CSotD: Children of the Future
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As we get into the Season of Redcup, I'd like to take a moment to talk about kids and the future of cartooning and the fact that I have to hit the road momentarily and don't have time to go through all the cartoons in the world this morning.
But this really is a topic I had planned to touch on over the next couple of months.
The grand purpose of this blog is to promote the idea that cartoons matter and that good cartoons make you think as well as laugh, though they are permitted to do only one or the other.
If you come here often, you'll know that I read the strips I like and rarely bother with the ones I don't. You may also have figured out that I read some work that I often don't admire for the sake of the rare times I do.
That said, there are strips I don't read because they aren't geared for me, and, since I am only at the center of my own universe and not the larger one, that's okay.
The young lady at the top of the page is reading Volume One of Fantagraphic's Barnaby collection.
Barnaby is a secret weapon with which I was lured into the art form, and the secret weapon with which I lured her older cousin into the form.
That's the older cousin with whom I will go this weekend to Hilary Price's annual open studio and who hasn't missed it in five or six years and wouldn't.
Whether or not they ever become fans of the daily paper's comics, they can become fans of the form generally, particularly if Grandpa begins with Crockett Johnson to get them hooked and then proceeds to give them Raina Telgemeier and Marjane Satrapi and Art Speigelman and Richard Thompson and on and on.
But first, let's look at some strips that are particularly well-targeted to young readers, and I invite you to add your nominees in the comments, particularly if they have either collections or spinoffs that might translate into gifts this Redcup.
The idea for today's posting actually began with a conversation with Bob Scott, who does "Molly and the Bear." It's a lovely little strip that would never touch off a rant here, and likely wouldn't touch of a rant anywhere but would certainly appeal to kids.
As it happens, there is a Molly and the Bear collection in the works, which you can preorder but which won't be issued until March, when all the red cups have been put away except those carried by underage drinkers, who are not the demographic for the strip anyway.
Similarly, Mutts (which today is in a format best suited for tablets or print) can be admired by anyone for its wonderful, throwback artwork, but can also be appreciated by young readers for its gentle, simple humor, and there are many collections for gifting to both young readers and young would-be artists.
And if you follow that link, you'll also see that McDonnell has books done exclusively for young readers, a topic to which we will return in a moment.
Slylock Fox is not simply kid-friendly but kid-directed, and if comics can be specifically oriented towards sports fans or business people, why not?
And Slylock translates wonderfully into books. I can picture one of these on a bedside bookcase or permanently installed in the bathroom to increase the amount of pounding on the door by irate siblings.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn was around for a while under another title, and then I think disappeared for a little retuning (or at least fell off my radar), and then reappeared as something of a giant in the kid-comic genre.
It's another gentle strip with a good, clear artistic style, and, while it has a bit of edge in the running joke of the unicorn's incessant narcissism, it remains accessible for the young, who have no shortage of self-centered little friends, unless the world has changed a very great deal in the past few weeks.
As kids get a bit older — and not very much older — Big Nate becomes a factor. I have gifted Big Nate books to kids who I'm not sure are even aware that it exists as a comic strip but are very much aware of the books and, in fact, this is one where you may want to at least get the latest release if not check with parents to see what's already under the bed or shoved in a backpack.
And it's not necessary to focus on strips-that-appeal-to-kids, for a couple of reasons:
One is that you shouldn't assume kids only like kid-oriented strips. In today's posting, I've avoided strips that have a simple, clean kid-friendly line but then devote a lot of effort to jokes about spousal conflict, the workplace and the relentless futility of dating, but that's not to say kids who like comics also avoid them.
After all, if you only buy lobster for the grown-ups and serve mac-and-cheese to the kids on those nights, they'll never learn to appreciate good food. Not that there's anything wrong with mac-and-cheese.
But the other reason to keep your eyes open is because there is now a trend among more grown-up oriented strips to create kid-friendly collections, as well as a very strong trend among the creators of those strips to pen kid-friendly graphic novels with no connection to the strip you may find yourself laughing over and then struggling to explain to a curious tyke.
I've gone on long enough and can't list them all, but suggest that you do two things this Redcup Season:
First of all (because I could use the rebates), go to Amazon through this handy link, or any of the above handy links, and start with a particular cartoonist, but then look at the suggested links below, which will lead you to all sorts of applicable books.
The other is to go to Andrews McMeel's site and poke around, because there are a lot more graphic novels and comic strip collections than I can possibly list (and apologies to all whose work I might well have), and, to say it once more, this blog tends to reflect my taste because it's my blog.
Your mileage may vary, but I think we're looking at much the same desired outcome.
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