While the popularity of comics is on the continued rise, I’ve noticed an increase in popularity for a specific comic; All-Ages titles. After the break, we’ll take a look at some the hottest books on the market that will keep you entertained and will be more than suitable for kids to read.
When I waltzed over to the shelves of the local shop for some Free Comic Book Day goodies, my jaw fell open at the sight of Robert Kirkman’s new All-Ages title: Super Dinosaur. How could the man behind some extremely mature content in The Walking Dead go on to write a kid friendly book about dinosaurs blowing each other up? It seemed absurd, but lucky for Kirkman, I live for the absurd.
With a style similar to that of a Saturday morning cartoon, Super Dinosaur proved to be enjoyable. While it’s not groundbreaking work, the book clicked my brain off and returned me to a younger age, enjoying the barrage of explosive, Jurassic color of the title. After my jump into the Dinosaur bandwagon, I noticed an entire wave of All-Ages titles popping up in what I call the 2011 All-Ages Wave.
There’s really not a better feeling in the world than reading an All-Ages book in public and having a kid come up to you asking about it. With innocent titles that everyone can enjoy for their wit; it’s almost more impressive to write a title for every age than to write about rape and murder without losing interest: So, here are a few books I suggest you check out right away (as most of them have been flying off shelves):
Super Dinosaur (Image): Derek Dynamo and his pal, the mechanically enhanced T-Rex Super Dinosaur battle through a world of puns and climactic villains. BE FORWARNED: Derek replaces his commas in every sentence with the word “Awesome.”
Gladstone’s School For World Conquerors (Image): Kid Nefarious and Martian Jones attend a super-villains seminary to take over the world. The manga art style might turn some of the hardcore crowd off, but the writing is spot on. A hilarious satire of superhero books in general.
Space Warped (Kaboom!): A two-part miniseries that parodies the Star Wars trilogy in a way I haven’t seen before: A strange ethnic medieval warp of the story that leaves the droids as druids and the star cruisers as carriages. They might as well of called this “Star WTF” but I actually laughed out loud a few times for the sheer random silly moments.
Snarked! (Kaboom!): The adventures of the Walrus and the Carpenter, exploring Lewis Carol’s Wonderland with a cartoony, yet intelligent approach. While it won’t be released until October, you can pick up the ten-page issue #0 this July for a $1 to get a feel of what it’s going to be like. My heart soars for the Looney Tunes-esque art and I can’t wait to read more.
