By Tracy (and Shelby & Sarah) Edmunds
July 26, 2004
The Con has come and gone, and though we didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked, we made every second count. We had a great time meeting many of the writers and artists whose work we enjoy, and they were all as nice as can be. There are some fun all-ages books coming out in the next few months – we’ll keep you up to date! Before we get to the new stuff, however, there are some books that have been around a little while that we must share.
OWLY by ANDY RUNTON
If OWLY doesn’t make you go “awwwwww,” you have no soul. On the cuteness scale of zero to ten, this one goes to eleven. ANDY RUNTON has created a small cast of anthropomorphic characters that will steal your heart and leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy for days. Owly, our hero, goes about making friends with forest creatures such as worms, hummingbirds, and raccoons, and creates true friendships. The deceptively simple black and white art and lack of text dialogue make this perfect for even the littlest kids, but adults love it just as much. Shelby read OWLY to her two and three-year-old cousins, and Sarah read it to her grandmother, and everyone is in love with Andy’s work. We met Andy at Comic-Con, and he’s just as nice as you’d expect. Keep your eye on OWLY, it’s bound to be huge. www.andyrunton.com Highest recommendation for all ages!
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Shelby says: OWLY is about an owl and he finds a worm friend that he saves from a storm. Sometimes the owl and worm cry with the little watery things at the bottom of their eyes. – it’s really cute looking. The owl even has a bed for the worm – he takes good care of him ‘cause he’s his best friend. There’s two books, plus a Free Comic Book Day book, plus online comics you should see. It’s a thick book about an inch thick but, it’s worth it to read a long and cute book like that!!!!!! OWLY is sooo cute. It’s kinda like manga, ‘cause he’s got huge eyes – half of his head is covered by his eyeballs. There are no words, so it’s great for kids, and the stories teach you good lessons. I read ‘em to my little cousins and they were like, “Let’s read another one!” It’s one of my favorite books ever! In fact I’m just about to read it.
Sarah says: I like Owly because he always helps other nature animals and always cares about other things. One thing I like about Owly is that I know how he feels by his faces that he makes. Like gloomy faces, happy faces, or loving faces. He takes time to grow flowers while he’s waiting his hummingbird friends to come back. It’s very easy to understand and the pictures also help me figure out what’s going on. There are pictures in the word bubbles instead of words. My favorite character in OWLY is Wormy. I like Wormy because he’s really cute, he’s always loveable, and he believes in Owly.
TOMMYSAURUS REX by DOUG TENNAPEL
Sarah says: TOMMYSAURUS REX is about a boy named Ely and his dog and Ely goes to his Grandpa’s house and his dog dies but then he finds this T Rex and keeps him and has the same name as his dog. And then Ely decides to make the T Rex do tricks and then he did it in front of the whole town and the mayor. The problem Ely has is his worst enemy, Randy. Randy bosses him around and makes him eat dog poop. I don’t want to tell you about the end, though, because it’s a very exciting part. I would say it’s a little bit scary for babies that are one and two, but everyone else would like it. I met the guy who writes and draws TOMMYSAURUS REX and he did a sketch for me. He’s cool.
Shelby says: TOMMYSAURUS REX is funny sometimes, when like Randy says, “Eat this dog poop, since you love dogs so much!” The dinosaur is really big, like a T Rex, and everyone loves it, but then they hate it. It’s weird. The drawings are kinda sloppy. It was kinda sad, so I didn’t like the sad parts. Some kids might like it, if they like dinosaurs.
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Sarah liked TOMMYSAURUS REX – she seemed relate to Ely’s feelings. For me, though, it felt a little like a Sunday school lesson. Remember the DAVEY AND GOLIATH TV show, produced by the Lutheran Church? Kinda like that. I also thought it seemed like a condensed version of a longer story at times, like entire pages were missing – I’d love to see an expanded version. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good book, especially for kids, but as I tell the girls to say when they are served something they’d rather not eat, “It’s not my favorite”. A word of warning; while this is a good book for all but the youngest kids, there is one line you ought to be aware of before handing it to a youngster. When Ely’s parents drop him at grandpa’s house, grandpa sends them away with, “…Go have fun! Go have some sex! Call me when summer’s over!” The girls read this book before I did and never said a word, so I’m hoping it went over their heads. Mostly appropriate for all ages; recommended for youngsters to teens.
MISTER O by LEWIS TRONDHEIM
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Mister O (he’s actually a circle) comes to the edge of an apparently deep canyon, and wants to get to the other side. That’s it. That’s the whole book – each page is a different version of the same thing. Sounds lame? Not even close. It’s the simplest idea, yet Trondheim’s endless variations keep surprising and entertaining. This is a master class in the power of graphic art – anyone who wants to know how to make the most of the medium in the simplest way possible should read MISTER O. It’s also a great inspiration to beginning artists and folks with no artistic talent, like yours truly – even I can draw Mister O! I completely loved this book, and laughed myself silly more than a few times. There’s no text, so even the littlest kids can read MISTER O, but there is some “cartoon violence” (many of the characters meet sticky ends) and some poop, so you should probably read it and decide whether it’s appropriate for the little ones before you hand it over. Highly recommended for everyone who doesn’t mind cartoon violence and poop jokes.
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Shelby says: MISTER O is really funny. It’s about this little O thing that’s pink and it tries to get from one cliff to another cliff, about two feet apart. And he always doesn’t make it across. Well, sometimes he does, but if he does, he just dies or falls in the hole. It might shock people who don’t like disgusting things, ‘cause there’s some blood and poop in mouths.
Sarah says: Two pages in MISTER O are really disgusting because he gets pooped on the head and in his mouth. Eeew! It is easy for kids to draw that really don’t know how to do shading. It’s sorta simple. I liked MISTER O because he always is trying to get across the cliff and there’s always something wrong. It’s very weird, because every time he gets hurt or dies, he comes back to normal. Sometimes Mister O makes me laugh in my head. Kids and grown ups will like it.
POWER PACK by MARC SUMERAK and GURIHIRU
Shelby: POWER PACK is about some brothers and sisters. It’s kind of like Fantastic Four. The kids get mixed up in a battle and get their superpowers from this white horse-looking alien that’s dying. The youngest one, Katie, has this big energy ball thing and she throws ‘em at the bad guys. The second youngest is Jack; he can turn into air and he looks like a big cloud with his arms and head sticking out. Then he can shrink down small and go bigger again.
Sarah: The second oldest is Julie who can fly with a rainbow glowing behind her and she throws pink things. The oldest is Alex, and he can float with gravity or something with these black things around him and he can throw them at people.
Shelby: He just has this thing that he can make things float in the air.
Sarah: My favorite character is Jack because he’s really funny and he thinks he’s a fancy pants smart-aleck. I like the story because it’s about four brothers and sisters that are a superhero family. They kind of fight with each other like real brothers and sisters, but not as much as us. Their parents do not know they have superpowers. Their father is an inventor and he invented a machine to go into the future. They go in the future and fight monsters sometimes. I think kids who like superheroes and stuff in the future and big monster guys will like it.
Shelby: Other kids will like it because it’s funny sometimes and it’s not scary at all.
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Ah, a truly all-ages superhero comic! A MARVEL limited series of 4 issues, POWER PACK is apparently a do-over of an eighties comic I never read. I put off reading it for a while, since I wasn’t in love with MARVEL AGE SPIDERMAN, FF, or HULK, but I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. The stories have a moral, but there are enough jokes and action that kids won’t notice, and there are enough one-liners in there for the big kids (any comic that riffs on Viva La Bam is okay with me). I really like GIRIHIRU’s art – they worked on GUS BEEZER, another great kids’ comic, and the beginning of the first issue of POWER PACK pays homage to some of Gus’ work. The lines are clean and the colors pop -- it just feels like the good stuff you remember from childhood. POWER PACK isn’t going to be a fanboy favorite, but it’s great for its target audience and it’s so nice to see a “mainstream” superhero comic that kids will enjoy. Each issue also includes FRANKLIN RICHARDS; SON OF A GENIUS, which is pretty darn funny as well. Mr. Fantastic picks his nose! Recommended for all ages, but especially good for the elementary school crowd.
NEXT TIME: ODDLY NORMAL, DEATH JR., OLYMPUS HEIGHTS and CLIVE BARKER’S THE THIEF OF ALWAYS.
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