Create Your Own Comics!: Everything You Need to Know (Family Comic Friday)

I know its been a while since I posted a Family Comic Friday review. With my blood disease (we just don't know which one I have), I'm always tired or wearing out quickly. So I don't venture out as much as I would like. Thus, I haven't been to the library in quite a while. But I was able to get this book on Amazon, and while not compensated by the company except for getting it for free, I did post this review on their listing for the book. Rest assured, this is my honest opinion and rating of the book.

Zor Saves Christmas #1 (Family Comic Friday)

The holiday sequel to the Ringo Award nominated miniseries. Zor is a magical being made of tears. When someone touched by Zor's magic is in their greatest distress, he comes to life through their falling teardrops to save the day.

In this Christmas one-shot, little Zoe is doing her very best to make it a merry Christmas. It's the first one since her mother died and Zoe and her father are trying to make new traditions together. This year, they're going to visit Santa at the local mall. 

Santa must be in high demand this year. Or he's gotten really strict. He's requiring a ticket to get to sit in his lap and tell him about your wishlist. Unfortunately, Zoe's has lost her ticket and with the mall closing in 30 minutes, she's in danger of missing her meeting with Santa. Crying buckets, Zor is activated by Zoe's tears and he's found the missing ticket. Unfortunately, so has the Mall's resident mouser and Mr. Cat has no intentions of letting it go without a fight. 

The story was charming. Zor is a great character with awesome powers. This truly was a magical tale by Rob Potchak. I just wish that the artwork was consistent.

The humans all look very stiff; almost like they were made by a 1990s Microsoft Paint program. Except for Santa Claus. He's lively, cheerful and almost jumps off the page! Zor exhibits so much fluidity. Fitting since he's made for liquid. And I just loved his nemesis who's only doing what a cat does and isn't inherently evil or anything like that. Interestingly enough, one of the reviews on the back cover likened this story to a Pixar movie. That seems fitting since the humans have always looked off in those films.

So far, it's is one of top 2 holiday comics of the year. Something that the whole family can enjoy. From Keenspot, the publisher who brought you the many comedic adventures of Grubbs, make Zor Saves Christmas a new Christmas tradition with your children!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Teen Titans Go! #10 (family Comic Friday)

Readers of all ages got an early Christmas present this year from DC Comics with a holiday issue of Teen Titans Go!

It's Christmas Eve and the Titans are on their way to Doom Patrol headquarters to spend the holidays with Beast Boy and his former teammates/family. While there, the Titans learn of a very strange Christmas Eve tradition that the Doom Patrol partakes in: the annual holiday attack of the shape shifting villain, Madame Rouge.

I apparently have a serious case of the Mandela Effect here because I was sure that Negative Man was a member of the TTG! version of the Doom Patrol. Yet upon checking things out, Negative GIRL is who's always been a member of this team. 

This was a fun holiday issue, written by J. Torres and illustrated by Dario Brizuela. It had a classic DC whodunnit where you, the reader, were to figure out who or what Madame Rouge was hiding in another form as. (I'm proud to say that I solved it before the Teen Titans did!) Everything felt so festive and fun. Plus with how the Chief's mustache and beard makes him look like Santa Claus, I'm wondering if there might be a sequel holiday story that floats around the possibility that the 2 are related. I'd totally be fine with that!

The only thing that I was unhappy with is something that you can't fault the artistic creative team for. It was the cover. Something is wrong with DC's printing process. The area where my thumb rested as I was reading the book bleached out all the colors. Now that one section of the cover looks like a faded postcard of some Christmastime of long, long ago. Too bad that the rest of the cover lacks this appeal. It kinda makes my brain itch, and sadly this has happened with other current DC book covers as well.

The cover says this read is for ages 8+. That's probably because of the fight scenes and a few gross humor one liners. But if you let a child younger than 8 was the long-running Cartoon Network series, then you will have no problem letting them read this hysterical Christmas read.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Mendel the Mess-Up (Family Comic Friday)

I was immediately attracted to this 2024 graphic novel from the cover alone! The owner of 2 goats and adopted by a third, I just adore caprines. Seeing the cover image of the main character astride a goat in full gallop, I was extremely intrigued and did not hesitate for a minute to check it out from my local library.

Mendel is a young boy living in a turn of the 20th century Russian village. When his mother was pregnant with him, she incurred a curse from the village witch which proclaimed that Mendel would fail at everything he tried until the day the old woman's missing son was returned to her. All Mendel's mom did was buy the last cabbage available at the market that day. But now, it seems like a self fulfilling prophecy with Mendel accidentally breaking, destroying or losing valuable items in an already financially delicate village.

When a bullying menace is warned to be approaching Mendel's village, the entire community and their herd of goats, vital to the local economy, take to the mountains in retreat. Not allowed to participate in the evacuation because of his ability to mess things up, Mendel decides to run away. But in doing so, he accidentally releases the entire herd who are making a b-line right back into town. Now Mendel must face the fierce hoards of Cossack soldiers in order to save his town's livelihood as well as prevent his convert loved ones from being discovered. And to do so, Mendel will have to turn his greatest weakness, his incredible bad luck, into his own personal strength!

I really loved this book from Holiday House. It was funny. It had some educational moments, as I had heard of the Cossacks, but I didn't really know who they were. There are definite vibes of Fiddler on the Roof with this book and as someone married to someone of European Jewish heritage, I really liked the glimpse into her family ancestry. 

There was one element that I was torn about. I don't like it when animals are abused. Yet, as someone who grew up on farms and around hunters and fisherman, I am okay with killing of animals for food. Deer heads and taxidermied fish occupied the walls of many of my relatives. But from how I was raised, as long as the animal was also used for food, such displays are acceptable. To just kill an animal for the sport of it is forbidden. However, if you've ever kissed a goat, and Yes - I kiss my goaties all the time, I cannot and will not eat goat. Dairy from goats is okay. 

Anyways, that all being said, the beautiful white goats in this book all become dinner for the invading Cossacks. I came very close to not finishing this book because of this turn of events. However, other than a couple of goat skulls and some other bones, you don't see the animals being slaughtered. Plus, the Cossacks do eat them, even though they did it by theft. So, unlike other books where animals are mistreated, I did complete this one because technically, the bad guys do follow rules of eating meat that I myself would adhere to. I figured that they just didn't know of the joy and companionship you can experience when you adopt a goat as a member of your family. 

Mendel the Mess-Up was written and illustrated by Terry LaBan. I loved his cartoonish style. I'm a sucker for thick brushes and his doesn't get any wider! As for the writing style, it felt so real. Maybe because even though it was a work of fiction, it was based on the life and times of his grandparents from their days in the Old Country. Although is Russia the Old Country???

Recommended for readers aged 8-12, there are scenes of violence with the Cossacks destroying Mendel's hometown. The 'witch' in the story is quite intimidating. And of course, the goats get eaten. But it's a story with roots in historical truth as the Cossacks weren't very nice people. Sometimes the past isn't very nice and tidy. That doesn't mean that this isn't a book that the entire family could enjoy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Full-Color Manga Edition (Family Comic Friday)

Let's finish out my Halloween readings for 2025 with a Manga adaptation of a film that has become a classic of not just Halloween, but Christmas as well! 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a holiday classic that people enjoy from October all the way through to the New Year! I didn't see the movie when it first appeared in theaters in 1993. Probably because I went to a Christian school and was too afraid of expressing any interest in a film that was clearly 'pagan'. It wasn't until I was in college working at a shopping mall video store that I became introduced to the film. But even through our showing the film on the myriad of television screens, I didn't really appreciate it until years later. Now I absolutely adore it.

My local library had this book in their new release section and I thought it would be the perfect transition between Halloween and Christmas comic book reading; though I won't be diving into holiday time comics until Thanksgiving week. This is a 2025 release from TokyoPop. Now you might be thinking 'Didn't TokyoPop release an adaption of this movie in 2016?' Well, you would be right. But that was a black and white edition and the artwork was not very faithful to the vision of Tim Burton. It was more sketchy in look and for those not familiar with the Manga style, it was very much maligned.

With this deluxe color hardcover edition, the artwork looks more polished. The format is still traditionally Manga, meaning you read from the right going leftward. Same with interpreting the panels. The sound effects are in Japanese with English subtitles. But compared to that black and white edition, this volume is 10 times better. 

The classic story is still the same. The King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, has become bored with the same old Halloween traditions year after year. A chance encounter into the realm of Christmas Town inspires Jack to celebrate the season of giving. But it's done with Halloween flare. So when Jack has Santa kidnapped in order to take his place as 'Sandy Claws', things go horribly wrong. 

My favorite scene from the movie is when Jack as Sandy gives a human boy a wrapped present. The parents ask the lad about what Santa gave him for Christmas. The boy pulls out a shrunken head and his parents faint. Classic scene. Unfortunately, TokyoPop changed it. Instead of a shrunken head, the kid pulls out a bat. It's not even a scary looking bat. The parents still freak out. But the magic of that scene is no more. 

As with any adaptation, scenes get cut or edited. (But why did they have to change my favorite one?) Another thing  that underwent what I thought was an unnecessary alteration was the antagonist, Oogie Boogie. He just kinda shows up out of nowhere, putting Santa Claus and the rag-doll character Sally in mortal peril for no seeming reason. He's much more developed in the film and there was no prior eference to his one-armed bandits that plays a critical role in the climax of the story. (Russian playwright Chekov would be mortified at this!)

TokyoPop has an origin story about how Jack and Oogie Boogie started out as friends and then had a falling out. Perhaps, they are heavily editing the villain's impact in this volume in hopes of enticing readers to go out and buy it. Thanks to the ad for that volume at the end of this book, I want to read it. But I also feel like cutting out a lot of Oogie Boogie's backstory, of for the sake of additional sales is a little underhanded, if that's what TokyoPop did in fact do.

If you love Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and you can get past the alternate direction of reading that comes with Manga, you'll love this book. In fact, if you are a collector, you might even say that you need this book. The adaptation is decent. They do a fairly good job of trying to portray some of the musical numbers from the film. The coloring was beautiful and I was absolutely enamored by the art until the very last page. Why did artists Jun Asuka and Manuel Puppo decide all of a sudden to make Jack's ghost pup Zero look like he was CGI instead of illustrated pencil and inks as he (and the rest of the Manga) appears in the book? It was an error that ruined a perfect holiday feel-good feel!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Stitch Head: The Graphic Novel (Family Comic Friday)

A new animated feature film will be debuting in theaters on October 29th. Stitch Head is a heartwarming tale filled with monsters, a mad scientist and angry townsfolk, much in the vein of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. However, in this story, Stitch Head is Doctor' Eramus' first experiment, created from when the researcher was just a lad. After creating life with a patchwork rag doll, his father sends the aspiring scientist to college in order to achieve his degree in mad science.

Forgotten Stitch Head waits patiently for his master to remember him. But as the doctor creates 300 more creatures, one things becomes clear: the mad scientist isn't all that brilliant! Good thing Stitch Head has all of the knowledge and experience to help his master perfect his experiments.

I know. You're probably thinking 'I thought that this was a book review' and it is. I didn't watch the animated movie. Instead, I found this book on the new release shelf in the young readers graphic novel section at my local library. Stitch Head: The Graphic Novel is based on the 2011 young readers novel by Guy Bass. If you were going for a faithful adaptation, I don't think you get any better than this as it was adapted by Bass and it features art by Pete Williamson, the original illustrator of the Stitch Head series of chapter books.

They say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But there's nothing wrong with being enticed by it! When I first saw the book, I got definite vibes of Tim Burton. Add in the character of the traveling circus ringmaster Filbert, who captivates Stitch Head with promises of a glamorous life, defiant young Arabella who's not afraid of the terrifying legends coming out of Castle Grotteskew, and Creature, the newest creation of Stitch Head's master and the ragamuffin's only, new friend and this could be a newly discovered corner of the Tim Burton-verse!

Though this story takes place in an eerie looking fortress overlooking a spooky little village, there's nothing too frightening. It's got a creepy vibe. Perfect for Halloween. Kids should love it. Parents should approve. 

Why not take the young readers in your life to the movie (or stream it wherever possible), then after they fall in love with it, have copy of this amazing graphic novel on hand for them to read and continue the experience? Maybe pick up some of the chapter books too? Say it's a gift from the Great Pumpkin! It might just make this a Halloween to remember for them and the whole family!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Vol. 2: The Sinister Sisters and Other Terrifying Tales (Family Comic Friday)

Growing up, we had a number of horror anthology TV series to scare the pants off of us. Tales From the Darkside. Monsters. The Twilight Zone- both the black and white original in syndication and the full color reboot. But the show that creeped my generation out the most, was a series that on paper, should have been a much more tamer of a fright. That's because it was geared at teens and aired on Nickelodeon! I'm talking about Are You Afraid of the Dark?

This anthology series originally aired from 1992-96. It was the chilling capstone to a 2-hour Saturday evening program block that saw innocuous family friendly fare such as Rugrats, All That and more. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was good to spoil my good feeling mood and as I was a latch key kid on the weekends in the 90s, the show would put me on edge to where I was creeping out at every little late night noise.

The premise in involved a group of teens that made up a club called the Midnight Society. Each week, a different member would submit a new ghost story or other tale of terror for the approval of the club. Sometimes, it would be a potential new member having to craft a haunt in hopes of becoming a member. If I remember correctly, there was a couple of episodes (probably a two-parter of a season ending cliffhanger) where a member of the Midnight Society had violated the rules of the charter and had to tell the ultimate horror story in order to save their membership status.

In this volume, a set of twin sisters are challenged by the Midnight Society to tell the scariest story. The results of the competition could keep the secret club's existence from being made public or it could mean that one of the members is kicked out of the group. With use of Ghanaian folklore from the girls' ancestry, frightening tales of monsters that eat naughty students and angry gods will be told. However, the voting ends in a tie. Now the girls must team up to craft a story so terrifying that it threatens the siblings already fragile relationship!

Written by Roseanne A. Brown, who is from Ghana, I like the use of native folklore. I took an elective on myths and legends in elementary school and it was so fun, I continue to devour such new oral histories with aplomb! It's got me wondering if the previous volume is told in the same manner as there is a different creative team associated with it. 

The artwork of the first story had some creepy elements. I was entertained by the middle story but not scared. Yet, that last one. Oh boy. It was edging on demon possession, which is one of the few types of horror stuff I shy away from. 

Since the 90s, there have been 2 revivals of the series. Both occurred in this decade. Age and probably being exclusive to a streaming platform resulted in them not making a blip on my radar. Heck, if it wasn't for my local library having this book on a Halloween display, I wouldn't have even known that Are You Afraid of the Dark? was having a prose revival with today's youth. I scour Previews and other sites for comic new releases and I do not remember seeing this one even listed!

In reality, this early 2025 release is a tie-in from the most recent series reboot. While there hasn't been a new episode drop since 2022, Harry N. Abrams has published a couple of chapter books and one previous graphic novel as a tie-in, as the show had continued to be featured on Paramount+ . However, in the spring of this year, Paramount removed the show in order to focus on other projects. So this book might be the very last in the series, which is a shame, because it captured the spirit of the original series very well and creeped me out.

If your looking for scary reads this Halloween season for third graders and up, why not make a nostalgic connection with Are You Afraid of the Dark? If it resonates, there's at least one other graphic novel and a slew of chapter books, both in and out of print, to stoke the fire of literacy with the young readers in your life. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Dracula's Brunch Club (Family Comic Friday)

I started off my Halloween reads of 2025 with a fantastic book. Dracula's Brunch Club blends humor, horror and culinary arts in a story that takes everything you know about vampires and flips it around 180 degrees.

Count Dracula has won international fame. Not because he's the king of the vampires but because he's a world renowned donut maker! His sugary delights have forged a peace between humans and the undead. He even hosts a weekly brunch club where even werewolves can't help themselves for a taste of Dracula's famous crullers.

Dracula's claim to fame are his blood orange jelly donuts. It gives all of the vampires that partake a needed boost of late night energy. However, everything the Count has built threatens to come crashing down when his supply of blood orange jelly is stolen. Unable to make his signature dish, it provides an opening for a rival vampire to become the head of the brunch club, which is now full of mysterious new members. And he's even banished all of the human members from the club!

With jams, jellies and fruits on short supply, now Dracula and his trusty French Baker Chef Jeleu (Jelly in French) must create a new gelatin filled donut. Without it, the town's children's hospital fundraiser will be ruined, the Count will lose the coveted Spirit Award for excellence in baking and worse! No longer be a member of the very brunch club Dracula created! 

Writer Brian Gonsar and artist Keenan Gaybba make their graphic novel debut in this 2025 work from Oni Press. It has a spooky vibe with liberal amounts of silliness and humor. The entire foundation of vampire folklore is in this book; from their inability to reflect in mirrors to their love of A,B and O positive and negative blood. A few townsfolk get turned into creatures of the night. But it's all done off scene. There's a little bit of fisticuffs between Dracula and his rival. But it's nothing that's too scary or violent. 

Recommended for readers aged 8-12 on Amazon, I can support that suggestion. This book fits right in that kind of sweet spot for kids of that age who like scary things as well as really silly reads.

I love the cover. It's an image of a box of donuts. The fang marks on the jelly donut is hilarious. The plastic window in the shape of a coffin is genius. And the Dunkin' looking font was so clever. It perfectly hints at everything you should expect from this book: horror and humor.

I really thought I made a great choice with this book to start off my October of Halloween reads. This book isn't set during Halloween. But unlike a Christmas read, does a read for All Hallows Eve have to be set on October 31st? I don't think so. As long as there's that supernatural vibe, whether terrifying or not, a Halloween read can be set during any time of year. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic (Family Comic Friday)

Today's Family Comic Friday offering has just enough fear factor to be a perfect amuse bouch for the upcoming Halloween season. 

Aspiring chef Yasmina is on a budget. She's been utilizing fruits and veggies from her nearby community garden. But when a conglomerate buys the land and tears down the garden in lieu of an experimental crop, the young lady will have to make ends meet. And that means making secret raids on the rooftop garden of her overhead neighbor. 

Within weeks, a new product from the mega corp that bought up Yasmina's garden hits store shelves. It's an immediate success. In fact, you could call its fans rabid. That's because for some reason, anyone that eats the GMO potatoes in the new food stuff starts acting like rabid dogs; to the point of even chasing the neighborhood mail carrier. At first, Yasmina avoids the fervor, preparing healthy meals with the assistance of a pair of gardening fanatics. But when her father eats the mysterious potato product, she'll need all the help she can get to save the day. Even help from the neighbor that she pilfers produce from.

I thought Wauter Mannert's 2019 debut four-colored graphic novel was a great read. It was like a cross between Top Chef and The Walking Dead. Only there's no real zombies and there isn't any eating of brains! There was some oddball humor and some really unusual characters, which I chalk up to the creator being Belgian. Though I don't approve of anyone stealing items from another's property. I understand that Yasmina's theft helps bring the story to a successful conclusion to the story. But being the victim of multiple thefts in my time, I take umbrage with the hero making liberal use of the five-finger discount. And I am sure parents and guardians will feel the same as I do.

Despite my disappointment with that character flaw in our hero, I liked Yasmina and I hope that she might have some more unusual adventures with food. She does some amazing things with food. Her father has a culinary background as well, working at a Belgian fries restaurant. I think there was a missing opportunity by not having a couple of recipes included in the book. Though I greatly appreciated Mannert's one-page comic about the lives of children in Belgium and his director's cut commentary offers some amazing insight into the artist's creative process and inspirations for the story.

Genetically Modified Organisms have been in the news and cause for culinary debate for a good couple of decades now. As a culinary teacher and chef, I can tell you that not every scientific advancement in our food supply is as terrifying and reckless as the potatoes in this book. There have been some creations that straddle ethical practice. But there's also been some that have positively influenced our growing world. GMOs is one subject that my state wants different educational departments to cross teach and this is an excellent book that can get the discussion rolling with the young readers in your life while also entertaining. Plus, it was a great pick to whet my appetite for October fun which I just can't wait to get here!

Recommended for readers aged 8-12.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Otis & Peanut Find A Way (Family Comic Friday)

Peanut the naked mole rat and Otis the guinea pig are back in another volume full of fun, adventures and a little bit of sadness. As with the other books in the series, there's a trio of tales in this 2025 offering.

First, Otis wishes to travel somewhere. Anywhere! He's never traveled before and he's a little bit scared about taking the journey by himself. So Peanut offers to help her best friend to learn how to prepare for a trek. After learning what to and not to pack, Peanut turns Otis' house into a hotel complete with very bumpy mattress!

Then Otis confides in his pal that he's concerned that he's forgetting his late friend and Peanut's sister, Pearl. Otis has been healing since Pearl passed away in book 1 and is scared that his lessening grief means that he doesn't miss his late friend anymore. But thankfully, Peanut is there to show that time can possibly heal all wounds.

Finally, Otis' sister is coming to town for a super short visit. Otis makes a list in hopes of making the most of his sister's 22 minute stop before the train she's been riding on starts back up. With Peanut's, hopefully Otis can create the perfect schedule.

I really enjoyed this book. But it's a bit less funnier than volume 2. This volume is rather heartfelt. But as least it's nowhere near as heartbreaking as the previous volume was. In book 2, Peanut was having a really hard time with her sister's passing. So I was very glad to see that she was healing and able to help her friend. 

The first story was funny and the final act has some funny moments. But I felt like I enjoyed the previous book more because of the silliness factor being really ramped up. I think writer Naseem Hrab and illustrator Kelly Collier planned it to be more slapstick in nature because of how really deep the segment of Peanut missing her sister was. Comic relief in the light of tragedy. With this volume not being so emotional, I think less zaniness was put into the bookending stories.

 If there's a volume 4, and I hope there is, I hope Hrab and Collier tone down the sorrow and really focus on the laughs because Peanut and Otis really deserve a break in the gloomy clouds. And can we please get an Otis & Peanut animated series??? If we could, I nominate Andy Sandberg for Otis. But if Kate Micucci isn't Peanut, I say us fans of this series riot!!! Or at least write a sternly worded letter to whomever is producing the series.

A good read. It's just not my favorite in the series.

Worth Consuming! Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Fire-Breathing Duckling (Family Comic Friday)

I was very surprised to find today's Family Comic Friday selection at my public library. It debuted in stores just a couple of days ago and with budget cuts, I wasn't expecting my library to be getting a copy of it. But I am very glad they did!

The Fire-Breathing Duckling is a retooling of the Hans Christian Andersen legend of The Ugly Duckling. Instead of a swan's egg getting mixed in with a batch of baby ducks, it's a dragon egg!

Nort is different than his duckling siblings. He's big and red instead of yellow and fluffy. He doesn't quack. He kinda snorts. Instead of swimming and floating on the water, he just kinda sinks. 

Unfortunately that last act brings about a lot of laughter at his expense from other animals on the ducklings' farm. So Nort, aided by his blue jay friend, goes around the stead hoping to find out what type of duckling he might be and Nort might just become the hero of all his barnyard friends in the process...

I love Toon Books. They're like the A24 Studios of graphic novels for young readers. They always feature artists and writers with such unique visions and voices. Frank Cammuso has both! The artwork was so adorable. There were several panels where I thought that Nort looked like Bill Watterson's timeless character Calvin; like the scene when the tiny dragon tries hay to find out if he's really a cow in disguise. 

This was a fun read recommended for readers in first and second grade. At least, that's what the suggested readers chart at the back of the book. But I think that those that are just about to enter kindergarten will love this book as well. 

I know we've still got a few more months left in the year. But I think I've already found my pick for the all-ages graphic novel of the year. It's a take on an all-time classic that I think will become an all-time great with generations to come! Hopefully this will also be the book that makes the multiple Eisner nominated Cammuso a winner! 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Survival of the Fittest: Who's Got The Best Medicine? (Family Comic Friday)

I haven't done a Family Comic Friday in a while. I haven't given up on the project. Far from it. It's just that I've not really had much time to head to my local library. Plus, for the kids section of graphic novels, they got rid of the ' New Arrivals' section, making it a bit harder to find newer stuff to review. That being said, I did find something recently new at my branch. So let's take a look at Survival of the Fittest: Who's Got The Best Medicine?

Who knew that the animal kingdom had their own version of Shark Tank? Survival of the Fittest is an invention competition where creatures create amazing new products for humans based on the special properties of their very own bodies. Judging the competition as usual are Hammerhead Shark, Cookiecutter Shark and Tiger Shark. Today's episode, hosted by Hermit Crab, the trio of predators will be shown several potential lifesaving medical marvels. 

There's the extremely sharp teeth of the sea urchin that never gets dull as a potential new type of surgical scalpel. Mosquito shares a new form of syringe that is based on the bug's proboscis and is supposedly painless. And much more innovations based on the animals in the sea, land and air are in store!

And don't think that the sharks don't get in on the act too! Great White Shark has an idea to eliminate post-operative infections by having all of the equipment in the operating room textured like the sandpaper skin of those predators of the deep.

I loved the idea behind this book. There's a design segment at the end of the book that explains how such animal based technologies are in the planning stages at current time; along with hyperlinks to help young readers learn more about these amazing inventions. (You'll have to type those out as this is not a digital book that I reviewed.)

I only wish that I could have understood what was going on between the host, Hermit Crab and contestant Octopus. Was the 8-armed invertebrate flirting with the crab as he kept changing shells during every commercial break? Was the Octopus just being friendly? Was there mischief afoot? I really couldn't tell. Those interludes were pantomimed and I really could have used some words, or narrator descriptions to fully follow along with that part of the story.

I also felt that another contestant should have won, having a much better invention than the winner. But that's more of a matter of personal preference and nothing against the quality of this entertaining and educational graphic novel.

There's at least 1 other book so far in the series. 'Who Will Come Out on Top?' is about engineering innovations . If you have a young reader in your life who loves science, especially when animals are involved, this is a series that needs to be introduced to them! The vocabulary and some of the concepts are a bit advanced. I'm thinking that without a trusted adult to read along with, this is a book suited for 4th graders through 6th. 

With the inclusion of the shark tank of judges, this series makes a great summer read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Cold War Correspondent (Family Comic Friday)

Book #11 in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series goes back to the 1950s, along the 38th parallel. It looks at the beginning of the Korean War through the eyes of female war correspondent Marguerite Higgins. 

The forgotten war which took place from 1950-1953 is a period in American history, as well as personal history that means a ton to me. My grandfather, William Gordon Dillard, fought in that war. He was a soldier in the 7th Infantry at the Chosin Reservoir. During that battle, he was injured, by a mortar round, proclaimed dead and MIA for about 2 weeks. and suffered severe frostbite. Obviously, his survival meant that I'm here today to tell you that story. 

I learned a ton from this book which completely switches gears from the previous 10 volumes and allows Higgins to narrate this hazardous tale. First thing I can say is BOY, did we muck this up! After 5 years of battling Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito, America was more than ready to stop fighting and I get that. However, the Soviet war machine, despite losing almost 25 million soldiers and civilians in WW2, was more than ready to keep on rolling. And roll, they did! Tank battalions were ordered to clear out the Imperial Japanese occupational force from Korea and they had every intention to keep on rolling all the way from Pyongyang down to Pusan. So we stopped the Russians by putting up a barricade along the 38th parallel cutting off the industrial centers of the North from the fertile farmlands of the South.

From 1946-1950, war between the two halves of Korea looked inevitable. Syngman Rhee, the President of the capitalist backed South Korea, begged the United States for tanks, guns and planes. But because of a fear that by doing so, Rhee would use those weapons to invade the North, we never responded to those requests. So when the Communist backed troops of North Korea crossed the barricades in the Summer of 1950, the South was severely under armed and out-manned.

The key to the North's success were it's tanks: the T-34. It was a Soviet tank known to cut through Nazi lines like a hot knife through butter. When we sent American troops to repel the tanks, our weapons couldn't even put a dent onto the side. That's because America had pretty much paused any legitimate development in our defensive forces. In fact our reinforcements were so poorly trained, we had barbers, cooks and construction workers fighting hand-to-hand combat with literal commandos! And the food, uniforms and munitions were all surplus from World War II!

Our failure to begin the war with properly armed and trained forces as a result, would fuel an arms race that would bankrupt a small nation. In fact, we outspent the Soviet Union, the largest country on the globe at the time, to oblivion, resulting in the it's collapse in 1991. It's another reason we're not on very good terms with China, Cuba and many factions in the Middle East. While I'm more than proud of my grandpa's role in Korea, I'll also be the first to say that we really screwed up during that police action.

Cold War Correspondent marks my completion of having read the entire series. I just didn't do it in order. Thankfully, there's more fun on the horizon. In September of this year, the 13th volume will debut. It's a spooky collection of true tales of terror. I have no idea what to expect. But I can't wait to read it as part of my Halloween reads for 2025.

Great stuff for kids ages 12 and up who love history and graphic novels. Maybe they had a relative who fought in Korea like I did. Though this book stops before the end of 1950, meaning there is still 2 and a half years of war left  untold, this can be a valuable tool to help them understand what it was like for their loved ones who fought along the 38th parallel.

Worth Consuming!

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars.

Bitsy & Boozle Tell A Story! (Family Comic Friday)

Bitsy is an aspiring storyteller. Her first adventure will star her best friend, the diminutive wizard, Boozle. Enticed with the chance of a story that ends with a 'happily ever after', Boozle agrees to become the protagonist in a quest that will put him against the fierce Gruffin of Clawmax Peak!

I had an absolute blast reading this 2024 book. Boozle is hilarious. He only speaks in symbols. Yet, he completely steals the show with his over-the-top reactions, tiny fast moving feet and expressive pointy little fingers. 

While this story depicts a quest to save a pair of small villages on nearby Story Mountain, from being terrorized by a giant golden winged beast, there's something secret going on: learning! See as storytelling Bitsy details Boozle's epic adventure, she's also teaching the reader about the basics of storytelling!  Add in the hilarious glossary of terms hosted by Bitsy's sisters and a guide to 'Boozle speak' and you've got a graphic novel that entertained and educated me! 

Parents and guardians will love this book for the very purpose that children will learn as they read (and are entertained) this book. There were some surprising twists, amazing supporting characters and brilliant dialogue found inside. Boozle is a wizard and he does cast a few spells. They mostly end up being ways that enable Bitsy to explain plot devices such as a fast forward and a flashback. However, their are some adults who won't want the young readers in their lives to associate with anything magical or fantastical like ogres and goblins. 

The fright factor in this book recommended for readers aged 6-10 is about a 3. For about half of the book, the Gruffin is nothing more than a menacing shadow. However by book's end I can guarantee that the monster will become your child's newest favorite character; after Boozle, of course.

I'm not sure how they would do it. But I would really love for creative duo Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess to craft a sequel. I want more interaction with Boozle. He was such fun and I enjoyed all the chuckles his exploits gave me.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 

Young Katherine Johnson (Family Comic Friday)

This is the second of humorous volumes on the lives of notable figures from history during their youth I've recently read by the French cartoonist Augel. This selection was chosen for Black History Month as it features noted math genius Katherine Johnson. Her work as a 'human calculator ' for NASA helped the space program win the race to the moon with the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. She was even personally requested by John Glenn to confirm his contradictory calculations during his historic Friendship 7 orbital mission in 1962.

Just like with the Agatha Christie volume, there's interactive activities for readers. Instead of solving mysteries, your tasked with solving mathematical word problems. Math not being my strong suit, I prefer solving a crime over doing algebra any day. Though I will begrudgingly admit that if I had paid a tiny bit more attention, I would have correctly solved more of those problems than I did. Though let's be honest, Augel cheated a little in that problem involving the blocks!

You explore both humorous as well as thoughtful situations in this look at Katherine Johnson. You'll experience her life as a young black girl in the segregated mountains of West Virginia as well as the stigma of being a female who's life interest were in the male dominated fields of science and math. Katherine also explored the limits of her imagination with her beloved pet chicken Luncinda, and her celestial friend, the Moon. 

Young Katherine Johnson was an adorable book. Another success by Augel. Teachers will love this book as the last 10 or so pages are a lesson guide for Black History Month, science and math and astronomy and physics. Parents and guardians will love how the young readers in their lives will learn and be entertained through reading. And maybe they'll want to do some of the extra activities and science experiments in the back of this graphic novel! There's potential for fun for the whole class AND family!

Worth Consuming!

Young Agatha Christie (Family Comic Friday)

French cartoonist William Augel presents young readers with an assortment of educational graphic novels about the early lives of famous people. Commonly known by just his last name, Augel, the artist combines biographical fact with a series of funny vignettes. In Young Agatha Christie, Augel shows the acclaimed mystery writer aspiring to write crime fiction while making her way in a male dominated world. Plus, with the help of her rag doll Miss Marple, Agatha solves several mysteries in which you, the reader gets to deduce yourself, much in the vein of Encyclopedia Brown.

Humanoids Inc. imprint BiG presents this English adaptation of Augel's 2022 French graphic novel Le Petit Agatha Christie. My local library had several volumes of Augel's historical fiction accounts of notable people. I'll be reviewing another volume in February in celebration of Black History Month. This book was a library edition containing an intensive teacher's lesson guide. There's discussion questions, activity ideas, recommended further readings, and even ways in which this book aligns with Common Core education for third and fourth graders.

I thought this was a funny book. I'm a fan of Agatha Christie. I just don't read as much of it as I should. Still, I had a lot of fun catching many of the Easter eggs hidden inside this book. Plus I had a lot of fun solving those Miss Marple mysteries. I thought most of them were fair. I totally goofed on one solution not reading the whole episode fully. I did think that the mystery of finding the missing furniture in Agatha's dollhouse was a bit of a cheat. It sounds like you're supposed to only find 1 missing piece. Augel gets sneaky and hides 2 items in that mystery!

Of all the authors in the world, I'm not really sure why Augel selected Agatha Christie. I'm not complaining, as I had a lot of fun with this book. It's just that the kiddos who this book is aimed towards, ages 8-10, aren't old enough to read Agatha Christie mysteries yet. And in our current world, I feel like if a teacher decided to utilize the lesson plans in the back of the book for their classroom, I'm sure there would be some parents complaining about appropriateness. Common Core or not!

Agatha Christie was a pioneering woman who stood out in, at the time, a literary genre that was predominantly written by males. Without Christie, you wouldn't female mystery writers like Sue Grafton and Rita Mae Brown or true crime chronicler Ann Rule. Let's not forget, Agatha Christie was also an early participant in introducing surfing to the women of the world. 

If anything, this was a book that entertained as well as informed. I loved how this book was interactive and I hope that next months read will be just as fun. Maybe Agatha Christie isn't the subject you want your child to learn about at this time. But Augel has at least 4 other volumes about famous folks as youths that might meet parent and guardian approval. There's something for everyone and hopefully more from Augel on the horizon.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Duck and Moose: Duck in the Dark! ( Family Comic Friday)

Duck is a new resident of Denali National Park. He's made an immediate best friend in the like of Moose. However, Duck hasn't experienced his first ever Alaskan winter, where it gets very dark for longer periods of time throughout the day. 

Experience the wild and wacky ways Duck will try to keep the darkness at bay. That's because deep down, Duck is afraid of the dark. He just wouldn't admit it to his best bud, Moose. He's got too much pride.

This is the third book in the Duck and Moose series. My first experience with the series as it was on the new shelf at my local library having debuted in December of last year. You don't have to start on book #1. Author Kirk Reedstrom does a great job keeping the reader informed on the important details on what has transpired previously. Pretty much with 'Duck in the Dark', all you need to know previously is that Duck is new to the region and doesn't know what Alaskan winters are like.

I thought that the book was adorable. And funny. I laughed out loud a couple of times at the highly unexpected antics of Duck. He's the funny guy in the duo with Moose as the straight man in the comedy routine. 

I highly recommend this book. It deals with fears and how to overcome them. There's nothing a parent or guardian of a young reader should object to. No fighting. And despite being considered a slapstick comedy, there's no mayhem on the level of the Three Stooges. Just some very over-the-top ideas on how to survive a dark night in the 50th State. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

The Smurfs Christmas (Family Comic Friday)

The Smurfs Christmas is a festive collection of several shorts. 3 directly involved Christmas. One mentions writing letters to Santa and is set during wintertime. Another involves snowmen, which are holiday icons. And then we've got that one story that involves a very hungry ogre.

Story #1 sees Santa down with a case of the flu. Knowing Gargamel is a sorcerer, Claus seeks a potion to help him complete his rounds. The dastardly medicine man finds opportunity to kidnap Santa and become the Jolly Old Fatman in hopes of infiltrating the Smurf village and stealing some for his Christmas dinner. 

Story #2 finds Gargamel captured by a hungry ogre. Thinking quickly, the fiend convinces the ogre that Smurfs make better tasting meals. There's quite a bit of tension as the Ogre with Gargamel still in his clutches, inch closer to Smurf village!

Story #3 starts off with a the Smurfs building snowmen. With warmer weather in the forecast, the snowmen come alive, trying to make it to the safety of the frigid Northern lands. But an encounter with Gargamel results in the snowmen betraying their Smurf creators.

Story #4 has the Smurfs exploring their nearby territory. Things are awfully quiet with all the woodland creatures taking warm refuge from the winter weather. All this quiet results in Sleepy Smurf cuddling up in a dormouse hutch. As the rest of the Smurfs write their letters to Santa, Sleepy Smurf and friend find themselves unknowingly the target of a hungry poacher- because they're sleeping through their entire predicament!!!

Story #5 stars Lumberjack Smurf who while looking for the perfect Christmas tree, almost chops down a talking pine. Turns out that the verbose tree is actually a little girl who was turned into a conifer by a witch. 

The final tale is a reunion between Gargamel and Santa. Faced with being on the naughty list again, the wizard can earn a gift for Christmas if he delivers gifts to all the Smurfs. But should he fall into temptation, Gargamel will be turned into an earthworm!

When I grew up, religious groups proclaimed the Smurfs to be agents of the devil. There's a little bit of magic in the book. It's mostly Gargamel's doing. Papa Smurf does refer to a book of prophecy in the Orge story. But by the end of it, he burns the book wanting to make his own destiny. There is some Looney Tunes level slapstick. That's mostly at the hands of Jokey Smurf and his love of those exploding gift boxes. 

What got on my nerves was the progressive use of the word 'Smurf'. It's gently sprinkled into the vocabulary in the first couple of tales. By the end of this book, it literally peppered it to the point of overuse. I mean, it smurfingly smurfed getting on my smurfing smurfs! (Hopefully, you get my drift...) It's a Christmas tree! Not a Christmas smurf!!! I don't care what the back panel on the book says...

This was a great assortment of holiday and winter time Smurfs stories by their legendary Belgian creator, Peyo. But why was that ogre story thrown in? I would have been with just those 5 other stories alone in order to make this a more cohesive collection. The only reason I can figure out for addition of the ogre oddity is that this book is about 55 pages long. Without the 8 pages of 'The Ogre and the Smurfs ', this 2013 offering from Papercutz would barely clock in at 47 pages. I have the paperback edition which at $5.99 is a steal. But I bet the smaller page count just wouldn't have been feasible for Papercutz', hardcover edition.Lots of seasonal fun with a small detour in the middle. Sure to delight generations of Smurfs fans.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

It Ate Billy On Christmas (Family Comic Friday)

I created Family Comic Friday because I was growing frustrated with parents going to shops and getting horrible recommendations about what comic books were appropriate for younger readers. I guess when it comes to reviews like these, I should cover not just the age appropriate stuff but the bad stuff well. If that's the case, then today's book definitely fits the criteria of a read where the suggestion given to me was all wrong.

It Ate Billy On Christmas was originally recommended to me as a great Christmas graphic novel to add to my wish list. For a couple of years, I would search for it regularly when shopping online for holiday themed reads. Last month I finally found a copy and ordered it along with several other Christmas comics and graphic novels. 

I should have known something was up with the shape of the book. It's rectangular. However instead of the format of the book going vertical, this hardcover was horizontal. Now, there's been a few horizontally formatted graphic novels. Frank Miller's 300 comes immediately to mind. For a few issues, Grant Morrison's run on Uncanny X-Men was a horizontal comic. I think there's even been a Fantastic Four annual published in this this configuration. 

This book was published by Dark Horse, which is known for its nearly 50 years of comic book and graphic novel offerings. Plus, on the back cover, this book is categorized as a graphic novel! So it's not really a traditional graphic novel, I thought. Then I started thumbing through the book. With an illustration on every left page and a painted piece on the right, there's a lot of visuals. However, this is not a work of sequential art. It's a children's book! Or so I thought...

Since I had waited so long to find this book and I spent money on it, I decided I might as well read it. And since it was Thursday and I needed a book for my weekly Friday post, I decided to review it as a "Family Comic Friday' read. 

Lumi is a young girl who's bullied mercilessly by her older brother. Every year for Christmas, she asks her parents for a puppy. But considering how mean and violent brother Billy is, Lumi's parents refuse. This Christmas, the girl is thrilled to discover that Santa has gifted her a puppy. The ugliest, smelliest, weirdest looking puppy you ever could imagine.

The puppy in reality is an ancient creature that broke into Lima's home looking for a snack, which the creature finds in the form of Billy! Not willing to give up her new puppy kinda glad that Billy is gone, Lumi fools her parents with a cardboard cutout of Billy. Mom and Dad don't seem to mind as a fake Billy is much more pleasant than the real thing. But as more children begin to disappear, will the town discover the truth and Lumi's new puppy?

This is a deceptively demented book that I really enjoyed. The painted artwork by Steven Daily reminded me of the animated works of Time Burton. Roman Dirge's writing style was just brilliant. You think you're getting a sweet little holiday fairy tale but the work is peppered with sarcasm and satire like a Terry Pratchett novel. Then there's the additional non-sequitur hidden inside the author's commentary like that of Douglas Adams' from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. However, this is not a sweet little holiday story. 

It's a tale of terror wrapped up in pink Christmas paper with happy little elves and butterflies on the surface. Some parents will love the dark twists to this 2007 book. Others will despise it. I went to Amazon in order to find a recommendation of reader age and couldn't find any.  Obviously, the world's biggest book seller doesn't think that this is a children's book no matter what the guy who suggested this book to me years ago thought. 

If the creepy CGI family movie Coraline is appropriate your little ones, then you probably won't have any qualms about this book. Never seen Coraline? (You should. It's great!) Then try to base the appropriate nature of this book on eerie book series such as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and RL Stine's Goosebumps.

Some eaten children, a pair of aloof parents and one swear word, this is definitely not your traditional holiday tale. But it's not really a graphic novel, children's book or work of fantasy horror for only the grownups either. What it was, was the perfect amount of gothic, surreal and darkly humorous misadventure for my taste in reads.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: The Graphic Novel (Family Comic Friday)

The holiday classic is presented in graphic novel form for the first time ever in this 2020 graphic novel from 2020.

I'm kinda familiar with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet. I've attempted to watch it a couple of times. But by about the time the Nutcracker shows up, I would get bored and go to something else. What I didn't know was that The Nutcracker wasn't originally a ballet. It was a novel written in Germany and later adapted into English by Alexandre Dumas. This graphic novel takes its inspiration from the original German text by E.T.A. Hoffman.

On a snowy Christmas morning,  a young girl named Marie discovers a wooden Nutcracker underneath her Christmas tree. Nobody seems to know how it got there. But that doesn't matter to Marie. She's completely enamored with it.

Later that night as Marie plays with the Nutcracker, a mouse in Royal garb attacks. The Nutcracker comes to life and beats back the Mouse King. However, the war is far from over. During the skirmish, Marie injures her arm, which becomes infected and she's afflicted with a terrible fever. As she recovers, an old family friend regales Marie and her brother, Fitz with a story of a faraway kingdom besieged by mice. 

As the story unfolds, Marie begins to suspect that there's a hint of truth behind the fairy tale. Nightly, the Mouse King torments her with threats against the Nutcracker. Final conflict is looming. Can Marie break an antique curse and save not only the Nutcracker but her own family from the threat of the kingdom of mice?

Written and illustrated by North Carolina native Natalie Andrewson, this was a delightful holiday tale that started off kinda weird. I don't blame Andrewson for that. I think it's the fault of E.T.A. Hoffman. Plus whatever prior knowledge I had of the ballet was probably tampering with how the story unfolded for me. For years I always thought that the weird old family friend with an eye patch, Herr Drosselmeyer, was in love with Marie and thought it was kinda creepy. Man, did I get that part of the ballet wrong...

Andrewson's art was wonderful. I was saddened to learn that some of her childhood art teachers didn't encourage her more cartoonish style. As a culinary teacher, I try to teach my students the basics. But I then try to encourage their creativity with the dishes they practice to thrive past the set guidelines of their recipes. I'm glad Andrewson didn't give up on her personal style. This book would have been severely lacking without that  attention to detail that I just loved. I also marveled at how traditional 1800s German Yule time she made everything look. 

This adaptation is recommended for readers aged 6-10 years old. I think 6 might be a bit too young. 7 too. This is a very wordy book. So unless there's an older trusted adult helping, this might seem like a mighty task for a first grader to read on their own. 

Parents have been bringing younger children to performances of The Nutcracker for generations. However, with the graphic novel, there's several scenes of war and violence. The Nutcracker and Marie get bloodied. A lot of mice die as do a couple of toy soldiers. Plus Marie and her brother Fitz are pretty disrespectful to their parents and they tease elderly Drosselmeyer for his ugly appearance. Christmas stories are filled with horrible people learning the true meaning of Christmas. So parents and guardians: take that into account when presenting this to the young reader in your life 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.