Bryson Fars: The Millionaire Creator/Jewel: The Magical Chef (Family Comic Friday)

I'm diverting a little bit on today's Family Comic Friday post. Instead of family friendly comics and graphic novels, I want to highlight a couple of books made for kids BY KIDS!

Last weekend, my bride and I went to the Geek & Grub Market at Fred Fletcher Park in Raleigh, NC. Geek & Grub is held monthly in Raleigh (with other locations like Durham, NC, Charlotte, NC and in Virginia occasionally).  There were food trucks, bakeries, toys, comics, and games. A costume contest! Prizes! Lots of fun for all ages! This month's theme was super heroes and despite the rain, there managed to be a fairly decent sized crowd. 

It was in the vendors area that I met the creators of the 2 books I am featuring, Elijah B. and Jewel L. They're siblings. Elijah was around age 10 or 11. Jewel was younger. I think she said she was 8. It's a family effort as their Dad, Ron L. is the illustrator of their books. 

Elijah B.'s book was titled Bryson Fars: The Millionaire Game Creator. It's an origin story of how Bryson Fars and his older brother and sister worked together to create a video game that combined race cars with football. Bryson is invited to showcase his new creation which gains the interest of a famous video game designer named Sizzle McDougall, who wishes to turn it into his studios' next big online offering. However, things are not all as they seem as suddenly Bryson's program seems to have a virus and cannot operate just as Sizzle is unveiling his new game, one based on Bryson's idea!

Bryson Lars is a chapter book. So I think it's something kids, especially those interested in video games and computer coding & design, will enjoy. I'm thinking those in grades 3-5 is the target audience, as some of the coding concepts can be a bit advanced. But as always, if you have a 2nd grader who can whip up a web page better than you can, then most definitely, buy them this book!

Jewel L,'s book is called Jewel: The Magical Chef. It's a fanciful book written in rhyme about a chef with magical animal friends and amazing cooking skills. One day, a wicked witch cooks up some dastardly treats in hopes of turning the children of the kingdom into goat-creatures. Can Jewel cook up an antidote to save her friends? With the delicious recipe at the back of the book, there's a very good chance that she can!

Jewel: The Magical Chef is a book that younger readers can enjoy. K-5 to 2nd is the age range I put this book. However, if you have a 3rd or 4th grader who is interested in cooking, sharing the fruit salad recipe at the end of this book would be a great way to show aspiring cooks and chefs to craft their own recipes. I'm going to share this recipe with my Culinary students next semester and they're in high school!

Plus, there's several black & white sketch pages in the back that I think you could color. So, consider Jewel: The Magical Chef to be a sort of activity book that's full of fun and perfect for a rainy summer day. By the way- I hear that Jewel L. is working on a recipe coloring book. I'll be sure to snag several copies of that for my students and other aspiring culinarians when it drops!

Both Bryson Fars: The Millionaire Creator and Jewel: The Magical Chef are available for sale on Amazon! These two children can't even drive a car and they've got a pair of books on the biggest online market platform in the world! As American Ninja Warrior's Matt Iseman says 'What's your excuse?"

Elijah B's book will help inspire children to learn about creating their own video games and computer programs (and hopefully they'll stay away from making computer viruses). Jewel L's book will inspire youngsters to cook and create their own recipes. Together, these young writers might inspire the young reader in your life to become writers as well! 

The road to becoming a writer isn't hard. It just starts with 1 sentence on a blank page!

Best of luck to all future dreamers!

Dog Man (Family Comic Friday)

Today's featured graphic novel is the result of a promise. If you are an older parent, grandparent or guardian, you might remember the 1994 Macaulay Culkin film, The Pagemaster. In that movie, Culkin's character promises a trio of books that he'll check them out from his local library. Well, last weekend, I was at a flash sale at a used book store when I saw a run of the first 5 books of the series I am reviewing today. Deciding to let another family own them for an affordable price, I promised that the next time I was at my local library, I would check out the first volume and review it in my Family Comic Friday column.

The book series I am reviewing is Dak Pilkey's Dog Man. A spin-off from Pilkey's Captain Underpants series, Dog Man is a comic book made by the absurd superhero's sidekicks George and Harold. 

At the end of the main Captain Underpants series, George and Harold rediscover an old series they first came up with in Kindergarten- Dog Man. Seeking a new creative direction, the boys decide to retool Dog Man as seen in this series of graphic novels. 

The origin of Dog Man is something only a couple of grade schoolers could come up with. A K-9 cop and a dog are injured in an accident. Only able to save the policeman's body and the dog's head, doctors stitch the two together to form Dog Man!

Dog Man's arch enemy is an orange tabby named Petey. Petey seeks total world domination by conducting a number of mad scientist level schemes such as erasing all the books in the world in order to make people dumb. Unfortunately, for Petey, his schemes work too well as when the populace lose their intelligence, they become really, really stupid!

Along with the comic stories made by George and Harold, little pieces of the Captain Underpants universe pop up in the books. Letters of disapproval from the boy's teacher, Miss Ribble and other paraphernalia from Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. Look closely, and you'll even find a blurb from Captain Underpants' alter-ego! 

I tore through this 240-page book in maybe 30 minutes. But it was extremely fun. It was also a little bit elementary. There's some toilet humor. Situations get kinda oddball if not down right surreal. But it's the type of graphic novel readers aged 7-12 will love. Especially boys!

With 10 books in the series, this is a series that kids will devour as part of a Summer reading challenge. And since this is a graphic novel about kids who make a comic book series, this series might inspire the next generation of comic book writers and artists.

And parents, if the stories your kids make involve boogers or explosions or mean people, don't freak out! Realize that they're trying to make sense of their world while using their imagination. If you're not a fan, that's okay. This type of project isn't about you. Just smile, praise and be ready to provide some more paper, pens and pencils for their next volume of work.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Spookhouse #2 (Family Comic Friday)

 I had another book on schedule for today. I had heard good things about it from friends on Facebook. So when I came across the book that I am reviewing now, yesterday, I knew that it was an opportunity I just couldn't pass it up.

The title is called Spookhouse, a horror comic aimed at kids who love a good scare with a humorous twist. In the vein of the Goosebumps series from the 90s (recently turned into a major motion picture flop), this comic book has some real scares. Created by Eric Powell (The Goon), Spookhouse is set up like an old school horror comic from the 50s with a host, a plethora of short stories and some frightfully fun treats in between.

   The first story is about a young boy whose belief in trolls gets him into hot water with his teacher. Then a young girl from Japan accidentally brings a malevolent specter with her to her first day of class in America. Rounding out the issue, a pair of brothers run afoul of their next door neighbor.

    Spookhouse wasn’t gory. The language was tame. And I even laughed a couple of times. But some artwork might be a bit too scary for kids under the age of 9. It reminds me of a series of horror anthologies that I'd check out from my elementary school library called Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark where the frights were fun but some images from the book still haunt my nightmares. Also, parents should be advised that while the book is tame, the advertisement in the back of Spookhouse for other works by Powell are not for kids!

    A cool series that has much promise. However, since it’s published by Powell’s own private publishing company Albatross Exploding Funny Books, it may be hard to find. But any comics shop worth it’s salt should carry it- you just might have to ask…

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Lego Star Wars: Darth Maul's Mission (Family Comic Friday)

Yes- this is a children’s book! It’s either completely wayyyyyyy too young for me or I’m wayyyyyyy too old for it.

  Whichever.

  So, why did I check it out and read it? Well, it was placed in the New Arrival Kids Graphic

Novel shelf at my library. I had recently watched the Freemakers Lego Star Specials Cartoon Network and while geared for kids, I did find them very funny. That explains the Lego Star Wars part, but why is a 38-year old husband trolling the kids section. Over the years, I’ve been working on building up the graphic novel sections (in 13 years, it’s gone from 1 shelf to over a dozen, plus a kids and young adult section.) It doesn’t help that the librarians at my local branches don’t really know what’s appropriate for kids and what’s not. I mean, I found Watchmen in Young Adult once and Death: High Cost of Living in the kids section!

   Anyway, the book wasn’t a comic book or graphic novel by any stretch of the imagination. It needs to be shelved in young readers for sure. Even though the characters used word bubbles to speak, there isn’t any sequential action indicative of the comics medium.

  It’s a children’s book, through and through. Though, there are plot holes as the action goes from Naboo to Tattooine to a dance party on said desert planet and back to Naboo with no answer as to why Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan make the interplanetary u-turn in the first place. Talk about your suspensions of disbelief!

  Parents, expect many laughs and probably even more questions when reading this as a bedtime story.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

A Goofy Guide To Penguins (Family Comic Friday)

   Some of my favorite cartoons to watch as a kid involved the Disney character of Goofy in a parody of the Wide World of Sports. Goofy would be in this documentary about certain types of sports. I remember there was a short about winter sports and another about the Olympics. There might have even been one about fishing or water activities in general, but I'm not certain which or both is accurate.
    In those cartoons, a narrator would tell you about the history of the sport Goofy was participating in and then Goofy would screw-up in hilarious ways. I loved how Disney crafted something that was both fun and educational. I guess that's one reason I became an educator as I wanted learning to be fun. So when I saw A Goofy Guide to Penguins at my local library, my mind immediately went back to those old Disney cartoons and I thought that this would make a great review for Family Comic Friday.
    Despite the title, this is not a Disney publication nor does Goofy appear in this book. Published by Toon Books, A Goofy Guide to Penguins is written by French humorist Jean-Luc Coudray with art provided by his twin brother Phillipe. If you are familiar with my Family Comic Friday article, you might recall that Phillipe Coudray was featured for his Benjamin Bear series last year.
    The Coudray brothers worked together to craft a satirical look at Penguins. While there are little snippets of factual information about the flightless birds from the Antarctic, the majority of the book is filed with silly riddles and one-page sight gags. That does not mean that I didn't enjoy this book. It just was more funny as opposed to educational than I would have like. 
    Making up for the lack of educational aspects to the book, the editors included a 2-page spread of 100% real facts about Penguins. I wish they had done a better job on that section. It seems that 2 pages just wasn't enough space as several of the illustrations had little or nothing to do with the subject matter, especially one diagram about high and low pressure weather systems. That one just seemed really random.
     I applaud the Coudrays and Toon Books for trying to make learning fun with this edition. But it needs a little work if both parties are looking to make 'A Goofy Guide' into a series of books. My advice would be to make the funny to educational ratio about 55:45 like those old Disney cartoons. This book is more 80% silly to 20% learning.
    Nevertheless, this was a good book that will delight young readers from ages 5-9. Oh, and yes, though written by a pair of French brothers, this edition was published 100% in English!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Mighty ISIS #1

  Today's review is of one of the most controversial comics being debated today- the Mighty ISIS #1! When this book first hit store shelves back in 1976, it was meet with very little fanfare. Which for DC was terrible because they invested millions in a live action Shazam/ ISIS kids show. Though the show was a ratings failure, it became a cult classic. So much that by 1980, reruns were still being aired years after both heroes fought their last battles. And I looked forward to their antics every Saturday morning!

   So jump forward to today in which on social media sites I see the cover to this issue being hotly debated. It shows up at least once a week! The question often asked about it is ‘I saw this for a sweet deal, but  am I wrong to buy it?’ Or ‘ should this comic be banned, burned or destroyed?’

   By the way, if you think this book sharing the same moniker as a certain militant Islamic terrorist group is the reason for this consternation, then you would be right? Case in point, about a month ago when I found this book, I happily showed it to my wife and mother-in-law. While my bride understood my delight in finding ISIS #1, my in-law asked: “ Why would anyone want that?”

  See my mother-in-law thought like a lot of folks do on Facebook and thought that this was a comic that glorified the Islamic state. (or that by owning it would me that they were pro-ISIS.) After a couple of seconds of thought, I think I gave the perfect response that I encourage anyone who is a fan of the Egyptian goddess superhero. “I've been a fan of Isis for almost 40- years,’ I exclaimed,’ I haven't given up on her yet and if I give up on her now, the terrorists win. I'm buying it!’ And I did just that. A couple of nights later, I popped the tape on my mylar bag and gave ISIS #1 a read. 

This series involved a meek science teacher who does what all science teachers do on summer break, went on an archeological dig in Egypt (I guess all the history teachers go to work at a wildlife preserve in the DC Universe.) Anyways, the teacher finds an amulet which bestows her with the powers of the Egyptian goddess, the Mighty ISIS!

   ISIS conducts all sorts of mythical spells that involves clever rhymes. Assisting her is a magical black named Tut, that she shares a mental link with. And she's a fairly decent fighter.

   In this first issue, ISIS must battle an ancient Egyptian priest was was freed from his slumber in a miniature pyramid that has been moved to a museum in the US. He too speaks in rhymes and by the time the dust settles, I will have felt like I just attended a poetry slam.

   I enjoyed this little time capsule from my childhood. It still holds up pretty well for a 40-year old comic based on a kid's TV show. It just amazing how time has changed it from beloved cult hit to being viewed as propaganda for the evilest force facing the free world today. But I assure you, the hype is all guilt by association.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating : 8 out of 10 stars.

Animal Parade: A Puzzle Book

   This adorable picture book hides a surprise. The main image of each page pulls apart to become a 2-sided puzzle. At only 6 panels, this is a puzzle that the youngest of readers can enjoy by themselves or with an older sibling or mom & dad. 

   I saw three different versions being  given away on Goodreads and I entered to win all three. How excited I was to win one! It's going to be a great gift to my wife's cousin's baby girl. 

   The author/ artist, Aino-Maija Metsola is a Finnish freelance designer. Her style is renown for being so simple and yet visually stunning. Plus, the wild color palette used seems to me to be in that special style that people say is perfect for a child's development. 

  Plus, I know the author is Finnish, but this book has a visual appeal that looks right at home at that Swedish superstore IKEA!

  There is one thing that I would change about this book and it's actually a smart idea. See, when I got this book, the pages have a plastic sleeve around them to keep the puzzle pieces from falling out. That's great to keep everything inside while at the store, but the plastic poses a choking hazard for little ones and should be discarded before use. So, I purpose that they attach some sort of velcro strap attached to the book that can be used to keep the book shut tight and pieces from falling out (and getting lost) when not it use.

   Maybe that can be done with the second print of what is sure to become the next picture book classic!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Inspector Gadget #1 (2011 Free Comic Book Day)

   

 Inspector Gadget, his niece Penny, and their dog Brain are on the case! This time, they are to travel on the famed Orient Express in order to save a reclusive professor from the clutches of Doctor KLAW and his evil men. Of course, Gadget gets himself nearly killed (a lot) and he thinks that Brain in disguise is really the bad guy (often)- oh, and did I forget to mention the exploding message from the chief??? 

    This book had all of the makings of a classic Inspector Gadget episode and I hated it. Don't get me wrong, when I was in kindergarten, I was all over Inspector Gadget. I had the books, the action figures, the giant-sized Gadget. Yet, for some reason the stilted animation, the repetitive plot devices, and the fact that Gadget is really a robot or android at best has over the years turned me off to this franchise.

   Another thing about Gadget is that I am convinced that Penny was really the super secret agent and that Brain and Gadget were a ruse to throw KLAW off of Penny's scent. Sure, Penny got caught sometimes, but I think KLAW believed she was nothing more than a nuisance girl- mere bait to ensnare his Inspector foe. Oddly enough, there're quite a few fans on the net who agree with my conspiracy theory about Inspector Gadget. Maybe I'm on to something...

   Also, in this Free Comic Book Day offering from 2011 is a preview of a title called Johnny Test. It was a forgettable little tale about an average school boy whose completion of his homework will one day save the world. The art looked like it was drawn on a Commodore 64 and the plot seemed to borrow heavily from Dexter's Lab, Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, and Phineas and Ferb.

   The biggest thing that upset me about this comic book was that both stories end with a cliffhanger that requires the reader to go out and buy another title to get the ending. I can understand why DC and Marvel do it as these Free Comic Book Day offerings lead to a monthly title. But for kids, who may live in families with tight budgets, having a free book require you to purchase the ending, might be a goal unattainable. Yes, I know companies want to attract new customers but a cliffhanger just doesn't seem the smart way to do it.

  Not Worth Consuming!

   Rating 4 out of 10 stars.

Pablo & Jane and the Hot Air Contraption (Family Comic Friday)

  Friends Pablo and Jane are so bored! It's raining and they've read all of their comic books, played all their board games, and are having cabin fever. So when the duo decides to explore an abandoned building in the center of town, they get mixed up in an epic fight between an evil cat and an 18th-century professor named Dr Jules, whose been turned into a rat. It seems that the villainous cat wants to use the professor's hot air balloon time machine to take over the universe. But something goes haywire and the machine explodes.

    As a result, the children and Dr Jules are thrust into the Monster Dimension, where ghastly ghouls roam the earth terrorising the human populace and maybe tenderising a few as a late night snack. In order to get back home, the kids must find an assortment of parts in order to repair time machine contraption. Travelling the far corners of monster earth, Pablo and Jane must venture to a creepy bayou, a deadly outback, and parts unknown  before their feline foe does; else they'll be stranded in this alternate reality and become dinner for the creatures of the night.

   Pablo & Jane and the Hot-Air Contraption is one part graphic novel and one part Where's Waldo. Up until when Dr Jules' machine goes wonky, the book is formatted like a comic book. But, when the children arrive in the Monster Dimension, creator Jose Domingo goes into an insane seek-and-find mode.

   The first four or five scenes are pretty easy. You have to find about 4-7 itsy-bitsy parts like light bulbs, screws, and control switches. However, as the book progresses, the level of difficulty gets harder. It also doesn't help that the parts you must find are so blasted tiny nor that the things you must find look nothing like they do on the search inventory key.

   Towards the end, I was having to find about 15-18 very small items. Maybe it's that I am getting older and I just can't find little things like a blue screw that are the size of a booger. But I really started getting both flustered trying to discover everything and a headache! By the last couple of scenes, I gave up. (I didn't even attempt to go back and find the extra stuff listed in the back of the book.)

   This 2015 book is full of ghosts, vampires, tiki gods, and other monsters. But the source material isn't that scary. The graphic novel sections also don't have anything for parents to object to except some cartoon violence similar to Tom & Jerry. Amazon lists this as a book for kids aged 5-7. But since it is really hard to find a lot of the hidden objects in this book, I might up the appropriateness of this book to age 10.

   Pablo and Jane started off really well. It just gets harder and harder to enjoy with each flip of the page. Domingo's art is quite fanciful and I enjoyed eevery scene from a cartoon standpoint. But I think if the illustrator wants to continue with the adventures of Pablo & Jane, he's going to make the things you search for just a little bit bigger. Beleive me, your eyes will thank you!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Super Crazy Cat Dance (Family Comic Friday)

  

  This week's Family Comic Friday selection is called The Super Crazy Cat Dance by Aron Nels Steinke. This book is essentially a long poem about a young girl and her love of cats. Much in the style of prose like the legendary 'One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish' by Dr. Suess, Crazy Cat Dance has fat cats, long cats, purple cats, and a few dogs too.

    This book is part of the Balloon Toons series by Blue Apple Books. Each book features simple, easy to read texts and cleverly drawn artwork. With only one panel per page, the art in this book was very clean and animated. An extremely whimsical book with very cute rhymes that reflect the actions in this fun book.

    The age range of this book is for readers 6-9. But, this type of book will appeal to cat lovers of all ages. This includes my wife, who in no way is what you'd consider a comic book reader. Yet, as I described this book to her, she declared that The Super Crazy Cat Dance sounds like the type of cat book not only that she'd like to read but also own! Praise from Ceasar!!!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Cat Dad: King of the Goblins (Family Comic Friday)

   This whimsical children's graphic novel appears suited to become the first in a series. However, there isn't any indication that it is, such as a volume 1 on the cover or a to be continued. The book written and penciled by Britt Wilson was sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts, a fantastic organization that has some great love for public libraries and has even published a Free Comic Book Day edition or two . It may very well be that more books will be forthcoming should this 2014 tale achieve a wide enough following.

   So what's Cat Dad about? At the beginning of this book, sisters Miri and Luey are doing their homework along with their buddy Phil, who is a giant frog. When mom accidentally turns dad into a cat, the trio must chase him down in order to change him back. But in a nod to the Chronicles of Narnia, dad runs into the linen closet which is a portal to a secret garden world. There, dad is kidnapped by goblins that look a lot like Man-Bat from the Batman series. But instead of a rescue attempt, the kids may have to kidnap the goblins new king!

   Cat Dad had some highs and lows and for me this read was mostly positive. The book was very funny and the characters were quite enjoyable- especially the goblins! Mom may or may not be a witch and I like the mystery behind trying to figure out if she is or just really unlucky enough to turn her hubby into a white fluffy feline.

  The art itself is quite whimsical too. I thought it looked familiar and upon further research about this book, I learned the reason why is because Britt Wilson was for a while an artist on the Adventure Time comic from Kaboom! Studios. The magic and hilarity of that series has obviously been carried over here.

   Okay, so what didn't work. In a short phrase: transitional plotting. For example: when the girls and Phil get lost in the goblin lair, they spy a spider crawling on the floor. The youngest girl runs after the spider, slips in a puddle, and then finds a map of the caverns while Luey yells "Get it? Get It?" First of all- I didn't get it. Secondly, the puddle. Did Miri smush the spider or did she discover an underground spring and really a map just appears out of nowhere? This book is geared for children aged 7-11, but I doubt even they would overlook such oversights!

    This is just Wilson's second independent work. So, maybe plotting is something she needs to work on. This also could be a fault of the editor. Even so, I'd gladly read more of this series if ever further sequels were published.

   Worth Consuming

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Superman Family Adventures #4

The Daily Planet has a visitor in the form of a tiny monkey named Titano. He’s on loan from the Metropolis Zoo for a photo shoot. But when a chunk of Red Kryptonite falls from the sky and is digested by the curious ‘George’, trouble grows to epic proportions. Its Superman to the rescue until the radiation from the Red Kryptonite causes the Man of Steel to split in two!

  Now it’s Kent versus Can’t with a giant radioactive chimp terrorizing Metropolis! It’s the story of the century! Somebody find Olsen and bring Chief his coffee!

The team of Art Baltazar and Franco continue to pump out instant classics like this one. I love how they created exciting new stories for kids that are rooted in the New 52 universe while harkening back to the classic DC stories that mom and dad read as a kid! It’s a stroke of Disney-like genius- offering something for the whole family to enjoy.

The end of this book offers a study guide for teachers to use. I know if I still taught, I’d use this resource. I wonder if any teachers use this today.

Another Baltazar/ Franco gem that I found at my local library. Great comic, great series, great creative duo and Great Scott!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Zombie Kid Free Comic Book Day 2012

Just because it’s published on the same sized type of comic book paper and has 2 staples down the spine, but there’s no sequential art, is it really a comic book?

 

This Free Comic Book Day issue is actually an excerpt from the children’s book 'Zombie Kid', in which a student and his mother try to live like normal people after being stricken with the plague of the undead. The story is actually kinda original for a zombie genre that’s been done to death. Some scenes are funny, not just kids funny, but humorous for all ages.

However, I stress that though this looks like a comic book, it’s really not. Is it a gyp? Probably not, since it was given away free. However, this selection just doesn’t find the definition of a comic or a graphic novel. You can’t really call this an experimental underground comic either. And I doubt you’ll find this is at a comic book store and not in the children’s section of a Barnes & Noble, instead. Buyer Beware.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.