Comics my girls like

I was recently asked about what my girls like to read, so here is a list of some things they enjoy/have enjoyed. My girls are aged nine and fifteen at the moment:

Runaways
Perhapanauts (15)
Proof (on my iphone) (15)
Oz: The Manga (on my iphone)
Supergirl: Cosmic adventures in the eighth grade (9)
Tiny Titans
Sonic the hedgehog (various series) (9)
Korgi
Owly
Various DC titles (Krypto, Justice League Teen Titans Go, etc.) (9)
Courtney Crumrin
Polly and the pirates
Arana (15)
Emma Frost (15)
Spider-Man loves Mary Jane (15)
Sardine in outer space (9)
Elfquest
Scott Pilgrim (15)
Celadore (Zuda) (15)

Manga
MegaMan (15)
Inu Yasha (9)
Pokemon (9)
Death Note
Black Cat
Happy Hustle High
Naruto (9)
Full Moon(15)
Planet Ladder(15)
Shaman King(15)
Tokyo Mew Mew (9)
Vampire Doll(15)
Chibi Vampire(15)
Fruits Basket(15)
Negima(15)
Kurohime(15)
Miki Falls (15)
R.O.D. (Read or Dream)

My oldest reads a lot of mango online as well (tons of it), but those are a portion of the series she has in hard copy. There are probably a LOT of other comics they have read and enjoyed, but those were the ones we could recall on the spot

Girl Scouts Comics Badge

My wife and I are Girl Scout leaders. Right now we have a troop that is almost entirely Juniors (this includes mostly elementary school aged girls). I am a 'tech guy' at a law firm for a living, and I was going to lead a computer related badge, only most of them are annoyingly lame in my opinion and require a lot of work outside of the meeting. We have generally found that our girls don't have a lot of time for scouting activities outside of our official meetings, but we can usually get them to finish things at home if we have to. I was a bit discouraged, until my wife told me she had found a Comics badge online. It turns out there was a 'Council's Own' badge that had been created by the Virginia Skyline Council. I printed out the requirements (we already had permission from that council to use their badges), and set to planning a meeting.

The meeting was tonight, and I had forgotten how draining running a meeting could be. The girls seemed to enjoy it, and most had a pretty good handle on ideas about comics. The majority were very familiar with Comic Strips, and a number of them were already manga fans. We did a lot of talking about all the forms that comics can take, and the many different ways the medium could be used. Most of them already knew what genre meant, so talking about comics as a medium vs a genre made sense to some at least. I had a TON of props to pass around, including newspapers, and nearly every format of comic you can get. I showed Persepolis, and Chiggers and Minx titles, Baby Mouse, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Scott McCloud Google Chrome comic, Tiny Titans and a handfull of different single issue comics, Owly, Amelia Rules, Several Manga titles, even Cynicalman (I just showed selected strips, as not all are age apropriate, but I wanted to show them how varied the art styles can be, and that even stick figures can be awesome).

We talked about finding webcomics, and getting comics at the library, I mentioned bookstores and comic shops, but stressed the free places the most, since we are all about inclusiveness, and everyone can afford free, even if not everyone has a computer at home, etc.

The biggest hit, in addition to letting them have time to think about a character and draw it as part of a larger activity they will continue at home, was the emotions activity.

My oldest got a good handful of screen caps of panels from Manga that showed emotions in the various ways that manga does, and we discussed them. I had a big pad of paper and periodically drew sweatdrops and thought bubbles that I held up over the girls nearest to me, to illustrate how the various visual devices were used. We then broke off into 2 lines and the girls did an exercise where they made facial and body expressions to get points across. The idea was to show how to communicate things in still images. Then each pair did a sort of freeze frame scene to show a particular set of emotions or conflict, etc. The girls loved this.

I am sure there was a little more, and despite a few people drifting off a little, almost everyone stayed into it. Hopefully we will be able to do a field trip to the local comic shop if I can coordinate it with the owner. My next step is getting the rest of my handouts together and distributed to them with URL's and suggested reading lists.

Another big hit with the girls was my youngest daughter's Owly that was signed and had a sketch in it that Andy Runton did while chatting with her at Heroes last year.

Boom! Kids - Incredibly Muppetational

I almost didn't pick up these two comics, but then someone pointed out the glaring omission in my Comic Book Day post.

The Incredibles #1
The Muppet Show Comic Book #1

I was in the comic shop looking at everything that had come in. I saw these, and while not all that interested in the Incredibles (other than liking the movie, and being a fan of comics for kids). I was very excited about the Muppet Show book. I have no idea what distracted me, but I ended up turning around forgetting to pick it back up. I posted my CBD post, and then when it was mentioned the next day in a comment, I stood up and took my lunch hour at the comic store.

I wanted to go back to the store, as it is my happy place, so I didn't really need much prompting. I am really glad that I did.

The Muppet Show Comic #1 - I watched the Muppet Show pretty religiously when it first aired. I loved everything about it, and didn't mind that I was sometimes made fun of for singing the theme song at odd times in school. I owned a Miss Piggy hand puppet, and an Animal puppet as well, and saw nothing odd about that. It was definitely MY SHOW at the time. This comic seriously captures the feel of the show. The humor is spot on, the writing is great, the characters are like old friends. Will this have the same impact on people that didn't grow up with the show? Will this only be purchased by folks like me for nostalgia, or folks unlike me that grew up at some point but bought the DVD's of the show for their kids.

This comic has the Muppet Show just as you would remember it. It is certainly a kids, or all ages comic as far as the nature of the content is concerned. The art is great, without working too hard to make the characters look like photos of the originals. It even has celebrity guests in the form of a Keith Richards/ Mick Jagger analog. It has songs and gags and skits, and perhaps more 'behind the scenes story than the tv show, but rightfully so. I think this works really well, but as I said, I am not sure if it will draw the sort of audience it deserves. Hopefully good reviews will prompt people to read it, and recommend it.

The Incredibles #1 - I loved the movie. I guess it seems like a reasonable jump, but I am still not convinced that there needs to be an Incredibles comic. In comics, kids could read stories about the characters and settings that the Incredibles was in homage to. The movie was great, but why not just read a Marvel Adventures book? I think that question may miss a few possible points. There are plenty of kids for whom super hero MOVIES are their real introduction to superheroes. There are plenty I am sure, for whom the Incredibles specifically may have been the first super hero related thing that caught their interest (I suggest this because it makes sense, not because I have any real proof of this). Like the movie, this comic focuses on the family and the family dynamic, and has a bit more of the parents perspective than something like Sky High for instance. The kids are featured, but it is about the family, and the parents run the family. That isn't a bad thing to see. I think the comic is well written (Mark Waid), and looks good, but it doesn't particularly wow me. I am not sure what I would have thought of it as a kid. I think I would not have considered it a real 'Super Hero Comic', but it is better than a lot of licensed things, and hopefully finds an audience.

Go figure - Supergirl follow-up

This is a quick update to my post about Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade.

I read it and thought it was cute and ok.

My 9 year old daughter read it and laughed through the entire thing. YES, she pointed out that Supergirl looked like a boy in a panel or two, but then she also pointed out that she has, in her lifetime, been called a boy as well (her name is gender neutral, but is currently a wildly popular name for boys).

I asked her if she would like to continue getting the title, and she was excited about doing so.

Boys may be boys, but girls must be women

This link was posted in the comments of one of the several fine blogs I read.

Newsarama exclusive Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade, preview!

I have had this comic on my pull list since I first saw it in previews. I get Tiny Titans and Billy Batson, I regularly borrow comics and 'graphic novels' geared toward teens and younger. Some of the best comics out there right now thankfully have kids as their target audience.

I have two daughters under the age of 15. I have been a Girl Scout leader for years, and have lead troops ranging from Brownies through Cadets. I have long lamented the senseless over-sexualization of female characters of all ages in comics.

Go read the preview if you haven't already, then read the comments. Half of them are to the effect of 'it's a dude in a skirt', or 'they need to fix her hair' to make her look like a girl, or 'give her eyelashes', etc.

I don't know if this series will be as good as the others I mentioned earlier. The preview looks pretty good. If I have any concerns about the comic, I promise you that none of them are due to the main character who is called Supergirl, not being feminine enough for 'my tastes'. See... Unlike apparently a good number of the sort of people who fill up the various message boards complaining about their favorite young teen characters not having enough curves, I don't have a 'taste' when it comes to girls.

I showed my nine year old daughter the pictures of Supergirl from the preview and asked her if she knew who the character was. She did. I asked her if she thought the character looked like a girl or a boy, and she said that she looked a little bit like a boy. The reason she cited was how messy her hair seems to be. She then pointed out something that should seem pretty obvious to most people, and that is that the character's name is SuperGIRL... She's a girl. I don't think her sensibilities were offended by the character design at all, and she had no difficulty identifying the character or the character's gender. She thinks the comic looks cool.

Body image in girls certainly isn't made less of an issue through the constant barrage of models and actresses and images of female characters that all meet various improbable benchmarks that are presented as standards for judging female beauty, and female worth. Comics and fanboys didn't invent this issue, but as a general rule, the comics industry hasn't seemed to do much to show that women come in all shapes and sizes.

I'm glad to see comics like this being made. Hopefully it will be well received by it's target audience and stick around for a while. Hopefully the message board neanderthals will go away.

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles- Frank Cammuso  This is a great comic book for kids. It is put out by the graphix imprint of Scholastic. It is very well written and illustrated by Frank Cammusso. I have always been a big fan of myths and legends, and it isn't uncommon to see them used in various ways as backdrops for other stories. This book takes bits and pieces of Arthurian legend and mixes them together with a lot of standard kid story elements. 

The main character, Artie, is called wart by his sister Morgan. He moves from Cornwall and attends Camelot Middle School. Mr. Merlin is a guidance counselor who helps Artie along in his journey. Artie meets Percy and Wayne who become his friends. He meets Gwen Lee, who also joins with them later. He shows that his destiny is to be a King among students (aside from his last name being King) by opening the unopenable locker #001XCL. He learns of a fearsome beast living in tunnels below ground. He is challenged to a great conflict by the Horde, a gang of bullies and dodgeball champions sanctioned by Mrs. Dagger, the evil principal and 'queen of the school'. In order to defeat the horde, they seek out the help of a 'Savage Scott', or at least the help of the king of the Arcadia Land of Fun Arcade named Scott Savage. Before they can meet this barbarian king they have to defeat his champion Angus in Mortal Kombat... or Savage Blades as the game in the book is called. 

It's really good stuff. It's fun and although it crams a lot of legend and what I assume is sort of pseudo legend into one slim volume, it does it in a whimsical way. It doesn't seem heavy, or overburdened at all. It is light and quick moving. There are perhaps some lessons in there as well, but it isn't preachy and it comes across beautifully. I would certainly put this book in the same class as what I have seen so far from the  Toon Books imprint. I think things like this are a good sign, and certainly a good start. Comic books, Graphic Novels, what have you, kids deserve quality titles written for them, I would put this title in that category. As an old guy who loves fun well written comics for any age, I enjoyed this a lot, and there were some levels built in there that I probably appreciated more than most kids reading it who don't even realize yet that there is source material.

Four for free

More goodness from the Prince William County Public Library System.

Plastic Man: On the Lam - Kyle Baker - I have never been a fan of Plastic Man. I have never hated him or anything, but I have mostly chosen to avoid him in life. I wanted to read this one because it, and Kyle Baker who wrote and illustrated it, had received some pretty favorable chatter about it. When I first started reading it I kind of wanted to just stop and declare it a wash. I didn't though, which is good. Once I started to get more invested in it I was less bothered by the things that had been bothering me. It turns out to be a fun and silly romp that is well written, and very well illustrated for the sort of look it was going for. Plastic man can be a very wacky guy. He's kind of like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams and god forbid Carrot Top all melted together and formed into a walking hyper-spastic prop-comic. The story has a murder in it, but is nothing heavier than a goof filled romp nicely worked into a funny plot. I liked it once I got past my issue with it... I am pretty sure that my main issue, even more than getting used to the style of the art, was the lettering and word ballons used. They nearly made the thing inaccessible to me. I'm not sure what I would rather see, but for me they were a barrier. I think I have only made that sort of statement in regard to near illegible writing in a Jim Mahfood comic once.

Amulet: Book One, The Stonekeeper- Kazu Kibuishi: The loss of a father, moving to the middle of nowhere, a mysterious disappearing great-grandfather, a magical amulet, a hidden world, lovable robots and evil creatures with nefarious motives. While perhaps none of those things are new, there is no sense of been there, done that in this beautifully illustrated first book in a series. Regardless of how predictable a lot of the elements seem, I was pleasantly surprised a good number of times, never more than in the end when the house they are in stands up to reaveal itself as a giant brick and mortar transformer that sets out to take our heroes to the nearest city.  This book was sweet and sad and funny. It has action and fantasy in it. The primary hero is a young girl who is tasked with saving a parallel world. She is aided in this endeavor by the robotic creations of her Great-Grandfather, and her video game loving little brother. This is a perfect comic for kids, but in my opinion is a lovely all-ages affair.

Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil - Written and drawn by Jeff Smith - I loved this. I think may be the art is a tiny bit inconsistent, but it is still pretty amazing throughout. This book covers Billy Batson becoming Captain Marvel, and his first encounters with Mr. Mind and Dr. Sivana, as well as meeting his sister Mary and her becoming Mary Marvel. One place that the art is completely consistent is in the beautifully drawn animals and Animal-Men. Talky Tawny is stunning in both tiger form and house cat form.  The story runs pretty much as you would want it too. Billy, even for living on his own in a slum, is a little kid, and acts like one. There is no great heaviness to this, Captain Marvel is fun, just like he should be. This isn't exactly the all out joy-fest that Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is, but it's a good read for all ages and features a kick butt talking tiger.

Otto's Orange Day - Frank Cammuso & Jay Lynch: This is a TOON BOOK from the Little Lit Library, which is a Division of RAW Junior. That seems like a lot of sub-divisions. I plan to do more reading on the line soon.  The last bit of the 'About Toon' that I linked to has this to say:

TOON Books let readers everywhere know: “COMICS—They’re not just for grown-ups anymore! They’re not even just for Young Adults. Comics are once again for KIDS, even for the youngest… and they’re better than ever!”

I Think that's a pretty important goal, and judging from this title, I would say they are serious about it. Otto's Orange Day is a comic book written for kids. It reads like a kids book, but not one that has just been slapped into the comics medium, one that was written as a comic. I think the medium is used well, and it presents the material in a way, with movement and flow, that making this a straight illustrated book would not convey. Yes, kids comics have been written before, but this line has an actual mission in mind. It takes it's goal seriously and does a good job of it.  The story has Otto the cat(whose favorite color is orange) receiving a gift in the mail from his aunt Sally Lee. It is a lamp with a genie in it. The genie grants him one wish, and Otto uses it to make EVERYTHING in the world orange. The genie only grants one wish per owner, and it doesn't take Otto long to realize that, as great as it is, not all things were meant to be orange. I hope these sort of titles make it in to school libraries, and that teachers use the online resources available to them from the publisher for full effect.