Posted in: Comics | Tagged: bone, Comics, princeless

Three Comics For My Daughter

Published Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:00:59 -0600

Jeffrey Sutman writes;

My four year old son Liam, has been coming with me weekly to my comic book store, pretty much since the day he was born. And now that he's a little man, and picks out a book for us to read at home together. And I love it. He knows that on Wednesday night after Dad gets home from work, we are getting comics. It's become "our" thing. But for the last couple of weeks, we have added an addition to our group. I now also bring along my two month old daughter, Violet. And this got me thinking, will Violet like comics too?

I know I am getting ahead of myself. But a big part of me says, it was not that long ago that I was pushing Liam around in the stroller, and now look at him. So with that idea in mind, I started looking to see what type of comic are out there to make Violet an avid reader ( and not just for me, but for any father that brings his daughter with him on Wednesday nights) . And while I was spoiled on how easy it was to find Liam a comic he could enjoy, once I turned away from the Big Two and started looking at other publishers I found some books that might fit the bill.

Princeless From Action Lab Comics. ( Just the basic concept of this story sold me on it as a Father to a Daughter.) Princess Adrienne is unhappy with the idea that she needs a Prince to save her, so she sets out on her own adventures. Bleeding Cool presented the first issue for free in April. At the time I was not looking for this type of comic, so it went under my radar. Now I hope to see more like it. The second series starts in February.

Color Bone from Scholastic Books. I've known about Bone by Jeff Smith for years. But it was never something I wanted to read. But like with most things after having kids, my perceptions and what I was looking for in comics changed. And this book has it. An epic story. Characters that you thoroughly enjoy to read. From my point of view, I think the Scholastic volumes are the way to go. Not that I would not enjoy the black and white volumes by Cartoon Books, I just think the color that Scholastic added some "pop" to the art. And I think younger readers would be more attracted to the colored pages. I also feel that if you gave some of the Bone books to young reader besides your own child, the name Scholastic is a stamp of approval to the parent. As we all know, there is still a stigma about comics books. So going with the publisher that is widely recognizable only helps the cause of recruiting new readers in the long run.

Leave It To Chance from Image Comics. Yes, I am talking about the comic that was last published in 1999, and only lasted 13 issues. When I first started to think about what comics might be good for my daughter, the first place I should have turned is my bookshelf. If I had, I would have seen Volume One of Leave It To Chance. The Story follows Chance Falconer as she hopes to one day follow in her Father's footsteps of battling the supernatural in Devil's Echo. But her dreams are dashed when her Father, Lucas Falconer, says he would only train a Son to be his successor. Chance does not willing accept this, and sets out to prove him wrong. This is an older series, but Volumes 2 and 3 are still for sale new from Amazon. And while Volume 1 looks to be out of print, you can get pretty decent copies used on Amazon or eBay. Or if you're lucky, your comic shop still has a copy.

There three suggestions are just a taste of what is out there, if you really take a good look at what publishers are putting out. I have hopes that as we Comic fans bring in the next generation, we bring in both our Sons and Daughters. Get them hooked on comics. Get them reading. So that the industry will grow and change. Putting out more than just Super Heroes (as much as I love them) . There should be a comic for everyone.

So what do you suggest?

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