Daddy Mojo

All age comic books for August 22

It’s new comic book day (#NCBD on social media) and what new all age comic books are you reading? If you want to share them on social just tag them with #DaddyMojo too so we can casually look over your shoulder. Over in the podcast we’ll take a deeper look at Peanuts, The Beatles Yellow Submarine, a new graphic novel by Science Comics, two Star Wars books and more. For now though here are three great comic books that will interest readers as young as 5 years old.

Lumberjanes #53

Lumberjanes is one of the go-to all age comic books each month. It’s about a group of girls (The Lumberjanes) as they have fun at summer camp. Mix in some age appropriate monsters, science-fiction, adventure, friendship and more and every issue of this comic book is fabulous. It might appeal to girls more than boys, but that’s simply due to the main characters. As a quality vehicle, this is one of the best comic books for any audience, regardless of who is reading it or how old they are.

Pink Panther Presents the Ant and the Aardvark #1

Our 8 year old loves this series of comic books from American Mythology Productions. It started with The Pink Panther, but their ancillary friends and cartoon mates from back in the day have been getting in on the new audiences too. Ant and the Aardvark is a one-shot issue that will make kids as young at 5 laugh and remind parents about a very funny cartoon. Its humor is not 100% dry, but it’s dryish in the way that Mr. Bean is, except in an ant and aardvark way.

Marvel Super Hero Adventures Inferno, #1

This is all age super hero and its best. Marvel Super Hero Adventures doesn’t dumb down the super heroes. Nor does it give them the Muppet Baby treatment, instead it simply tells action based tales that kids as young at 5 can look at. In this issue Inferno is visiting Spider-Man and Venom is around the corner ready to mess things up in the city. Of course those younger ages won’t be able to read it themselves, but they’ll certainly love the artwork. Ages 7 and up should be able to read the comic book without any assistance from older folks.

Humor

Superhero

Action/science-fiction

Ghoulia-Making Friends Can Be Scary, but this is 100% fun

There was a period where I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas at least twice a week. I found it very coincidental that our 6 year-old started watching it-on his own accord and could sing the songs. Ghoulia, Making Friends Can Be Scary by Barbara Cantini is a spiritual cousin to Christmas, Coraline and Paranorman. It’s an emerging reader’s book that brings an all age appropriate scare and spook to readers aged 6-9.

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Continue reading Ghoulia-Making Friends Can Be Scary, but this is 100% fun

Mile 22 fails to deliver despite it being set up for success

Action movies don’t have to be mindless and there are many examples smart action films. Even mindless action films can be enjoyable if they have characters or fun sequences. Mile 22 aims high on paper and falters badly in execution. It has Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Conrad from The Walking Dead and Iko Uwais among others in a film that’s directed by Peter Berg. Some folks will look at Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg and hope for a repeat of one of their earlier successes. If you’re like me you’ll watch Mile 22 because it stars martial arts super star Iko Uwais. Others will look at Lauren Conrad and are curious to see how she does when she’s not acting opposite some zombies.

Continue reading Mile 22 fails to deliver despite it being set up for success

Mixed A Colorful Story is as happy as a children’s illustrated book can get

Mixed A Colorful Story is a great example of a simple children’s book that succeeds beyond the demographics that its aiming for. On the cover there are three colored dots, red, yellow and blue. These are the primary colors as I’m often reminded by our children. A combination of them can create any color on Earth. In Mixed A Colorful Story we see that each color has their default personality. Reds are loud, yellows are bright and blues are the coolest. Everything is great until one day reds start saying that they’re the best. Continue reading Mixed A Colorful Story is as happy as a children’s illustrated book can get

All age comic books for August 15

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It’s new comic book day and there are some great all age comic books out this week. Over in the podcast we’ll talk about Bartman, Jim Henson Beneath The Dark Crystal, Teen Titans Go! and more. For now, let’s look at three all age comic books that will interest boys or girls as young as six.

Disney Princess Comics Collection

Disney Princess Comics Collection Volume 4 has stories from Cinderalla, Tiana, Rapunzel, Belle, Pocahontas and more. These are comic stories originally published in the monthly comic book Disney Princess. Think of this trade paperback as a Disney Princess greatest hits from the most recent couple of issues. Girls 6 and up will love this series. They might need help reading it, but you’ll have just as much fun reading it as they will hearing it.

Archie Meets Batman 66, #2

Robin and Batgirl must go undercover at Riverdale in 1966. Batman will most certainly make an appearance with lots of BAM!, POW! and ZOW! to entertain kids of all ages. Batman 66 is a great series of comic books and this mini-series makes total sense. Archie has teamed up with all manner of characters from The Punisher to The Ramones. Having the Riverdale gang team up with Batman in one of his most famous incarnations is like welcoming an old friend to dinner. Kids 6 and up will be OK with the content, but those younger kids might not know enough about either property to enjoy it. Ages 8 and up will know both properties and be able to enjoy the series.

Sonic The Hedgehog, #8

Go into any elementary school library and you’ll see some Sonic The Hedgehog comic books. You’ll see them there for a good reason. This is one of the go-to all age comic books for boys or girls. It’s jammed with action, has humor, characters that kids know and love-plus a history where some parents will enjoy reading it too. Check out any issue of Sonic The Hedgehog from IDW Publishing and you’ll see why it makes a great gift to any school library.

Humor

Superhero

Action/Science-fiction

It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! review

Just in time for children who are going into pre-K through second grade, It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus!. This is a children’s illustrated book by Jody Jensen, with illustrations by Claire Messer that’ll hit home with the really small children who are over the moon about getting on the big yellow monster.

The big yellow monster, that’s what my mother used to call it. I don’t remember too much about that name, other than she used to say, ‘here come the big yellow monsters’. I can only assume it wasn’t too malicious or required music from The Exorcist in the background because I loved school and education.

To young children the school bus can be a symbol of independence and not being a baby any more. It can also be terrifying. Having walked our kids to the bus stop this past week we’ve seen a couple kids who are in their first year of getting on the bus who did not take too kindly to it. Those kids that don’t want to get on the busy bus are akin to a cat who is being made to take a bath.

It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! is just the sort of pre-K comfort book food that kids who are looking forward to things would benefit from. ‘Looking forward to’ varies from small one to small one. Some small ones look forward to things so much that they irrationally use their young minds to freak out about getting on the busy bus. That’s where the book comes in handy.

It’s soft and beautifully illustrated in organic, old-school manners that will sooth the eyes of small sight readers. The text uses simple, short sentences that focus on how the bus will feel on the first day of school. Not surprisingly the bus is nervous also, but Ben the trusty bus driver puts its nerves at ease.

Much like School’s First Day of School from Adam Rex, It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! is squarely aimed at pre-K through second grade. Those older kids will be able to read it easily, but will still be able to learn lessons on dealing with new, potentially scary situations.

Win passes to the Mile 22 advance screening in Atlanta

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Mile 22 since the casting of Iko Uwais as announced. For action film aficionados 2011’s The Raid was a blast of fresh, manic, violent air from Indonesia. Think Die Hard in a building, full of hyper violent drug dealers and gangsters, with an elite SWAT team trapped on the seventh floor. Iko Uwais was the star of The Raid and made that film an action classic and a truly great film, even if you don’t like action-assuming you could stomach the violence.

Continue reading Win passes to the Mile 22 advance screening in Atlanta

Breakout, mixed results from a middle school book with good intentions

From the cover, Breakout by Kate Messner feels like an epic novel. It’s thick, clocks in at 433 pages and has notations at the end of the book for those that want to read more about the content in Breakout. Breakout takes place in a sleepy mountain town in New York as two inmates have just escaped from a prison. The story is told through the eyes of two seventh-graders in a variety of ways including text messages, cartoons, poems, and letters to the paper, their friends and more. Breakout is loosely based on the real 2015 prison escape from Clinton Correctional Facility. It sees a fictionalized account of how those youth might have imagined the situation as they saw it. Continue reading Breakout, mixed results from a middle school book with good intentions