Comic Book Resources

Bone sells ridiculous well at the bookstore I work at.
I actually plan on buying the first two volumes for my nephew’s birthday.

Sadly, I still see more Naruto than anything else.

Well I was raised on Calvin and Hobbes, although that’s a different kind of comic. but still gold IMO

I dunno anything else really…

Why not older comics? Do they HAVE to be current incarnations in order for kids to read comics?

Loeb books

but the kids find it a tad low-brow

I hope the Marvel/DC kids stuff isn’t completely precluded from discussion here. Last year, I got my 2-year old (now 3) hooked on Tiny Titans on Free Comic Book Day. She takes her copies to bed with her regularly.

She frequently takes our copies of Bone and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane off the shelf. At 3 years of age, I think they’re both WAY over her head, but I appreciate that she’s interested.

She also loves Chris Giarusso’s Mini Marvels, and frequently tries to grab my Red Hulk hardcover just to read the 3 Mini-Marvels in the back. “Hulk Art Class” is her favorite at the moment.

She loves Peanuts. A 3-year old who loves Snoopy…who’d have thunk it?

Owly. Naruto. Bone. Inu-Yasha. Those are the usual suspects in my neck of the woods.

My kid loved the first issue of the Muppet Show comic for what it’s worth. But I indoctrinated him on seasons 1-3 of the TV show so that’s probably not commonplace.

” Sadly, I still see more Naruto than anything else. ”

Excuse me….” sadly “? What do you mean by this?

Babymouse?

Calvin and Hobbs, Tintin, Dinosaur hour, Clover.

hit publish too soon. Also Robot Dreams (by Sara Varon) and Gon.

I know it’s not the most classy thing to do, but let me pimp my own book, Yon Kuma, currently serialized online at http://yonkuma.com and it’s an action-comedy about a kid who wrestles the four strongest bears in the world.

“Lions, Tigers, and Bears” by Mike Bullock and Jack Lawrence does quite well at my workplace. Fab book, so very glad there’s going to be a movie.

Bone, Mini-Marvels, the Sonic Select collections, the Warriors manga adaptation, the Clone Wars Adventure digests and anything with Power Pack walk out the door on a regular basis.

Also, not meant for kids, but for some reason the young ‘uns can’t seem to get enough of the “Venom vs Carnage” TPB. Kids do love their monsters, I guess.

Well, I don’t have kids, but when I was a kid I read Betty and Veronica and Archie. I stopped about 11 years ago; I hope they haven’t changed that much.

@Generalzod33: I think that’s a great point. I for one intend to raise my future children on Silver Age Marvel as their bedtime stories.

The first four “Akiko” volumes, by Mark Crilley, are wonderful. (Not manga, despite the name. More like the Wizard of Oz in space.) Accessible to any age between four and twelve.

I heartily dislike “Bone” but yeah, the boys enjoy it. What can you do.

“Clan Apis” has been out of print for a few years but can still be found here and there. Solid nature story about bees; recommended.

Digging up back issues of DC’s Timiverse books is always worthwhile, especially their Justice League Adventures and Justice League Unlimited. Some great stuff there.

Doug M.

DC tried to launch a line of comics to get kids back into superhero books back in the 90′s. Their Impact line relaunched a bunch of old Archie Comics characters from their Mighty Comics era, and was never able to get the line sold properly. They were printed in the old style of cheaper paper and sold at a lower price than the mainstream books (which had aleady started suffering from massive price increases). I worked at a comic store at that time and the books didn’t sell to our customers but I admired what DC was trying to do so I would try to tell older customers with kids about it. In the long run….actually pretty short run…it failed. Total shame because there NEEDS to be a line of comics like that. I got into reading simply because of Spider-Man books. Later I made the big leap to actual books but at least it was a starting place. Actually, one of the earliest Spidey books I bought was one of the series aimed at getting kids to read and I think it was somehow tied into that PBS show The Electric Company. Also it featured Rocket Racer (shudder) but again, at least it got me into reading. There SHOULD be a line of books written for younger readers, available in whatever goes for the drugstore these days (spindles of comics in our local K&B or 7-11 were where I got my stuff initially), but then I guess that makes it something that Wal-Mart has to do. They carry Shonen Jump and I swear that publication has taken the place of cheap American comics being available to kids.

Sorry for the long rant but this is something I feel strongly about. The industry has taken the focus off of the original target audience. They aren’t going to get new readers if they ONLY appeal to a mature audience. I’m all for comics being for well read and intelligent adults but there has to be something for the kids. Start them young, hook them into, and they’ll be fans for life. That is what happened to me.

P.S. DC bring back Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw aren’t dead you know. They could at least supervise a relaunch as a regular series aimed at kids, and also do a Cartoon Network series since they are the same company. I’m sorry, but that idea is a freaking money in the bank idea just waiting to happen. If they could make a buch off some as half-baked as Krypto (Not a terrible series but not great) certainly they could do something with Captain Carrot.

99% of the comics out there ARE for kids. The comics I read from age 5 to 14 were the regular comics published at the time. They had the same violence and romance as modern day comics, just the graphic-ness of it toned down thanks to The Comics Code Authority. If the only comics I had the option to buy were Bugs Bunny or a watered down “Kid Friendly” version of the other comics I would not have read them and not be still be reading them today 20 years later. If you want kids to read comics you’re going to need to get over this “we must protect the kids” BS and realize they like the same stuff that exists in the current mainstream comics…and there is nothing wrong with that.

At the library I work at, it’s usually Naruto or the Warriors mangas, but there is a healthy selection for kids to read. The ones that are really good for kids are Babymouse, Fashion Kitty, Owly, Amelia Rules, and Bone. The older tweens go more towards superheroes and manga.

If there was any justice, the Carl Barks Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories would be flying off the shelves. I read the reprints as a kid, and my dad read the originals as a kid. Great books.

I’m in agreement with ComicShopRant. I read plenty of the mainstream Spider-Man and X-Men comics when I was a kid during the early 90s. I read my Authoritative, Essential, and Indispensable Calvin & Hobbes books over and over and over again, but I didn’t shy away from any of the Image books being released back then either and read Spawn, Savage Dragon, and Shadow Hawk by the time I was 10.

have you checked http://yonkuma.com ? it’s about a boy that wrestles bears. Seriously.

My son has enjoyed a number of books including The Legend of Zelda, Bakygamon, Amulet, Magic Pickle, Pokemon, Undertown, Kid Beowolf. Others he likes that were already mentioned include some Marvel Adventures and Johnny DC, Bone, and Owly. I’m sure there are others. He also likes to dig through my trades of older Marvel and DC stuff. He doesn’t care much for the Essentials or Showcase for some reason.

Oh! He loved Lions, Tigers, and Bears! Forgot that one.

“have you checked http://yonkuma.com ? it’s about a boy that wrestles bears. Seriously.”

Just added the RSS feed. Neat!

Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother and Magic Trixie are good, not to mention all of thw new wave of Disney/Pixar and Muppet books out of Boom. Oh, and Amelia Rules. Great book.

Dr Who comics. At least in the UK.

I share comics with a 7 year-old I spend time with. Her favorites are: the current Power Pack mini’s, Scotty Young’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Mouse Guard, Flight, Muppet Show. She’s also starting to show an interest in the X-Men, specifically Kitty Pryde (She loves the Kitty’s Fairy Tale Issue), but I’m having trouble finding age appropriate ones for her.

Personally I’d go with Tintin, Asterix and Owly.

My four-year-old son, however, really likes Batman Strikes!… Due to the fact that he can follow the story visually without having to get me to read it to him…

He used to like Marvel Adventures Hulk, but seems to have gone off him now…

My 4-year-old daughter loves Tiny Titans. She also really enjoyed the Free Comic Book Day issue of Owly last year, and liked the little collection of Christmas-themed Disney stuff I picked up for her over the holidays. But weirdly, her favorite is anything with the Hulk. If she sees me reading something with Hulk in it, she immediately wants to grab it, so I have to be careful about reading the more violent stuff when she’s around.

I had forgotten about Akiko. I need to get collections of that an Leave it to Chance for my kid.

I wonder when I ought to start him on Thieves and Kings too. Hmm.

Gotta respectfully disagree with ComicShopRant and Joe. Mainstream super-hero comics aren’t written for the younger reader. They just aren’t. There are exceptions, of course, but most of them are written for 13-14-year olds, at the very youngest. Two extreme examples are Norman Osborn/Gwen Stacy “revelation” in the Spider-Man titles and Dr. Light’s rape of Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis. Like I said, those are two of the more extreme examples, but the themes explored in most mainstream super-hero comics just aren’t appropriate, much less understandble, by readers 12 and under.

Keep in mind that I’m of the mindset that kids can handle a lot more than many overprotective parents seem to think they can (full disclosure: I don’t have kids yet, but I’m always on the lookout for good stories for nieces, nephews, and friends’ kids). But even if you take the subject matter out of them, most super-hero comics’ plots are too (convoluted) intricate for me to understand without a flow chart and a crossover checklist. I don’t know how my 10-year-old ADD nephew is going to get through Battle for the Cowl.

I’ll say this: I think the unfortunate maturation of mainstream super-hero titles started for each company around the time Quesada and Didio took over. I’m not laying the blame at their feet, but I’m saying that MOST younger readers could follow MOST mainstream titles up until about 10 or so years ago.

But I do want to recommend at least one title each from DC and Marvel that I think younger readers would enjoy. On DC’s side, the easy choice is Trinity. It’s really an old-school style comic, with an epic storyline that is nonetheless entirely self-contained. And speculating ahead, I’m going to say that Wednesday Comics and possibly the new Doom Patrol will also have that feel.

On the Marvel side, Spider-Man family is an obvious choice, but it may be specifically written for all-ages (which I think all mainstream super-hero titles SHOULD be), so I’ll also choose… Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, it’s complex and tied into the continual Annihilation crossovers, but it’s also pretty straight-forward super-hero/space opera fun.

Anyone mentioned Simpsons Comics yet?

From an elementary library: Pokemon, Babymouse, Sonic, Scary Godmother, Kilala Princess, Richie Rich, Little Lulu, Archie comics, and Godzilla. Power Pack used to go out, but now only a few die-hard fans are rereading. Scooby-Doo has some faithful readers left, as do the JLU animated-verse books and Spider-man. Marvel’s Transformers comics are also very popular with 1st graders and I just had a run on Marvel’s Barbie comics. The kids tend to read in cycles but Sonic, Pokemon, Scary Godmother, and Babymouse are always going out.

What about Marvel’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz?

My brother has his kids hooked on Tintin, and other Herge properties. I want them to read Asterix, but then, I’m only the uncle.

Tiny Titans is the best book for kids of all ages.

Cheers,

B

I know some kindergarten/first graders that really like the Toon Books. They’re like children’s books that use the comic format. Benny & Penny, Silly Lily, and Otto’s Orange Day are some of the titles…

And I don’t know if you call them comics or not, but that Diary of A Wimpy Kid series goes like hotcakes. And it’s pretty hilarious, too…

Hardly the first to mention this title but when Bone was still coming out I remember taking the first few books out to Christmas vacation in western PA with my entire extended family, with about 17 cousins, ages 7 to 23, most of whom were not comics readers, and almost every single one devoured them enthusiastically. I just reread the whole volume this past Christmas and loved every page.

My 5 year old regularly rereads the following books:

Spiral Bound
Clan Apis (now falling apart from so many readings)
Owly (ditto)
Peanuts
the Clouds Above
Halo and Sprokets
Akiko (will be falling apart any minute)
Scary Godmother
Astronauts of the Future

My younger son (just turned 9) loves Bone and has read it 3-4 times all the way through; he also really enjoyed Mouse Guard, the Lee/Kirby Essential FF volumes and we’re currently working through the 2nd Essential Marvel Two-in-One. Basically he just likes to shout “It’s Clobbering Time!”…

My older one has been through most of the same stuff but really responded to Ultimate Spider-Man. He read most of that series when he was 11.

They both love The Simpsons.

Bone, Bone and more Bone.

I totally recommend Leave It to Chance and Usagi Yojimbo (my wife’s students absolutely adore Usagi. The girls really enjoyed Castle Waiting as well.

And Clan Apis.
And Courtney Crumrin.
And Tintin (which I was ALL about it first and second grade).
And Bone (duh).
And Naruto.

And though I wouldn’t recommend it and it has terrible storytelling, the kids really seemed to go for Kingdom Hearts.

Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (up to 4 volumes, I think)
and Bone are pretty popular with elementary school kids.

The problem with Naruto is that it’s more of teen than a kids series- it can be enjoyed by younger fans -I certainly would have loved it as a kid- but it does gets dark in spots- characters die,sometimes in semi-graphic fashion- and there’s the occasional innuendo (like with Naruto’s “Sexy Jutsu” ) Still, I actually recommend it over most DC and Marvels comics today- except for their kids line, of course, which are surprisingly good, especially Power Pack and Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius.

There isn’t a big omnibus of Usagi, is there?

I teach middle school kids They are all about Manga. Naruto, Deathnote, Inuyaha, Ranma 1/2.

My own kids (Kindergarten and 3rd grade) love Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Babymouse, Captain Underpants, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Bone, and Calvin and Hobbes.

We recently discovered Rapunzel’s Revenge (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599902885?ie=UTF8&tag=carosnote-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1599902885) as well as Chickenhare.

The Minx books were a great line of books for younger girls, but I think it was aimed more at middle school and early high school age girls (especially with its content).

I think the real secret is to get as many comics as possible in front of kids. Libraries need to stock them. Too bad supermarkets don’t really stock them any more. I know there are a couple, but it is nothing like the spinner racks when I was a kid!

Matt D, are you kidding around or is your timing just impeccable? Fantagraphics is releasing their complete collection of Usagi Yojimbo—all the stuff from before the property moved to Mirage and then on to Dark Horse. That’s the first seven paperback volumes in one stop.

http://amazon.com/i/dp/160699154X/

My 10-year-old niece absolutely LOVED the first Jellaby graphic novel, by Kean Soo. Volume 2 just came out last week. Highly recommended.

Also, Owly by Andy Runton is a huge success in the Miami Dade Public Library System. Andy’s even come out to do programs for the library.

Sadly, the W.I.T.C.H. graphic novels stopped once the show ended. Also, popular with the pre-teens at the library.

And while I could never bring myself to recommend them, Archie is always a huge hit with the kids.

EM

@The Dane,

Well that was helpful! Thanks. Maybe I can irk the fiancee to no ends by sneaking it in as a wedding registry present.

Ok, while I’m at it, someone give me some Tintin suggestions?

I can’t believe I’ve only seen it mentioned here once so far, but AMELIA RULES! is not just one of the best kids comics, but one of the best comics on the market all around. Jimmy Gownley captures growing up in a very funny, sweet, and clever way. It’s a modern Peanuts.

Other good kids comics that haven’t been too mentioned here: HERO BEAR AND KID and THE BABYSITTERS CLUB graphic novels.

Hmm … I have two girls … the oldest is seven and loves BETTY AND VERONICA, TINY TITANS, TEEN TITANS GO!, the Johnny DC SUPERGIRL, MA AVENGERS, COURAGEOUS PRINCESS, and above all else the new POWER PACK. Oh, and THE PICTURE BIBLE. Not exactly the sort of comics we get into here, but sequential art nonetheless.

She read COURAGEOUS PRINCESS with her mom last year, which means that’s also the first comic my wife’s read since SHE was about seven. Now we’re neck-deep in X-books because of Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman owes me about eight hundred &$@&*in’ dollars.

Another vote here for AMELIA RULES … the first collection of which, as it happens, is being reprinted by Gownley’s new publisher, Simon & Schuster, & is due out 5/5.

And OWLY … how did I forget OWLY? I hate OWLY. My daughter loves OWLY. And thus she and I have gone through OWLY about fifty times. All of the OWLYs. Every blessed one … (sob) …

And while it takes a lot of (admittedly deserved) heat for not being by Giarusso, I’ve found MARVEL SUPER HERO SQUAD popular amongst the young’ns. Ditto for SUPER FRIENDS.

ComicShopRant, I gotta disagree …

Thanks to my wife, we’ve now got a shelf loaded with recent WOLVERINE and other X-books. I don’t want my daughters reading them now, or any time in the near future.

Recent Marvels/DCs are most emphatically NOT written for kids. Now if I’m wrong about you, then I apologize, but I can only assume from your opinion that you don’t actually have kids. There’s a difference between smothering them in over-protection and just trying to watch out for them. I’d rather they read watered-down tripe like SUPER FRIENDS than have to explain to my seven-year-old girl why Aunt May is on all fours.

I remember reading X-MEN as a kid in the early 80s, and thanks to the magic of Essentials, I’m rereading them now. Are there things in the old stories I’d rather my daughters not see? Sure. But I don’t feel the need to hide them on the top shelf to protect the wee little bairns. (That’s the danger in old Claremont: terrible accents.) X-FACTOR, for example, is a great book, but having Madrox bang M and Siryn at the same time — though off camera — means that my Emily and Leslie won’t be seeing them any time in the next decade or so. At least not with my knowledge …

I may be misinderstanding you. You may be using “kids” to mean 16-year-olds. If that’s the case, then you’re right. They’re gonna read what they want anyway. But I’m thinking of the ones that I buy comics for, and those kids are 7 and 2 and have no business reading most of what is published. I applaud companies for producing comics aimed at them, bowdlerized as some of those comics may seem to those of us who are 30-some and jaded. Yes, there was violence and sex in older comics, but it was treated much differently then. Almost nothing is off-limits now, and if the publishers won’t stake out boundaries themselves, it’s up to responsible parents to do so.

i just wanna say thanks for bring this topic up. my 6 yr old daughter loves power pack but i had no idea what else to introduce her to. thanks for all the great suggestions. weve already put amelia, owly and fashion kitty on hold for her at our library.

My nephew said the graphic novels in his school kids like are bone, star wars clone wars/ jenga fett, those spongebob picture comics, avengers adventures, bakumon manga, and the pokemon manga.

mwalter try spider-girl (the original), jeff smiths bone, uncle scrooge, and untold tales of spider-man.

Bone, Bone and Bone. My 6-year-old is crazy about it, and has created an entire imaginary world based on it. He’s also in love with Tin Tin.

How do women reconcile their right to dress how they wish with the male gaze? ,