worry about a lack of comics for kids.

Of course, what Thomases is mainly complaining about is the lack of superhero comics for kids. And in that regard, she’s right. It does bother me that I can’t pick up an issue of Spider-Man for my son without leafing through it, hoping it’s not the one where his eye gets eaten. It does bother me that if I take my daughter into the local comic shop I’m going to have to explain (or at least shy her away from) all the statues of half-naked women and Heroes for Hire covers (but I suppose that’s another issue entirely).

And yes, I know that there’s the Marvel Adventures line and the Johnny DC line, but c’mon, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s being done elsewhere; they could stand to expand both lines considerably. The good news is that the Essential and Showcase books (and other reprint collections) do a nice job of providing cape and cowl thrills for kids at reasonable prices.

But you know, maybe now that superhero comics have “grown up,” kids don’t need them anymore. After all, they’ve got plenty of other places to go to get their sequential art fix. I wouldn’t worry about kids not being exposed to comics. I’d worry about them giving a damn about Superman.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 9:09 am and is filed under Books, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Industry, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.