Graphic Novel/Comic Books for Kids

[abecedarian]

What graphic novels and comic books would you recomend for kids? I'd like some ideas for my 7 and 9 year old boys. Because of their older sibs, they've seen all the X-Men, Star Wars, Spiderman, Batman(not The Dark Night), Stardust, etc type movies..Ideas?

 

[Occlith]

Although they are not in the superhero genre of comics, I suggest the following titles --

City of Light, City of Dark by Avi, illustrated by Brian Floca.
An adventure/sci-fi story told with simple and wonderfully expressive drawings.

Electric Girl by Michael Brennan. Don't be put off from getting it for boys just because the main character is a girl. View the comics gallery to check out some samples.

 

[fluffy bunny]

My comic knowledge is 2 or 3 yrs out of whack. Ideally you need to find a regular monthly title to give them something to lookforward to- try the person behind the desk of your local comic store and then pick up and thumb through an issue before purchace. Good comics appeal to adults and children alike (think of the 1st Shrek) and you know what would capture the attention of your little ones.

For graphic novels that've been around for a while without trying to generate sales by gratuitous sex and violence:


Ultimate Spider-Man (about 20 trade paperbacks each containing about 6 issues each). Marvel comics has quite a few spiderman books out there (in the same way that when you go into a comics shop you'll be surrounded by X-Men and Batman titles). Spiderman's got a huge amount of continuity/backplot going back over 40yrs (hence the rich references for the films). About 8 or 9 yrs ago, Marvel retold a number of the stories for a new generation (the ultimate line). Ultimate spiderman has plenty of action, great dialogue and the advantage of being one of the most dependably good titles out there (well as of 3yrs ago when I went cold turkey on comics). I loved this title as single issues and both my younger brothers were always stealing it (I think it was the main title from my monthly comics buy that got 'borrowed').


Astonishing X-men by Joss Whedon (of buffy, angel and firefly fame) is probably one of the better X-men titles, especially if you've seen the X-men films.

If you're after warm and fuzzy, you could have a look though Bone which appeals to those who enjoyed Disney but you'll have to compete with cries of 'it's in black and white - it's not cool.'


For the exact trade paperbacks (graphic novels) and the order they go in for each series I'd refer to www.tplist.com or the amazon listmanias.

 

[abecedarian]

Thanks Occilith and fluffy bunny! All I could think of was the old Ritchie Ritch, Caspar and Wendy, and Archies. I knew some of the superhero lines had gone way beyond the scope of kids' stuff, so I was a little worried about them. There's a nice comic book store a few miles from us; I bet I could get Mr. abc to go shopping with me:whistling:

 

[Mandi-chan]

I highly recommend "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" by Don Rosa, it's an excellent comic and well worth the purchase.

 

[Libra6Poe]

I do not recommend any manga or anything by DC's Vertigo.

 

[gundamgirl]

Manga's ok as long as you pick for there age group, the x-men are done in a manga style as well. since they watch programmes like x-men spiderman etc, there are many mangas that have had animations made.
including dianea wynn jones(sorry about the spelling) Howls moving castle.
Spirited away the film is made by disney.