all-ages comics for under-10s?

Rhyo said:
Lol, your WHAT wasnt? Your letter? The reply to your letter?
My letter wasnt rude. And the one that followed mine. The replies werent either.

"Sweet! We go one fan!"

"Two fans! We rock!"

Yeah, we gave love. :p
 
icemastertron said:
My letter wasnt rude. And the one that followed mine. The replies werent either.

"Sweet! We go one fan!"

"Two fans! We rock!"

Yeah, we gave love. :p

And then Bendis spat in your face.
 
School Library Journal for this month has a cover article about Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers. The article itself is here, and their list of some of the top titles is here.
 
Seldes Katne said:
School Library Journal for this month has a cover article about Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers. The article itself is here, and their list of some of the top titles is here.

By the way, my son loves his Owly books. We have one at home and one in the car. He has named the characters and he "reads" it to me while we're driving.
 
That's the sort of thing every librarian wants to hear. :heart:

By the way, the third issue of Owly is out, and I believe there's a plush of Owly you can buy, although I haven't seen it yet....
 
Seldes Katne said:
That's the sort of thing every librarian wants to hear. :heart:

By the way, the third issue of Owly is out, and I believe there's a plush of Owly you can buy, although I haven't seen it yet....

Oh he'll love that - I'll look for it. Thanks :D
 
Adding to this yet again. Partly because a lot of comics for the under-10 crowd are still pretty good reads for some of the rest of us (who are still young at heart)... :wink:

I belong to a listserv for librarians, and graphic novels come up as a discussion topic frequently, so we swap information, including review sources. Here's a link to a webpage called Sidekicks, which has reviews of comics for the younger set.

The rest of the site, No Flying No Tights, has graphic novel reviews for teens, divided by genre. The reviewers do include superhero comics, but also highlight titles that appeal to readers of historical fiction, fantasy (yes, all right, superheroes technically fit in that category), romance, horror, adventure, and realistic fiction. Within each category, titles that can be read by younger teens are marked with an asterisk (*).
 
I whole-heartedly endorse Root Nibot and Colleen Coover's Banana Sunday as an all-ages title.

I *could* attempt to hype it, and rave on about why it's such a perfect title, but honestly, no amount of 'objective' recapping or subjective praise can duplicate the sheer fun of actually reading the damn thing, so for now, I recommend that you check out the preview located here:

http://www.onipress.com/titles/titles.php?id=BS1

This is worth checking out, regardless of your age, especially if you have a love for monkeys, high school, PG-rated teenage high-jinks, girl reporters...

...and Kirby-esque cosmic Gods.
<-- crucial, unpredictable plot twist. Seriously, it kinda comes out of nowhere, so it's a nice surprise. A bit frustrating, initally, because there's no foreshadowing whatsoever, but the execution is just so darn fun, reading it put a smile right on my face.
 
Just got hold of The Collected Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures, volume 1. This, of course, would probably appeal more to girls than boys, since there's a "romantic" issue in which Alison explains how her parents met (Dad is a librarian-turned-superhero and Mom is an archaeologist). Alison also has a Batman-type uncle who changes disguises the way other people change direction. I didn't see anything in this that couldn't be handled by most kids ages 8 - 10, and there's actually some decent science and historical stuff presented as well. In three separate stories, Alison and her two friends take on museum-robbing Nazis, 1001 Arabian Knights (yes, that's spelled correctly), and the story of Alison's parents. Black and white art.
 
Volume 1 of Lions, Tigers and Bears, entitled Fear and Pride arrived at the library last Friday, and I'm adding it to the list. The main character, Joe, is moving to a new town because of his mother's job, and his grandmother gives him a quartet of stuffed "big cats": a lion, a black panther, a Bengal tiger, and a Siberian tiger. They will be his friends and protect him, she says, and, not surprisingly, that's what happens. Mostly. It's a classic story of toys coming to life, but these have a pretty good backstory, and the art is great.
 
I would add Aaron Reiner's Spiral Bound (Top Shelf Comics) to this list. It's a fun adventure story about a group of anthropomorphic animal friends who find themselves in the middle of a very complex public debate about locating a students' sculpture garden in a pond that is allegedly plagued by a dangerous (mythical?) monster.

Despite this whimsical premise, the story manages to present a nuanced view of the diverse sides in the sculpture garden controversy, without ever presenting any perspective as being the "right" one, in a cheesy, over-simplistic, black-and-white kind of way. All the while, it raises subtle questions about stuff like intolerance, the function of art, and the role the government should play in ordinary lives, in a way that's never heavy-handed or difficult for kids to follow.

I would dare say it's an ideal "gateway book", if you would eventually like kids to read titles like Ex Machina or Pride of Baghdad. I'm serious!

The black-and-white line art is cute, and remarkably detailed. Very reminiscent of Goodbye, Chunky Rice, by Craig Thompson.
 
I went to a local comics show this weekend and saw the usual Portland crowd, but also met Jeff Parker, who writes the Marvel Adventures line for Marvel, which is a separate continuity group of titles featuring Marvel heroes. (Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, and an upcoming Avengers title that features The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Storm, Giant Girl (Janet Van Dyne), Spider-Man and Wolverine.)

The Adventures line is meant to be fun, exciting and all-ages friendly, with "done in one or two issue" stories and simplified origins and backstory. In the Avengers line-up, Parker talked about the relationship between Storm and the Hulk which sounded pretty interesting - sort of an "elemental to elemental" thing, where Storm can "Hulk" and "de-Hulk" Banner faster than anyone else.

One of the things I liked is that Parker talked about bringing back the style of letters pages where the characters answers the mail and ralk to the readers, in an attempt to set up the "old Marvel" feel - when you picked up a comic in the 60s and early 70s, the level of Stan Lee hype was amazing, but it was always amusing and somewhat inclusive - you were part of the Marvel family and he was talking to you directly. The current Marvel tone is adversarial at best.
I gave a girl I work withs 7 year old son a few issues of this and he absolutely loved them.
 
ATTENTION, MODS! For some careless reason, I started this thread in the Marvel forum, even though I clearly intended it for General Comics Discussion. For the sake of effective archiving, please relocate it accordingly. Thanx so much!
 
Castle Waiting turned up as a recommendation for me at Amazon.com, and it's on my "To Read" list.

I just finished a lovely black and white GN called Clan Apis, which would be suitable for older children, teens and adults. It's the life cycle of honeybees, told through a bee named Nyuki, who we first see as a larvae about to go through metamorphosis into an adult.

There's enough humor to keep adults amused, but this could be read by any kid interested in the natural world. It's probably not for younger children, as there are some deaths, and of course the whole predator/prey thing that includes spiders and other insects. It's all well-researched, too, so you get quite the education.
 
Korgi, by Christian Slade. Suitable for any kid ages five or six and older. It's a wordless book with black-and-white line drawings and shading.

In a deep forest live a group of "mollies" (small humans) and various other creatures, among them a large, alligator-like protector and a whole pack of Korgis (which look remarkably like corgi dogs here on Earth). Ivy, a little girl, follows her Korgi pup Sprout as he chases a dragonfly, only to discover what looks like a crashed spaceship. Beneath the ship is a cave, with symbols of Korgis and spiders at the entrance. Ivy and Sprout fall through the ceiling of the cave into the dark world below and find a variety of monsters lurking there. During their adventures, both Sprout and Ivy exhibit unexpected abilities. Really unexpected. Sprout in particular has one very un-dog-like ability.

Ivy is a self-sufficient girl (there's a sequence in which she actually kind of beats up a monster), and she and Sprout protect each other throughout the book. This volume ends with a set-up for the next book, although the main plotline is resolved. Except for the spaceship -- that's never really explained, although it may show up again in a future volume. It's easy to follow the action, even without words, and the facial expressions add a lot to the story. E's kids may be getting a copy of this for Christmas....
 
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My LCS has a "Kids" section, and I recently picked up Here Be Snapdragons, by John Kovalic and Liz Rathke.

This is another title where I can't tell if it's better for kids or adults. The kids in the book do a lot of imaginative play, sometimes helped by role-playing game manuals; in one segment, their uncle is running the game, and the kids discover that RPG goes back a long, long way....like, over thirty years. That's before computers, or even dirt! :lol:

The authors have done a take-off on Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are, which doesn't turn out the way it did in the original book. Other sequences look at the consequences of playing sick to stay home from school (so one character can play with the X-Cube Station2 she's supposed to be getting for her birthday tomorrow), and a host of other situations that will be familiar to kids. However, much of this will be entertaining for adults as well. (There is a one-line reference to The Princess Bride, for example.) All G-rated stuff, except for the occasional potty humor that young children sometimes display.
 
My LCS has a "Kids" section, and I recently picked up Here Be Snapdragons, by John Kovalic and Liz Rathke.

This is another title where I can't tell if it's better for kids or adults. The kids in the book do a lot of imaginative play, sometimes helped by role-playing game manuals; in one segment, their uncle is running the game, and the kids discover that RPG goes back a long, long way....like, over thirty years. That's before computers, or even dirt! :lol:

The authors have done a take-off on Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are, which doesn't turn out the way it did in the original book. Other sequences look at the consequences of playing sick to stay home from school (so one character can play with the X-Cube Station2 she's supposed to be getting for her birthday tomorrow), and a host of other situations that will be familiar to kids. However, much of this will be entertaining for adults as well. (There is a one-line reference to The Princess Bride, for example.) All G-rated stuff, except for the occasional potty humor that young children sometimes display.
Great recommendations from Seldes as usual.

Isn't Kovalic that guy who does Dork Tower?
 
Just found this in one of our neighboring libraries and am miffed that they stole a march on me and got this before I did. :wink:

Age of Reptiles: The Hunt, by Ricardo Delgado. Completely wordless GN, but really can be read by all ages. A young allosaur sees his mother killed by a pack of ceratosaurs. He manages to survive to adulthood, but the pack is often following him. The "story" follows not just the rival dinosaurs, but a number of other dinosaurs and pterosaurs as well.

While this is a hunter/prey story in most places, the art is very clear and striking, and the really gory parts take place off camera (or are covered by conveniently-located foliage). Even the youngest dino enthusiasts would like this, but adults can appreciate it, too.

Sadly, this is out of print at the moment, but if you can find a copy, at least give it a look.
 

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