Comicsgirl

Welcome to Oddville! Buy on Amazon.com

I loved Welcome to Oddville! (AdHouse Books, 2011) so much I was emailing friends telling them to buy it before I was even done with it.

Jay Stephens‘ Oddville strips follow the adventures of a young superheroine Jetcat (who, in her “regular” life is named Melanie), her “friend” Tod, a grumpy snail named Petty, and Jetcat’s annoying step-brother, Avery. Oh, and a random collection of other characters, like the vampire-like mosquito, Mr. Suckley, a snowman named Sloshy, and the floating head of Boris Karloff.

It’s all silly fun. There isn’t really much sense in describing it any other way. Sometimes I was left with the impression that Stephens (who will be, by the way, a guest at Small Press Expo this year) was mostly making it up as he went along, but that’s not a complaint. There is a joyous freedom here. Stephens’ tendency to just go with whatever joke he had in mind is entirely playful, whether it’s following the adventures of a bandage (yes, that’s right — that happens) or Jetcat joining up with the superhero team The Two-Fisted Five.

Stephens’ style feels very retro while still remaining modern. He was clearly influenced by classic cartoons, especially much of Hanna-Barbera (not surprisingly, many people probably know Stephens’ from his animated series, The Secret Saturdays and Tutenstein) but his bright colors and witty sense of humor stop these strips from feeling like a throwback.

There are a few longer story arcs contained in the book, but for the most part, each strip can more or less stand alone. Each is individually funny (of course, as it goes, some are more funny that others). That makes it a fun book to just flip through to read strips at random. Even with Stephens’ obvious love of classic movie monsters, there are no real scares here — everything is played for innocent laughs. While there are a couple mild instances of gross-out humor (Avery glues Melanie to a toilet in one strip, and there are one or two snot-related gags), there’s almost nothing objectionable. Everyone from little kids to adults will love this. As they should.

I can’t promise you’ll be emailing your friends telling them to buy it before you’re done with this book like I did, but seriously, who wouldn’t love Welcome to Oddville!? It’s that much fun.

The book should be out in your better comic book store and will should show up in other stores/Amazon soon. I did include an Amazon link with this one, but as always, I still recommend you buy it directly from AdHouse.

Copy provided by the publisher.

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity Buy on Amazon.com

“Cute” and “quirky” all too often come off as dismissive when describing things. Dave Roman‘s Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity (First Second Books, 2011) will make you think twice, though, when it comes to those words. If everyone did “cute” and “quirky” as well as Roman, these words would only be compliments.

A redone and expanded version of Roman’s mini-comic series Astronaut Elementary, Astronaut Academy follows students of the titular school, where classes include Wearing Cute Hats or Fire Throwing and teachers are Mrs. Bunn (a bunny, of course) and Senor Panda (a panda, as the name would suggest). The principal carries a very large sword (think Final Fantasy). All of this is covered in the first few pages. It’s the perfect introduction to the wacky, anything-goes world Roman has created here.

The main plot follows Hakata Soy, a transfer student with a mysterious past. A cyborg named Cybert also arrives with the mission to eliminate Hakata Soy. All of this, though, is really just a frame for things like dinosaur driving lessons, incomprehensible games of Fireball, student crushes on the elfin teacher Mr. Namagucci and diversions with Doug Hiro, who never takes off his space suit.

Roman’s multi-ethnic (and multi-species, I guess it must be said) cast is refreshingly diverse. It’s evenly split between girls and boys and there’s a personality for everyone to relate to, from the bratty Maribelle Mellonbelly, to the sweet overachiever Miyumi San to the sporty Tak Offsky among many others. You knew these kids. Possibly, you were (or are) one of these kids.

Roman’s art is full of joy. While he obviously draws inspiration from manga, especially in his facial expressions, his definitive lines and cartoony style has a giddy, childlike quality. Panels and pages emphasize movement and motion. I don’t remember when still images seemed so animated.

While it’s perfectly suitable for children — the humor is always innocent without being insulting (Roman was editor of Nickelodeon magazine, so he understands kids and doesn’t talk down to them) — I also get the feeling Roman didn’t necessarily set out to make a comic exclusively for kids. He was just making the comic he enjoyed creating — one that’s playful and sweet, and yes, cute and quirky. His fun tends to rub off on the reader.

I know I’m already waiting for the promised sequel.

Advance reader copy provided by publisher.

Mal and Chad Vol. 1: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever Buy on Amazon.com

I like talking dogs.

This is not a hard and fast rule, but if your book has a talking dog in it, I’m more than likely going to like it. If I don’t like it, I probably will have wanted to like it. So I was kind of predisposed to like Stephen McCranie‘s Mal and Chad Vol. 1: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever (Philomel Books, 2011). But talking dog or no, I still probably would’ve loved it.

Mal (short for Malcolm) is a misfit elementary school pupil who is more predisposed to invent rocket packs and time machines than he is to do his homework. Chad is his faithful, slightly sarcastic and absolutely adorable talking dog. The two of them go back and time and befriend (or not, as the case may be) dinosaurs as well as deal with the bullying Zachary (although Zachary — somewhat refreshingly — just wants to prove he’s smarter than Mal) and Mal’s unrequited crush on the big-eyed Megan.

All of this happens under the less-than-watchful-but-loving eye of Mal’s hard-working (and I presume) single mother. Mal’s a handful but she doesn’t put up with much.

McCranie’s art is delightful and childlike — Mal is all exaggerated gestures and facial expressions in a heavy black line, but his excitement is our excitement. McCranie allows us to reveals in one of Mal’s ridiculous invention after another (a normal-sized rubber ducky that becomes a giant rubber ducky that’s big enough to ride on, an old elevator that’s a time machine). Mal’s bright-eyed enthusiasm is fun. He’s pleased with his own intelligence but he has every right to be. He’s a kid who’s just trying to find his place in a world that hasn’t quite caught up with him yet (Mal has his lunch by a bust of Einstein, which he talks to. It’s sweeter than it should be). Chad the dog is not too knowing or smart — he’s a dog — but nor is he stupid. McCranie shifts him from cartoon-like to more realistic. We never forget Chad’s a dog and he’s a great one at that.

Love interest Megan doesn’t get much page time but she plays an essential role, and any girl who can pull off a move such as the “Flaming Dodge Bomb” during dodge ball is probably a bit more than she appears to be. She seems to be a worthy equal to Mal and I’d like to read a comic that is just about her.

Also? Did I mention there are dinosaurs? McCranie draws playfully realistic dinosaurs that are a great contrast to the more stylized Mal and Chad. And I mean, this comic has dinosaurs, which is, of course, awesome.

Mal and Chad is too much fun. It’s fairly innocent, but never cloyingly so. I’d be curious to see who Mal (and Chad, for that matter) grow up to be, but I absolutely want to see more of their adventures while they’re in that process. Mal shows you that being a smart kid is a pretty great thing and I have no complaints about that.

Advanced reading copy provided by the publisher.

Delirium’s Party Buy on Amazon.com

I have written about as much as I ever need to write about The Sandman series itself. I think that’s pretty clear.

Part of me thinks Jill Thompson’s Little Endless is absolutely wrong and “Delirium’s Party” is no exception to that. But in Thomspon’s hands, it’s also beautiful and wonderful and childlike, like the original The Little Endless Storybook before it. But The Endless was meant to be pretty permeable and adaptable. They are archetypes you tell stories about, even if those stories aren’t necessarily adult. Why not tell children’s stories featuring them?

Delirium, the youngest of The Endless, was always the most immature and the one that mostly remained in her own little world. She never thought much beyond herself. With her love of color and excess, it makes sense she’d be the focus of Endless stories for younger readers.

In Delirium’s Party, Delirium throws a surprise party for her sad sister, Despair to cheer her up. She invites all her siblings and attempts all kinds of things — a gigantic cake, presents — to get Despair to smile.

Yes, there are plenty of jokes if you’ve read The Sandman (part of Thompson’s skill is that the characters basically behave as you’d expect them to, even if this is a kid’s tale), but it’s also innocent and completely charming. Delirium’s guileless oblivion is sweet — she doesn’t realize that you’re not really going to make an embodiment of Despair happy — and her (mostly) unwavering optimism is delightful. Even the talking dog Barnabas, who provides a voice of practicality, is kind to Delirium. In Thompson’s hands, he’s never making fun of Delirium but just trying to reason with her (and maybe get her to let him take a nap).

Thompson’s watercolors are gorgeous and playful, as always. Sure, the chibi Endless are ridiculous, but she revels in that. Delirium’s penchant for rainbows and insanity gives Thompson freedom to paint cakes covered in everything from action figures to flowers and feathers as well as Delirium’s insane “thinking cap” that consists of musical organs and pencils and bubbles. Studying the art for surprising elements is part of what makes this so much fun.

I realize that the appeal of this may just be for people who are fans of The Sandman or people who are fans of The Sandman with children, but it’s a joy in its own right. If The Sandman gave us this (and the original Little Endless Storybook), that’s a good legacy. I’d love if people pick this up without even knowing about what came before it. It’s that much fun.

Chicagoland Detective Agency #2: The Maltese Mummy Buy on Amazon.com

Our three favorite young detectives (well, two of them are young; the other is a talking dog) return in the second volume of Trina Robbins‘ and Tyler Page‘s Chicagoland Detective Agency series, “The Maltese Mummy” (Graphic Universe, 2011).

Megan wins a contest to see her favorite musician, Sun D’Arc (whose name and style evokes Japanese band L’Arc-en-Ciel — let it never be said that Robbins and Page haven’t done their research), but becomes suspicious when a new girl Jazmin seems a little too interesting in coming along and when Sun himself expresses a strange amount of interest in her friend William.

And what does all of this have to do with a traveling exhibit featuring the mummy of Ra-Hotep’s sarcophagus?

Now, of course the plot points are pretty obvious and most readers, even younger ones, will probably seem them coming. But that’s not so much the point. Megan’s a feisty heroine whose independent nature sometimes gets the better of her (she likely would’ve been better off trusting Jazmin from the beginning) but she does learn that teamwork the way to go. Even though Raf spends much of the book sick in bed, his insights do move the story forward. I wanted talking dog Bradley to have a bit more to do, but understandably, there are places dogs can’t go.

Robbins is clearly having fun and her wit never talks down to this book’s target audience. Kids are appreciated for being savvy and smart. Maybe some of them won’t quite get the jokes that compares aging rock stars to mummies, but I still love that Robbins includes those sorts of things here.

Page’s art continues to be animated and playful. There isn’t as much action here as there was in the initial volume, but his sense of page layout and facial expression keeps the book moving. He has a great way of making otherwise static scenes of two people talking seem dynamic.

I do think you do need to read the first one for this to make sense, but this is turning into a really fun little series. I’m sad there’s only going to be three of them.

For whatever reason, I feel like I don’t read too much about what Graphic Universe is doing, but as far as comics for children go, they are getting almost everything right.

Advance reading copy provided through NetGalley.