Comicsgirl

Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker Buy at Amazon.com

I love Toon Books and I would love to see them on every child’s shelf. It delights me that they’re getting plenty of honors reserved for children’s books because they absolutely deserve it. So you can probably tell in what direction these reviews are going to go in.

Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker
This is the third in Geoffrey Hayes’ stories about two mice siblings — Benny and Penny. Brother Benny is a little older than sister Penny, but the two (for the most part) get along. This has them trying to hide their toys from their cousin Bo, the “toy breaker” in the title.

Bo means well, but he’s a kid who hasn’t quite grown into himself yet and so he’s more destructive than he means to be. Benny and Penny are a little mean to him, excluding him from their games since they’re fearful he’s going to ruin their toys. By the end, though, the siblings understand how harsh they’ve been to Bo and they all find a way to play together happily.

It’s a sweet story told in language kids can relate to. I think we all knew a kid who tended to break things accidentally (Hayes himself mentions a neighbor, Skippy, in the back, who did that very thing) but Hayes pushes for understanding rather than exclusion. His art remains forever adorable — the little animals that populate this book are cute without being cloying. His art reminds me of classic comic strips and the retro feel of the book is appealingly innocent. The seeming simplicity of this book belies a great message for kids without ever being preachy.

Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework Buy at Amazon.com

Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework
The first Zig and Wikki book, on the other hand, is a little bit different for Toon Books. Written by Nadja Spiegelman with art by Trade Loeffler, it follows two aliens named Zig and Wikki as they try to find a creature on earth to complete Zig’s homework. In the process, they learn about diets and eating habits of various creatures as well as the food chain. Readers learn about each as facts appear on Wikki’s screen.

As far as a beginning science book goes, it’s a lot of fun and I can imagine the content appealing to boys quite a bit. Zig and Wikki are odd-looking (Zig has one eye and tentacles for arms and Wikki is basically a monitor) and the animals they encounter — flies, frogs and more — are of the “gross” kind. Loeffler’s art is cartoony and playful, but it’s almost too cute in some cases — his adorable raccoon trying to eat an adorable frog is a bit jarring, even though that’s reality (luckily, the frog escapes). Spiegelman incorporates the “educational” parts into the story easily and I think even I managed to learn something. I hope we get to see more of these two aliens and their adventures in the future.

Toon Books’ offerings continue to be strong and they’ve already created an incredibly impressive catalog. Buy these for the children in your life. Or yourself. I am obviously far out of the target age range, but I love them.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

No Girls Allowed Buy at Amazon.com

No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure (2008, Kids Can Press) is a collection of stories of women from history who impersonated men for whatever reason. It’s created by two women — writer Susan Hughes and illustrator Willow Dawson and aimed at intermediate readers.

Given all of the above, aren’t you as baffled as I am that I have not picked this up before?

I love the diversity of the stories here — Hatshepsut and Mu Lan were already familiar to me, but I loved Alfhild, a Viking princess who became a pirate. Even more fun was James Berry, a woman whose real name isn’t known (she could be one of two people) who originally dressed as a man to become a doctor in the early 19th century and then stuck with her male identity for the rest of her life.

The thread that runs through all of these stories is that these women felt limited in their roles as women — they couldn’t rule or fight for their country, they couldn’t travel freely. Further complicating some of their stories was the matter of race or religion — Esther Brandeau at some points tells people she’s Catholic, although she’s Jewish. Ellen Craft impersonates a white man so she and her husband can escape slavery. While it’s disappointing that these women didn’t have the freedom they desired, it’s fun seeing how they gamed the system.

Hughes’ writing is fast-paced and informative. She gives depth to history while still sharing the facts of these women’s lives. She never bogs down the stories and provides entertaining biographical sketches of each of these women. I definitely felt like I learned something and I’m pleased by the “Further Reading” page in the back because I’d definitely like to know more.

Dawson’s art is stylized and quirky and communicates these stories well. She makes good use of contrast and negative space and the thick black outlines give her characters each a distinctive look. While it’s aimed at younger readers, the art has a surprising sophistication and maturity. It’s definitely not a book that talks down to kids, either through the art or writing. It looks very cool.

Seek this one out. Buy it for your local library. Buy it for your niece or daughter. It’s a delightful testament to what comics can do, and is a pretty fun call-to-action of what women can become when they put their minds to it.

Long Tail Kitty Buy at Amazon.com

This is my new favorite book. I read it every night before bed.

Yes, I’m a 4-year-old (mentally, anyway). And I’m kind of kidding about that first part. But this is absolutely delightful and I’ve probably read it more than any sane person should have.

If you know of Lark Pien, it’s probably as the colorist for Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, but I was first introduced to her work through Spark Generators 2. There, she drew a story incorporating everything she loved — Lowly Worm from Richard Scarry’s books had a pizza party with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hello Kitty, Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad assorted X-Men characters and others. It was sweet and funny and having grown up with a lot of these same characters, something I could easily relate to.

Long Tail Kitty (Blue Apple Books, 2009) is an all-ages collection of stories about the titular long-tailed kitty and his friends. He encounters a grumpy bee in a field of flowers and a mouse skating on a frozen pond. He makes dinner for his friends and hangs out with three little aliens.

It’s all impossibly adorable, rendered by Pien in watercolors. Her style is cartoony and cute but still quirky and her stories are innocent without being cloying. It’s appropriate for little kids (and I think they’d love this this book and I demand you buy a copy for everyone you know who’s under age 8 right now) but also for grown-ups who appreciate whimsy and beautiful art.

The fold-out pages of Long Tail Kitty’s adventures with his three alien friends are amazing — dozens upon dozens of little scenes of activities like “Caterpillar Walk,” “Office Jobs” and “Pet the Pot Belly Pig” are lovingly presented. I think every time I look at these pages I notice something different. Pien obviously had fun drawing these pages and it’s impossible to not be charmed by them. That actually goes for this entire book. The childlike aesthetic is this book’s greatest strength.

It’s also a nicely designed book, with its cut-out cover and embossed title. It almost feels like an art book in some ways — even if you don’t read the stories (which I don’t know why you wouldn’t), Pien’s artwork is beautiful to look at. The bonus pages in the back with the Ed Emberley-esque “How to Draw Long Tail Kitty” feature are a fun touch (surprisingly, I haven’t followed the steps yet to draw my own Long Tail Kitty, but I really should).

I can’t promise you’ll read this book every night before bed, but I can promise that you should have this book in your collection.

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade Buy at Amazon.com

I first wrote about Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade all the way back here, but I never picked it up for whatever reason.

But after a little stuffed bull said it was the most fun comic of 2009, I decided I needed to get it. Luckily, I have a very loving boyfriend who bought it for me for Valentine’s Day.

This is absolutely wonderful. I don’t know if I’d call it perfect … but I kind of want to call it perfect.

Eric Jones’ character design is beautiful — original and playful, cartoony and animated while still looking like a comic book (I love the appropriately strong, square jaw on Superman). The colors are bright and solid. I think we need more comics that look this delightful and fun.

Landry Q. Walker’s writing is surprisingly witty for an all-ages title. Sure, I read a bunch of kids’ comics and I like them, but I never once felt this was too young for me. The humor is dead-on — slapsticky in places, but also full of funny lines and silly plot twists.

I like how our Supergirl Linda Lee is awkward when she’s not trying to save the world (and sure, awkward when she is) but she’s always upbeat and willing to laugh at herself. Her “evil” clone Belinda Zee is everything she’s not — outgoing, popular, petty. I think that’s a nice touch, showing that usually our “enemies” are just like us. Linda’s nerdy best friend, Lena, has her own secret, but I like how that gets resolved too.

Bully mentioned how much he loved how Linda grew up throughout these issues and I think that’s the coolest thing about this comic, and very unexpected. I think the creators could’ve just gotten away with having this be a fun little comic, but they did something deeper. Sure, maybe the metaphor of “growing into superpowers” for adolescents is an obvious one, but here, it works. Linda finds out who she is and what she’s capable of, all in about 140 pages. And the message never bogs it down — it’s subtle and affecting. And still, always, fun.

I really want Cosmic Adventures in the 9th Grade now, but I absolutely adore this and I’m happy to have it. Why don’t you have it yet?

Magic Trixie #1 Buy at Amazon.com

Jill Thompson can do no wrong.

I mean, really, are you going to argue with that statement? To me, anyone who has a bad word to say about Thompson isn’t someone I want to associate with.

Which is to say Magic Trixie #1 (Harper Collins, 2008) is absolutely delightful.

As a sort of Scary Godmother Jr., Trixie is an adorable pink-haired moppet, a kindergarten-aged witch in training, dealing with her family’s tendency to pay more more to her baby sister than her. Her classmates and friends are vampires and zombies and a stuck-up werewolf serves as her rival. Her teacher is a ghost. Thompson’s ability to make all of this innocent and delightful is to her credit — there is absolutely nothing menacing about any of these characters.

Trixie’s a bit of a brat as she tries to get attention, but she’s easy to relate to, even for me (which may say more about my ability to empathize with 6-year-olds than anything else, of course). I love her attempts to try to outdo her baby sister and prove what a big girl she is. While her eventual understanding (and love) when it comes to her sister is obvious, it’s still a worthy and lovely lesson.

Thompson’s watercolors are bright and fluid. She has an eye that’s all her own — it’s animated and dynamic and always fun to follow. It’s cute and cartoony, sure, but it is always gorgeously rendered and I love studying the details.

I love Thompson’s unique touches — Trixie’s grandmother, who insists on being called Mimi (it’s explained a “Mimi” is “a Gramma that thinks if she’s never called the G-word, no one will know she’s a Gramma.”) and Trixie’s harried but loving family, which includes a purple-haired big sister and sweetly hip parents. Underneath the supernatural trappings, Trixie’s family is wonderfully recognizable.

(The back of the book says this is for ages 8-11, but that seems a little old to me. I’d gladly give this to my boyfriend’s 6-year-old niece.)

So yes, I love this, but that was basically a given. I’m happy we have Jill Thompson, no matter what she’s doing.