Category: Kids – All Ages

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Otto’s Orange Day


By Frank Cammuso & Jay Lynch (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-0-9799238-2-1 (HC)                    978-1-935179-27-6 (PB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Colourful and Captivating… 10/10

If you give them a chance and the right material, kids love to read. Happily, these days there’s a grand renaissance of books for the next generation to cut their milk-teeth on, and thanks to the dedication of folk like David Fickling Books (and their wonderful comic The Phoenix) in Britain and Toon Books/Raw Junior in the USA, plenty of avenues for youngsters to grow up reading comics too…

This one comes courtesy of award-winning political cartoonist Frank Cammuso (also the creator of Max Hamm: Fairy Tale Detective) who joins here with legendary industry giant Jay Lynch (Mad, Bijou Funnies, Phoebe and the Pigeon People, Nard ‘n’ Pat, Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids) to relate a boisterous and visually flamboyant  yarn of foolish enthusiasm…

Otto was a ginger cat and utterly obsessed. He always said – long and loud and often – that orange is ‘My Favorite Colour’. He proclaimed it in verse and through dance and even had a song about the best hue in the world. That’s why his Aunt Sally Lee sent him an old dusty lamp she found in a store. It was pretty dusty and banged up, but beneath the grime, it gleamed orange…

Otto gave the old a thorough dusting and was amazed to see a gigantic blue genie offering him one wish. Otto had no doubts what it should be…

Opening the door he found the entire world painted in shades of the greatest colour of all. He couldn’t wait for winter when he could make orange snowmen!

Sadly, he soon started seeing the downside and learned to ‘Be Careful What You Wish For!’ The roads were more dangerous, people were hard to recognise and even Otto couldn’t stomach orange lamb chops with orange mashed potatoes and orange spinach!

Knowing he had to turn things back, Otto tried to find the lamp but it was difficult to do when all his toys and games were orange too…

And even when he finally locates the magic artefact there’s still another problem: only one go per owner and the genie says that changing the world back counts as ‘A New Wish’ and is far from happy to start making changes now…

Aimed at the five-and-over age-range, this splendidly child-sized (152 x126 mm) tome is a gloriously evocative, sleekly exciting kid-friendly caper, produced in 32-page, full-colour landscape format and the kind of illustrated extravaganza kids of all ages will adore – and probably fight over…

Toon Books/Raw Junior was founded by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly to provide high-quality comics stories to entice pre-schoolers and beginning readers into a life-long relationship with graphic narrative and traditional reading.

With a select pantheon of creators they have produced many brilliant books sub-divided into First Comic for brand new readers (Level 1), (Easy-to-Read for Emerging Readers Level 2) and Chapter Books for Advanced Beginners (Level 3).

The company supports publications with on-line tools at TOON-BOOKS.com, offering interactive audio-versions read by the authors – in a multitude of languages – and a “cartoon maker” facility which allows readers to become writers of their own adventures.
© 2008 RAW Junior, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Scary Godmother


By Jill Thompson (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-589-6

The Eisner-Award winning Scary Godmother started life in 1997 as a full-colour, strip-format children’s book before evolving into a comicbook series, hit stage show and brace of Cartoon Network animated specials.

The original fully-painted picture book spawned three equally captivating annual sequels from Indie publisher Sirius Entertainment and all four of those astoundingly enthralling, wickedly hilarious books were resurrected in 2010 by Dark Horse as a stunning all-ages trade paperback collection just in time for Halloween.

And now it’s that time again…

Created by the terrifyingly multi-talented Jill Thompson (The Sandman, The Invisibles, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, The Little Endless Storybook) these stories offer comfortably spooky chills frosted with cracking comedy whilst proudly defending the inalienable right to be different…

Debut volume ‘The Scary Godmother’ introduced little Hannah Marie who is frantic to start her first ever Trick or Treat night, and only the teensiest bit disappointed that she has to go with her older, rather mean cousin Jimmy and his friends.

Naturally the big kids aren’t that keen on taking a baby along as they desperately try to score vast amounts of candy and cake, so as the evening progresses they try all they can think of to ditch the wide-eyed waif. It’s Jimmy who has the idea to scare Hannah by taking her to the old Spook House…

As they all nervously enter the ramshackle, abandoned old mansion, Jimmy tells Hannah Marie that the new kid has to give the monsters in the house some candy or they will eat all the children in the world, but he has severely underestimated his cousin’s grit. Although scared, she enters the dilapidated pile and the gang have no choice but to follow her inside…

As she looks for the horrible creatures Hannah Marie starts to cry and her sobs cause a strange thing to happen: someone joins in with sobs even louder than hers. And that’s how she meets the twisted fairy called Scary Godmother and befriends all the actual magic monsters who live in the weird midnight realm known as the Fright Side…

Scary Godmother is the Ambassador of Spooky and pretty much runs Halloween. After being introduced to the bats and beasts and boggles, Hannah Marie is no longer afraid and her new friend even has some ideas on how to teach Jimmy and his pals how to be less mean…

One year later ‘The Revenge of Jimmy’ finds the nasty boy deeply traumatised by his most memorable encounter with actual monsters last year. Now settled on the notion that if he sabotages Halloween, the horrors, haunts and horrible things won’t be able to come back to the real world for a second chance at him, Jimmy sets out on a mission of sabotage…

Across the dark divide the inhabitants are all gearing up for their night of fun in the real world and perplexed that something is gumming the works. The magic bridge that forms to carry them over is only half-formed, strange webs bar their path and other peculiar events temporarily hamper their preparations for the special night.

It’s all Jimmy’s fault but every time one of his cunning schemes looks like scuttling the town’s forthcoming festivities, some busybody or other finds a way to turn his sneaky dirty work into an exercise in ingenuity. With nothing apparently stopping Halloween coming and the Fright Siders crossing over, Jimmy steps up his campaign, unaware that all that meanness and loose magic is causing a rather strange transformation in Jimmy…

Nevertheless his most appalling act of sabotage almost succeeds until little Hannah Marie sees an upside to his horrible acts.

Halloween is saved but Jimmy almost isn’t… until one bold monster steps up to set things right…

Another year rolls by and Hannah Marie is preparing for a Halloween block party. As Mum and the other parents toil to make all the seasonal treats, the little girl is writing invitations to all the monsters in Fright Side. Hannah Marie has learned how to cross over to the nether realm, but when she gets there Scary Godmother is also busy, ensuring the night will be suitably spooky and wonderful.

As Hannah Marie distributes the invitations, a strange thing occurs: Scary Godmother gets a different invitation. It’s unsigned but from a Secret Admirer begging her attendance on ‘The Mystery Date’…

Captivated by the notion, Hannah Marie and little vampire Orson start canvassing all the likely candidates on the Fright Side – causing no end of trouble and embarrassment for Halloween’s startled and bemused Ambassador – before they all shamefully cross over to the real world where a real romantic surprise awaits the Scary Godmother…

The final book of the quartet was ‘The Boo Flu’ wherein our magical mystery madame succumbs to the worst of all eldritch aliments at the least favourable time, compelling Hannah Marie to step up, put on the big magic hat and ride the broomstick to marshal the monsters and take charge of all the necessary preparations if All Hallows Eve is to happen at all this year…

That’s a big ask for a little human girl, but help soon comes from all sorts of unexpected directions…

Almost as soon as the first book was released, Scary Godmother started popping up in comics too. Most of those tales are collected in a companion volume to this gleeful grimoire but there’s room here for one cheeky treat as ‘Tea for Orson’ (from Trilogy Tour Book) focuses on the vampire boy’s attempts to crash a girls-only soiree at Scary Godmother’s house. Harry the Werewolf also wants in – but more for the food than the company – and the banned boys’ combined, increasingly outrageous, efforts to gatecrash make for a captivating lesson in being careful what you wish for…

Wrapping up the tricks and treats is a liberal dose of ‘More Art’ in a huge and comprehensive ‘Scary Mother Sketch Book’ section; comprising roughs, designs, character development drawings, working paintings, promotional art and comic ads, design, background and model sheets and, for the animated specials, original book covers and rejected pages and scenes.

Still readily available – and now as a digital download too – Scary Godmother is a magical treat for youngsters of any vintage and would make a perfect alternative treat to candy and cakes…
Text and illustrations of Scary Godmother © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2010 Jill Thompson. All rights reserved.

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Good Dog, Bad Dog: Double Identity


By Dave Shelton (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910989-00-5

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Boney Fido Mystery Thriller for fans of every stripe… 10/10

Way back in 2012, David Fickling Books launched a weekly comic for girls and boys that rapturously revived the grand old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

Still going strong, each issue offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material: a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Since its premiere, The Phoenix has gone from strength to strength, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the totally engaged kids and parents who read it…

As is the way of modern comics publishing, their greatest serial hits were soon gathered into a line of fabulously engaging album compilations. This splendidly constructed pastiche of detective thrillers is the latest: a winningly authentic murder mystery with anthropomorphic police pooches doggedly sloping through noir nostalgia (for those of us old enough to recognise it) on the seedily sordid streets of Muttropolis in search of killers – and worse – in the canine counterpart to Hollywood…

It’s not the first outing for curious cur Kirk Bergman (who thinks he’s a four-footed Sam Spade) and his beefy, astute and gently gigantic partner Duncan McBoo. They were previously seen in The Phoenix‘s predecessor The DFC – by way of The Guardian, no less – and have lost none of their appeal in this further adventure, crafted as ever by Dave Shelton (A Boy and a Bear in a Boat) with sublime skill, seductive illustration, engaging word-play and a keen appreciation of the value of truly appalling puns …

Film freak McBoo is over the moon when their latest case takes them to Wiener Brothers Studios to investigate death threats against movie mogul Sam Weiner but soon sees that there’s nothing but trouble ahead in Tinseltown.

Twin brother Jack Wiener thinks it’s all a lot of hooey, but since Sam is off sick there’s little the police dogs can do except head back to the precinct. That all changes on the way out when a bomb seemingly intended for aging silver screen idol Dunstan Bassett apparently obliterates his stunt double Bump Henderson instead…

And so begins a cleverly constructed yet deadly game of bluff and deception, crammed to the rafters with hot dames, plucky assistants, raucous bar-fights, thrilling car chases, sinisterly suspicious strangers and quirky walk-on characters in a plot which cunningly twists and curves without ever losing itself in unnecessary complexity.

Bergman and McBoo each plays to his own strengths as they hunt a killer only to find that the victim isn’t dead but not all the suspects are necessarily alive…

Moody, suspenseful and outrageous, this yarn remains deliciously funny whilst honouring a deep dept and displaying a definite soft spot for the crime classics of yore, and is a perfect kid’s book every adult in the house will find impossible to put down.

Text and illustrations © Dave Shelton 2016. All rights reserved.

Good Dog, Bad Dog: Double Identity will be released on November 3rd 2016 and is available for pre-order now.

Why not check out the Phoenix experience at https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/?

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Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade


By Landry Q. Walker, Eric Jones & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2506-3

As a rule, superhero comics don’t generally do whimsically thrilling anymore. They especially don’t do short or self-contained. The modern narrative drive concentrates on extended spectacle, major devastation and relentless terror and trauma. It also helps if you’ve come back from the dead once or twice and wear combat thongs and thigh boots…

Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – other than the inappropriateness of striving to fix wedgies during life-or-death struggles – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour.

Once such continued cosmic cataclysm was the exception, not the rule, and this enchanting collection first seen in 2009 harks back to simpler days of complex plots, solid characterisation and suspenseful fun by way of an alternative take on Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, late of Argo City and Earth’s newest alien invader…

After a few intriguing test-runs Supergirl began as a future star of the expanding Superman pocket universe in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). Superman’s cousin Kara had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and her dying parents, observing Earth through their scopes, sent their daughter to safety even as they perished.

Landing on Earth, she met Superman, who created the cover-identity of Linda Lee and hid her in an orphanage in bucolic small town Midvale whilst she learned of her new world and powers in secrecy and safety.

In 2009 much of that treasured back-history was euphorically reinstated for a superb miniseries for younger readers with Saturday morning animation sensibilities. Kara Zor-El was recast as a plucky 12-year-old whose world was suddenly turned upside down, forcing a decidedly ordinary kid to adapt to and cope with impossible changes at the craziest time of her life…

It all begins as Superman and Lex Luthor again indulge in another life-and-death duel. The battle ends suddenly as the evil genius’ war machine is wrecked by a gleaming rocket, from which emerges a dazed girl in a knock-off Man of Steel outfit. Panicked by the press pack that converges on her, the waif jumps back and suddenly catapults into the air…

Soon however Superman has caught and calmed the careering child and explanations ensue. She’s his cousin Kara from Argo City, which escaped the destruction of Krypton by a fantastic fluke: being hurled by the blast unharmed and entire into another dimension…

The Argoans thrived in their pocket reality and watched baby Kal-El become a mighty hero. In fact, it was a message-probe aimed at him that Kara sneaked onto before being accidentally sent to Earth. It is a horrific shock to learn Superman has no idea how to get her back to them…

Marooned on a weird, primitive planet with powers she doesn’t understand and cannot control is bad enough, but discovering her cousin has no time or space to look after her is the worst. Soon, wearing a pair of awful glasses, orphan “Linda Lee” begins a new life at Stanhope Boarding School…

The lessons are dull or baffling; nobody likes her; Principal Pycklemyer is a snide, snarky ass and worst of all, Kara’s superpowers keep turning off and on without any rhyme or reason. The first week is sheer hell, but ends on an up note as, after another fruitless attempt to get home, Linda heads back to the girls’ dormitory and finds a present waiting: a super-phone which can reach her mum and dad…

The Pre-Teen Powerhouse is still screwing up in class and her troubles multiply in detention when an odd green mineral interacts with a light projector in the science lab and creates an evil doppelganger.

Smug, arrogant Superiorgirl calls herself Belinda Zee and is instantly more popular. She also sets out to make Linda’s life an unending succession of petty aggravations and annoyances…

However, Belinda’s greatest scheme to humiliate Linda is foiled by a new transfer student. High-maintenance misfit Lena Thorul is a scary genius who takes an instant liking to fellow outcast Linda and saves the day with a mind-control helmet she whipped up…

Soon the weird pair are dorm-mates, even though Lena is a bit clingy and rather aggressive. She might even be preventing other students befriending Linda…

Life is never quiet and when Supergirl intercepts a glowing red meteor in space the fallout scatters scarlet debris all over Stanhope. The effect is amazing, as almost everybody develops superpowers…

Naturally Linda can’t reveal her own hidden abilities so she and a few pitiful others are quickly relegated to a remedial class for the “super-heroically challenged”. When the powers all suddenly fade, Supergirl is kept busy saving the students from their own youthful follies and is astonished to later discover the power drain was caused by Lena…

And that’s when things get truly complicated, as her solution to the on-going problem gives Supergirl the ability to time-travel and the notion that she can warn her earlier self to respond differently to the crisis…

Another day, and another disaster dawns as Linda’s experiments with Green Kryptonite – in hopes of finding a cure – instead give an alley cat incredible super-powers. As Streaky stalks the halls of Stanhope, Lena reveals her true nature and Superiorgirl is forced to choose sides…

The adventure concludes on ‘Graduation Day’ as chaos reigns and the real reason for all the incredible events Linda has endured are finally exposed. Luthor escapes jail, Streaky returns, Belinda becomes queen of Bizarro Zombies, Fifth Dimensional Sprites attack and Supergirl meets Supragirl before ending with a new trusty companion – Comet the Superhorse. Sadly he won’t be enough to aid the Maid of Might as she strives to prevent the destruction all there is…

With Reality unravelling Supergirl needs a little help and it comes from the last person she expected…

Joyous, thrilling, warm-hearted and supremely entertaining, this festival of Fights ‘n’ Tights fun is a delightful romp for youngsters and a fabulous tribute to DC’s Silver Age, and fans can also enjoy bonus features including sketch sections on ‘Redesigning Supergirl’, lovely pencil roughs and a full cover gallery.

Some characters are clearly capable of surviving seemingly infinite reinvention and the Girl of Steel is certainly one of those. Here in this charming, engaging, inspiring yarn for older kids and young adults you can enjoy a pure and primal romp: simultaneously action-packed and funny as it perfectly demonstrates how determination, smarts and courage trump superpowers and cosmic omnipotence every time
© 2009, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever


By Jay Lynch & Dean Haspiel (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-0-9799238-5-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Superheroes at their Very Best and Most Fitting… 10/10

If you give them a chance and great material, kids love to read. Happily, these days there’s a grand renaissance of books for the young to cut their milk-teeth on, and thanks to the dedication of folk like David Fickling Books (and their wonderful comic The Phoenix) in Britain and Toon Books/Raw Junior in the USA, plenty of avenues for youngsters to grow up reading comics too…

This one even acts as a superb introduction to the weirdly compelling world of classic costumed crusading, courtesy of veteran cartoonist Jay Lynch (Bijou Funnies, Phoebe and the Pigeon People, Nard ‘n’ Pat, Mad, Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids) and multi-talented illustrator Dean Haspiel (American Splendor, The Quitter, Billy Dogma, Justice League Adventures) who have concocted a rousing all-ages tale in the manner of classic Jack Cole Plastic Man and animated movie The Incredibles…

The riotous romp begins in ‘Fighting…’ as Mona and Joey stop their seemingly incessant squabbling just long enough to realise mailman Mr. Mojoski is watching them. The kids are arguing over world’s greatest hero Mighty Mojo and are utterly flabbergasted when the aging public servant reveals he is that valiant champion and that he is retiring forthwith…

He gives the kids his power-bestowing costume so that one of them can take over his role one day, but they immediately start tussling again and tear it in two…

All their dreams seem over, but Mom might have a solution…

Next morning the kids get a surprise: two costumes, but they each have only half the power of Mighty Mojo…

‘Fighting Forever…’ finds Mona and Joey still scrapping – but this time with strange and awesome abilities – until a sudden crisis blots out the sun. An emergency has arisen and evil crocodilian overlord Saw-Jaw is behind it…

Individually, neither of them is able to defeat the reptile raider and they are forced to consider the inevitable: ‘Fighting Together Forever…’

Aimed at the five-and-over age-range, this splendidly child-sized (236 x1 62 mm) tome is a gloriously evocative, sleekly exciting kid-friendly caper, produced in 32-page, full-colour landscape format and the kind of illustrated extravaganza kids of all ages will adore – and probably fight over…
© 2008 RAW Junior, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Archie Americana Series: The Best of the Seventies


By Frank Doyle, George Gladir, Dan DeCarlo, Samm Schwartz, Harry Lucey, Stan Goldberg & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN 978-1-87979-405-4

The monolith of wholesome fun that is Archie Comics had fully cemented its place in America’s popular culture scene by the 1960s. With the Youth Market an acknowledged commercial powerhouse, the red-haired archetype (and the company which created him) was known as much for animated TV shows, the pop single “Sugar, Sugar” and soon a chain of restaurants. Archie also totally dominated the comicbook humour market.

This volume – now also available as a digital download – collects a scant few of the stories from that decade; concentrating on fashions and fads such as Hot Pants, CB radio, Protest Movements, the Bicentennial, Disco, the advent of video games and even popular movie and TV sensations as well as the ever-widening divide between rebellious teens and oppressive adults.

It also delightfully shows the overwhelming power of good writing and brilliant art to captivate an audience of any age. Padding out this potently nostalgic package is a brace of House-ads from the period and a fulsome cover-gallery of iconic power and riotous wit.

The eternal verities are still in effect. Jughead Jones is still wise, weird and eternally hungry. The teachers at Riverdale High School are still hard-pressed and harassed. Archie Andrews is, as ever, that good-hearted, well-meaning boy lacking common sense. Betty Cooper is still the pretty, sensible girl next door, and glamorous Veronica Lodge is as rich, exotic and quixotic as ever, whilst the school and leisure antics of the broader cast are hip, engaging and hugely entertaining.

The eternal triangle and perfect laugh formula was first seen in 1941 and forms the basis of decades of charming, raucous, gentle, frenetic, chiding and even heart-rending comedy ranging from surreal wit to frantic slapstick, and has never been better depicted than here.

Following a poetic Introduction from actress Shirley Jones, the merriment kicks off with

‘Protest’ (Life with Archie #93, January 1970) by Frank Doyle & Samm Schwartz, seeing an ever-more frantic Archie desperate to join the national wave of teen rebellion but unable to find anything to dissent over or anyone angry enough to march with him…

George Gladir, Dan DeCarlo & Rudy Lapick regale us with Riverdale’s response to daring new fashion must-have ‘Hot Pants’ in a wry observation from Laugh #248 (November 1971) after which ‘Decisions, Decision’ (Archie #214, December 1971, by Doyle, Harry Lucey & Marty Epp) deliciously reveals how that Archie-Betty-Veronica quandary keeps going…

The anonymously crafted ‘Bubble Trouble’ (Everything’s Archie #21, April 1972, possibly Stan Goldberg pencilling?) then reveals how the garage band The Archies disprove media accusations that they are merely a bubblegum rock band with the help of a certain legendary star of Rock ‘n’ Roll…

From Archie #217 (April 1972) by Doyle, Lucey & Epp comes ‘The Late Archie Andrews!’ as desperate Principal Mr. Weatherbee goes to outrageous lengths to get the unlucky red-head to school on time, before a quartet of cool covers bridge the gap until the wackiness resumes.

‘Patch Match’ (Betty & Veronica #198, June 1972, Gladir & DeCarlo) details how Betty monopolises that Andrews boy by offering to sew onto his jacket all the cool badges he’s been collecting. Veronica of course responds with all the wealth in her arsenal but still comes out second-best…

‘Loyalville, USA’ (Archie at Riverdale High #12 December 1973, Doyle, DeCarlo & Lapick) sees Betty and Archie help out the town’s worst memorabilia vendor whilst Gladir, Goldberg & Jon D’Agostino prove there’s ‘No Fuel Like an Old Fuel’ (Pep #296, December 1974) by finding a way to save gas during an energy crisis that nevertheless lands Archie and Jughead in a storm of trouble…

Probably the most affecting tale in this collection, ‘You Came a Long Way, Baby’ (Betty & Veronica #233, May 1975, by Doyle, DeCarlo & Lapick) dramatically teaches the condescending girls how much progress in gender equality old maid Miss Grundy has been responsible for at Riverdale High. Then sadly uncredited ‘Bicentennial Banter’ (Archie’s TV Laughout #36 December 1975) sees those same lasses girls teach the boys about the female contributions and the decisive roles played by women during the American Revolution as they rehearse for a commemorative school play…

Archie’s eager fondness for CB radio is detailed in ‘Over and Out’ (Archie #256, September 1976: Doyle, Dan DeCarlo & Lapick) before more covers whet the palate for further fun which comes through an animal-free ‘Pet Parade’ (Everything’s Archie #57, June 1977).

Our gormless star naturally becomes ‘A Fool for Cool’ (Archie Giant Series/World of Archie #461 September 1977) after listening to bad advice and patterning his dating techniques on the Fonz from TV phenomenon Happy Days…

Betty & Veronica #263 (November 1977) was the original home for Gladir & DeCarlo’s ‘Video Vexation’, with the girls losing their place as the boys’ abiding passion once Pop Tate installs a computer arcade system, after which Star Wars gets thoroughly spoofed in ‘Costume Caper’ (Reggie & Me #104, April 1978) with Lapick adding his inking sheen to Gladir & DeCarlo’s smart rib-tickler.

‘Melvin’s Angels’ (Betty & Veronica #277, January 1979) by Doyle, DeCarlo & Lapick then sees Betty & Veronica undertaking a bruising mission for a mystery man on a speaker phone before the glitzy glamour-era comics celebration concludes with ‘Disco Dude’ (Laugh #343 October 1979) as a big food prize entices slovenly slowpoke Jughead to show off his amazing dance moves. Of course, his cunning plan goes disastrously awry…

These charming and comfortable yarns are a gentle delight and a much neglected area of cartoon and graphic narrative. It would benefit us all to take another long look at what they have to offer. If only to see how far fashion has not come…
© 1970-1979, 1998 Archie Publications Inc. All rights reserved.

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Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker


By Geoffrey Hayes (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-1-935179-07-8

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: An Ideal Means of keep keeping adults and youngsters entertained… 10/10

If you give them a chance and great material, kids love to read. Happily, these days there’s a grand renaissance of books for the young to cut their milk-teeth on, and thanks to the dedication of folk like David Fickling Books (and their wonderful comic The Phoenix) in Britain and Toon Books/Raw Junior in the USA, plenty of avenues for youngsters to grow up reading comics too.

The latter was established by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly as an imprint of the groundbreaking alternative comics magazine to provide high-quality comics stories which would entice pre-schoolers and starter-readers into a lifelong love affair with strips in particular and reading in general.

A broad stable of talented creators has produced many superbly superior comic tales in three accredited educational standards (Level 1: First Comic for brand new readers, Level 2: Easy-to-Read for Emerging Readers and Level 3: Chapter Books for Advanced Beginners) and the company even supplements their publications with an on-line tool.

TOON-BOOKS.com also offers follow up such as interactive audio-versions read by the authors – and in a multitude of languages – and a “cartoon maker” facility which allows readers to become writers of their own adventures about the characters they have just met in the printed editions. Many books include a page of tips for parents and teachers on ‘How to Read Comics with Kids’…

Benny and Penny in Just Pretend is part of an on-going multi-award winning series of tales starring two young suburban mice: a typical brother-and-sister act, loving, loyal, occasionally wayward but always ready to learn and willing to learn from their mistakes.

Author Geoffrey Hayes is a past master of the children’s entertainment industry, having written and/or illustrated more than 40 books (including Otto and Uncle Tooth, Bear by Himself, the Patrick Bear series and Margaret Wise Brown’s When the Wind Blew amongst so many others) and happily shows no sign of stopping.

Here, just for a change the ever-argumentative tykes are playing together in the garden, seeking the treasure indicated on the pirate map Benny has made, when they hear the worst possible news. Cousin Bo has arrived for a surprise play-date…

Instantly Benny and Penny rush about hiding their dolls and games and favourite things, because Bo is very rough and is a toy breaker…

They’re only just in time as the well-meaning but over-excitable Bo bustles in, accidentally hitting Benny in the eye.

Unabashed, Bo wants to find the treasure on Benny’s map and, when they refuse to play with him, tears a leg off Penny’s never-to-be-parted cuddle-toy Monkey…

Left on his own, Bo wants to teach them a lesson but soon gets into more trouble than he can handle and it takes Benny, Penny and the mole girl next door to save him. With the crisis over, Bo realises that playing with others is far more fun than bossing everyone about…

Aimed at the four-and-over age-range and released as a child-sized (236 x1 62mm), gloriously evocative, beguilingly beautiful 32 page full-colour hardback, Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker is the kind of illustrated extravaganza kids of all ages will treasure forever and return to again and again.
© 2010 RAW Junior, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Billy & Buddy volume 2: Bored Silly with Billy


By Jean Roba, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-049-8

Known as Boule et Bill on the Continent (or more accurately in the French speaking bits, as the Dutch and Flemish call them Bollie en Billie), this timeless and immensely popular cartoon story of a boy and his dog debuted in the Christmas 1959 edition of multinational, multilingual Spirou.

The perennially popular strip was the result of Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba (Spirou et Fantasio, La Ribambelle) putting his head together with the magazine’s Artistic Director/Ideas Man Maurice Rosy – who had also ghosted art and/or scripts on Jerry Spring, Tif et Tondu, Bobo and Attila during his decades-long, astoundingly productive career at the legendary periodical.

Intended as a European answer to Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Boule et Bill would quickly go its own way and carve out a unique personality all its own, becoming Rosa’s main occupation for the next 45 years.

He tirelessly crafted more than a thousand pages of gag-strips in a beguiling, idealised domestic comedy about a little lad and his rather clever Cocker Spaniel before – in 2003 – surrendering the art-chores to his long-term assistant Laurent Verron.

The substitute subsequently took over the writing too after Roba died in 2006.

Jean Roba was born in Schaerbeek, Belgium on July 28th 1930 and grew up reading mostly American newspaper strip translations and reprints. He was particularly fond of Rudolph Dirks and Harold H. Knerr’s Katzenjammer Kids and after the War began working as a jobbing illustrator before adopting the loose, free-wheeling cartooning style known as the “Marcinelle School” and joining the Spirou crew.

He followed Uderzo on Sa majesté mon mari and perfected his craft under Franquin on Spirou et Fantasio before launching Boule et Bill as a mini-récit (a 32-page, half-sized freebie insert) in the December 24th 1959 Spirou.

Like our own Dennis the Menace in The Beano, the strip was incredibly popular from the start and for 25 years held the coveted and prestigious back-cover spot. Older British fanboys might also recognise the art as early episodes – wittily retitled It’s a Dog’s Life – ran in Fleetway’s Valiant from 1961 to 1965…

A cornerstone of European life, the strip has generated a live-action movie, animated TV series, computer games, permanent art gallery exhibitions, sculptures and even postage stamps. Like some select immortal Belgian comics stars, Bollie en Billie have a commemorative plaque and a street named after them in Brussels….

Large format album editions began immediately, totalling 21 volumes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These were completely redesigned and re-released in the 1980s, supplemented by a range of early reader books for the very young. Comics collections have been translated into fourteen languages and sold in excess of 25 million copies of the 32 albums to date.

Renamed Billy and Buddy, the strip debuted en Angleterre in enticing Cinebook compilations from 2009 on: introducing a standard late 20th century sitcom nuclear family consisting of one bemused, long-suffering and short-tempered dad, a warm, compassionate but painfully flighty mum, a smart but mischievous son and his genius dog who has a penchant for finding bones, puddles and trouble…

Ras le Bill was the 19th collection in Europe, but here simply serves to further explore the timeless relationships for our delight and delectation.

Comprised of a constant stream of rapid-fire gags, quips and jests, the progress and behaviour of seven-year old Billy is measured by carefree romps with four-footed friend Buddy: dodging fractious magpies, avoiding baths, building up a treasure trove of bones, putting cats in their place, causing accidents, and costing money; with both kid and mutt equally adept at all of the above.

Buddy is the perfect pet for an imaginative boy, although he’s overly fond of bones and rather protective of them. He also does not understand why everyone is so keen to constantly plunge him into foul-tasting soapy water, but it’s just a sacrifice he’s prepared to make to be with Billy…

The dog also has a fondly paternal relationship with tortoise Caroline which is explored at length in this collection, and a suspicious knack for clearing off whenever dad has one of his increasingly common meltdowns over the cost of canine treats and repair bills. At least Buddy can make himself useful by helping mum in her self-indulgent fashion purchases…

Gently-paced and filled with wry wit and potent sentiment, these captivating gag-pages run the gamut from heart-warming to hilarious, silly to surreal: a charming tribute to and lasting argument for a child for every pet and vice versa. This is a splendidly enticing and rewarding family-oriented bunch of comics no one keen on introducing youngsters to the medium should be without.
Original edition © Studio Boule & Bill 2008 by Roba. English translation © 2010 Cinebook Ltd.

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Benny and Penny in Just Pretend


By Geoffrey Hayes (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-0-9799238-0-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: a perfect way to keep adults quiet whilst opening world of adventure for youngsters… 10/10

Once upon a time – and for the longest time imaginable – comics were universally denigrated as a creative and narrative ghetto cherished only by children and simpletons. For decades the producers, creators and lovers of the medium struggled to change that perception and gradually acceptance came.

These days most folk accept that word and pictures in sequential union can make stories and tell truths as valid, challenging and life-changing as any other full-blown art-form.

Sadly, along the way the commercial underpinnings of the industry went too far.

Where once there were a host of successful, self-propagating comics scrupulously generating tales and delights intended to entertain, inform and educate such specific demographics as Toddler/Kindergarten, Young and Older Juvenile, General, Boys and Girls periodical publications, nowadays Britain and America can only afford to maintain a few paltry out-industry licensed tie-ins and spin-offs for younger readerships.

The greater proportion of strip magazines are necessarily manufactured for a highly specific – and dwindling – niche market, whilst the genres that fed and nurtured comics are more effectively and expansively disseminated via TV, movies and assorted video and interactive games media.

Thankfully old-fashioned book publishers and the new graphic novel industry have a different business model and far more sensible long-term goals, so the lack has been increasingly countered and the challenge to train and bring youngsters into the medium taken up outside the mainstream – and dying – periodical markets.

I’ve banged on for years about the industry’s foolish rejection of the beginner-reading markets, but what most publishers have been collectively offering young/early consumers – and their parents (excepting, of course the magnificent efforts of David Fickling Books and their wonderful comic The Phoenix) – has seldom jibed with what those incredibly selective consumers are interested in or need.

In recent years however the book trade has moved with the times and where numerous publishing houses have opened comic medium divisions, one in particular has gone all-out to cultivate tomorrow’s graphic narrative nation.

Toon Books/Raw Junior was established by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly as an imprint of the groundbreaking alternative comics magazine to provide high-quality comics stories which would entice pre-schoolers and starter-readers into a lifelong love affair with strips in particular and reading in general.

Their burgeoning stable of talented creators have produced a wealth of superbly superior comic tales in three accredited educational standards (Level 1: First Comic for brand new readers, Level 2: Easy-to-Read for Emerging Readers and Level 3: Chapter Books for Advanced Beginners) and the company even supplements their publications with an online tool.

TOON-BOOKS.com offers follow up such as interactive audio-versions read by the authors – and in a multitude of languages – and a “cartoon maker” facility which allows readers to become writers of their own adventures about the characters they have just met in the printed editions. Many books include a page of tips for parents and teachers on ‘How to Read Comics with Kids’…

Benny and Penny in Just Pretend is part of an on-going multi-award winning series of tales starring a typical brother-and-sister act of (occasionally) wayward suburban mice.

Author Geoffrey Hayes is a veteran of the children’s entertainment scene, having written and/or illustrated more than 40 books (including Otto and Uncle Tooth, Bear by Himself, the Patrick Bear series and Margaret Wise Brown’s When the Wind Blew among so many others) and proudly affirms that all of Benny & Penny‘s engaging anthropomorphic exploits are drawn in coloured pencil.

Here the boisterous argumentative tots are playing in the garden when Penny realises she cannot find her brother. An increasingly frantic search reveals him lost in dreams of being a pirate, but he’s so wrapped up in the game that he refuses to play with her and a fight inevitably starts…

As the regulation spat escalates tempers fray and eventually Mommy has to intervene. Forced to play with his little sister, Benny suggests Hide and Seek and, when Penny is safely lost, “forgets” to look for her…

Eventually, however, he starts to worry. She’s not making any annoying noises and soon Benny is really hunting for her with growing panic. He’s really worried and not so keen on playing on his own anymore…

So when Penny at last turns up, Benny is happy to pretend Penny isn’t always annoying and soon sees that she makes a pretty good pirate too…

Aimed at the four-and-above age-range and released as a child-sized (236 x1 62mm), gloriously evocative, beguilingly beautiful 32 page full-colour hardback, Benny and Penny in Just Pretend is the kind of pictorial treasure that kids and their minders will be drawn back to over and over again.
© 2008 Raw Junior, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Jack and the Box


By Art Spiegelman (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-0-9799238-3-8 (HC)        978-1-9351793-0-6 (PB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: One to share and explore whilst snacking under the tree… 8/10

Cartoonist Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm in 1948 before the family moved to America and should have been a dentist. However, he rejected parental aspirations for a life in comics. He first began his exploration into his family’s history in 1972 when he created a short strip for the Underground anthology Short Order Comix, in which he first examined his own reactions and response to his mother’s suicide in 1968. That exercise led to a desire to understand his troubled father Vladek and a determination to turn his recollections and experiences as a Holocaust survivor into a series of strips.

The individual chapters of what would become Maus began appearing at the end of the decade as monochrome mini-comic inserts in Spiegelman’s experimental, increasingly prestigious art-house anthology Raw!

The first collected edition of the scratchy, primally evocative chapters were released in 1986 with a concluding volume published in 1991.

It’s a graphic masterwork everybody should read, but the man is not defined by that tale alone. Dedicated to the comics medium, Spiegelman has created many other impressive projects, but probably none as potentially worthwhile as Toon Books/Raw Junior.

With his partner and wife Françoise Mouly, Spiegelman set up the publishing firm as an imprint of his legendary alternative comics magazine to provide high-quality comics stories in formats that would entice pre-schoolers and beginning readers into a life-long love affair with strips in particular and reading in general.

Their stable of talented creators have produced a wealth of superbly superior comic tales in three accredited educational standards (Level 1: First Comic for brand new readers, Level 2: Easy-to-Read for Emerging Readers and Level 3: Chapter Books for Advanced Beginners) all of which the company supplement with on-line tool TOON-BOOKS.com which offers follow-ups such as interactive audio-versions – in many languages – plus a “cartoon maker” facility enabling readers to become writers of their own adventures about the characters they have just met in the printed editions.

Most books also include a page of tips for parents and teachers on ‘How to Read Comics with Kids’.

Having set up the system Spiegelman inevitably succumbed to his creative urges and crafted an actual book for the line…

Aimed at the very youngest beginners, Jack and the Box comes in landscape format (in both hard and softback editions), and at 237 x 159 mm will fit perfectly in tiny hands as it tells the tale of little Jack as he exults in a present from Mum and Dad.

The box prove resistant to his unwrapping assault but when he puts it down, a strange clownish creature springs out of it and gives him a fright…

It is a most wilful toy with a mind of its own and a fondness for sudden surprises. Soon, however, Jack is utterly intrigued as the toy’s pranks draw him into a world of games riddles and surprises such his/its name… Zack!

And once they’re properly acquainted Zack begins to share his secret gifts and puzzles, enticing Jack into a fabulous world of mystery, excitement and imagination where his many friends such as Mack and Quack are always ready to play their boisterous games…

This is a terrific tome for those just starting to read on their own (winner of Publishers Weekly‘s Best Children’s Picture Books of 2008, The White Raven Award 2009 and Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Book of the Year), delivering deliciously anarchic antics and explorations, reassuringly bolstered by parents who are supportively present but not oppressively dominant.

Moreover, rendered in delightfully pared-down, flat-coloured cartoon line, this is also a beguilingly seductive visual experience for bookworms and browsers of any vintage.
A Toon book ™© 2008 Raw Junior, LLC. All rights reserved.