Well, one my resolutions was to read more comics, so that’s what I’ve been doing! I’ve got a big enough stack that I’ve read in the past few weeks (it was my resolution last year, too) that I probably can’t get to all of them today, but let’s dive in and see how far I can get before I run out of steam.
Let’s start with some of the comics for younger readers first.
Blue, Barry & Pancakes: Mayhem on Wheels by Daniel Rajai Abdo and Jason Linwood Patterson
This trio of friends—Blue is the worm, Barry is the frog, and Pancakes is the rabbit—is back for more ridiculous adventures, this time in the world of extreme sports! A freak accident at BBP’s treehouse results in them chasing Blue’s beach ball into a stadium, where they discover that Roller Duck Ball is a huge sport and they’ve just stumbled into a game. They quickly become stars, and then learn some valuable lessons about what happens when they go from just having fun to winning at all costs. You don’t need to know much about the previous five books to jump into the story, which is full of silly visuals and over-the-top action. And frog butts. Mayhem on Wheels releases in April and is available for pre-order now.
Agents of S.U.I.T.: From Badger to Worse by John Patrick Green
This is a spin-off series from InvestiGators, following some of the other agents of Special Undercover Investigation Teams (S.U.I.T.) that we’ve met in the course of Mango and Brash’s stories. My daughter is a huge fan of this series and always looks forward to new titles. In this one, Marsha and Bongo the badgers are the B-Team, called in to apprehend the Buffaloner (a buffalo bank robber who works alone, naturally)—but the amount of collateral damage they cause in the process puts them on probation. They’re sent to Bora Bora (on a tight budget) to investigate a string of burglaries—it seems a lot of gadgets have gone missing recently. What they find leads them to something much bigger.
These series are chock-full of puns and visual gags, and this one also includes a lot of tie-ins to other familiar characters, including Mango and Brash, Cilantro the chameleon, and Agent Monocle. Because of all the various story threads, I think this is one that is probably best for those who are pretty familiar with the series (or have at the very least read the first Agents of S.U.I.T. book, if not the InvestiGators series). From Badger to Worse releases in February and is available for pre-order now.
The Bawk-ness Monster by Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess
Years ago, Penny almost drowned in Lake Bockamixon, but she was saved—so she claims—by the Bawk-ness Monster, a chicken-of-the-sea monster that is rumored to live there. Now that Penny and her mom are moving away, she really wants a chance to say thank you and goodbye to Bessie (without her mom knowing). But what starts out as a camping trip by the lake soon turns into a whole adventure when they get tangled up in a sinister plot involving a secret organization poaching cryptids.
Goetter and Riess worked on another (unrelated) comic book, Dungeon Critters, which my kids and I all really enjoyed, so it was fun to see them together again for Bawk-ness Monster. The artwork isn’t manga style but definitely takes some inspiration from it, with characters who can switch from their regular depictions to extremely exaggerated versions to express intense emotions. And there are a lot of intense emotions! The kids are wrestling with saying goodbye (to each other and to Bessie), Penny and her mom are both hyperaware of the fact that Penny nearly drowned in the lake the last time they were here, and of course there’s that whole thing about kidnapped animals.
But it’s also fairly silly—I mean, you know that right from the title and the cover, with the kids riding on a chicken-headed sea monster. I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but the other cryptids are all amusing takes or mishmashes of well-known cryptids, and there are a couple that really steal the show. While there may be some good takeaways about friendship and about Penny’s relationship with her mom, mostly this is just a fun romp about funny creatures.
Unicorn Boy by Dave Roman
Dave Roman is best known (at least in my household) for the Astronaut Academy comics, which my kids have read countless times—enough that I eventually had to replace them because they were falling apart. Those books were more like a collection of vignettes that jumped around from character to character, but Unicorn Boy is a bit more standard storytelling with one main character. Brian is the titular Unicorn Boy—he started off just as a regular kid, but then a unicorn horn sprouted out of the top of his head. It’s magic of some sort and it sings sometimes, but it’s unclear where it’s from or what Brian can do about it. He really just wants to be normal again. And then he meets a talking muffin.
Brian learns that he has a destiny to fulfill—but he’s not so sure he wants it. His best friend Avery is totally into it, though, and they encourage Brian to be a hero. When Avery is captured by some mysterious shadow creatures, Brian finally works up the courage to go on an adventure. It’s a story that celebrates being different and being yourself. Unicorn Boy releases in March and is available for pre-order now.
DnDoggos: Get the Party Started by Scout Underhill
If you like role-playing games and cute dogs, have I got the book for you: four dog friends get together to play D&D (well, some never-actually-named RPG). The book cuts back and forth between the four friends at the table, rolling dice and talking to each other, and the three characters having an adventure while the fourth dog DMs the game and speaks for all the NPCs. If you don’t know what all those acronyms mean, don’t worry—the book is also very beginner-friendly, because Magnus, the Game Master, frequently pauses to explain what’s happening to the other dogs (and thus the reader). It does a good job of explaining some of the basics of the game without getting too far into the weeds, and gives readers a glimpse of what it’s like playing an RPG, while also telling a really fun adventure that the players are experiencing.
In the game, the three heroes have just retrieved a magical dog collar, but now they’ve found that all of the squeaky toys in town have gone missing. What’s more, Squish, the mayor’s young son, has decided he’s an adventurer and has gone off in search of the toys. One fun detail is that the characters in the adventure are drawn in a much more detailed style—as seen on the front cover—while the “real world” parts of the story with the dogs at the table are in a much simpler style. It speaks to how vivid their imaginations are when they’re in the world of the game, which I think is a great portrayal of what it’s like to be immersed in play. DnDoggos releases in February but you can pre-order now!
Dear Rosie by Meghan Boehman and Rachael Briner
This graphic novel deals with a more serious topic: a group of middle-school friends lost a good friend in a car accident, and they’re all dealing with the grief in different ways. We see it mostly from the point of view of Millie, the deer (the characters are all anthropomorphized animals) and in her interactions with her three friends: Florence the fox, Claire the mouse, and Gabby the skunk.
One day while working at the family laundromat, Millie finds a sketchbook that a customer left behind, and her curiosity is sparked by a strange symbol on it, one that Rosie used to draw or paint everywhere. Millie is convinced that the sketchbook must have some connection to Rosie and is determined to figure out this mystery. From her perspective, Rosie is the glue that held their friend group together—she knew how to defuse an argument, and she brought a lot of joy and fun into their lives. Now, Gabby’s jokes are getting on Florence’s nerves and their friendship seems in peril. Claire seems preoccupied with a boy she met through an online app, which snowballs into a bigger problem. She hopes that working on this mystery together will bring the friends closer again.
Although the story centers around grief, the topic is presented in a way that is compassionate. Meghan Boehman explains in the author’s note that it is inspired by her own friend who passed away suddenly in college, and that telling this story was part of coming to terms with that loss. If you have a kid who’s going through something similar, this book may provide some comfort, though I would suggest reading it yourself first since you may have a better idea of how your kid would respond to it.
K Is in Trouble by Gary Clement
We’ll close out today’s comics round-up with this one, which was pitched to me as “Wes Anderson meets Lemony Snicket,” though I also feel like there’s a dose of Franz Kafka in there as well—even the kid’s name “K” feels like a reference to The Trial. The book is a series of short stories, mostly featuring K getting into trouble of some sort, quite often through no fault of his own. Well, in the first story he is late to school and gets sent to the office, and that’s his fault, but then he meets a talking beetle and mostly has a good day. You think that might set the tone for the rest of the book, but then things go downhill for K.
He gets sick and has to stay in bed, and his house get overrun by crows who destroy everything. While trying to get a glass of water to drink, he ends up trapped on the balcony and ends up irritating the entire block. He’s sent to look for his teacher’s glasses while they’re on a field trip, which sets off a huge chain of events where he gets in trouble with everyone, including the teacher. This story was the one that felt particularly Kafkaesque, because K is just following the various instructions he is given, but each time it winds up making things worse for himself.
It’s a strange book—there are some moments that are funny, but the book leans more toward the absurd, where it’s not clear if there’s a lesson to be learned from K’s misery. I asked my 10-year-old what she thought of it after reading it and she just sort of shrugged—she likes silliness in her books but this may be a bit too avant-garde for her, I suppose. I think the biggest difference between this and other books with clueless adults is that here the clueless adults generally don’t ever get their comeuppance. K just suffers, and sometimes other people suffer with him, but there’s no ultimate triumph for K.
My Current Reads
I’ve got another batch of comics that is more geared toward young adults and adults, so I’ll share those soon! I also just finished reading Witch King by Martha Wells. I’ve loved her Murderbot Diaries series and decided to check out her fantasy novel. It took a little bit to get into the story, but then I got hooked and really enjoyed it. Maybe some more about that one next time as well.
Disclosure: I received review copies of the comics mentioned in this column. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers!
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