Who’s The Winner?

By Mike Pellerito

Who’s the winner??

So the Comic Con has wrapped up and the biggest even tin comics and pop culture around. The Eisner Awards were given out and a winner was named for best Publication For Younger audience. The Eisner Awards are arguably the most prestigious of awards in comics. Unfortunately having just one award for Younger Readers highlights one of the bigger problems in comics. This years nominations, even though they are all good material, highlight another big problem…

The first thing noticeable about comics when taking a look at the industry is the lack of young readers, or more precisely the lack of encouragement for young readers to pick up the hobby. The lack attention paid to younger readers in most comic stores is sometimes painfully obvious. Despite conventionally wisdom saying to have a section up front by the door, near the register it doesn’t seem the norm. Even just to have all the All Ages and younger material at the eye level of younger readers sometimes is a rarity. At above 6 feet I’ve been in comic shops where some kids comics were higher than I could see.

See the problem?

Not all shops are like this. The ones that cater to kids in addition to their regulars really do quite well over all. Not because they cater to kids too, just because they seem to be pretty savvy with retail in general. In all honesty a little extra attention to younger readers helps the stores build customers for tomorrow and very little work over all. Comics at the front, maybe some freebies held over from the Annual Free Comic Book Day, some comic sets of a dozen comics at low prices during camp and holiday seasons. Simple stuff. Really, has anyone ever heard of a store going out of business because it catered to younger readers?

That is why these awards are so important. Other than the usual suspects like Archie, Marvel and DC’s kids lines, Gemstone, Bongo and a handful of others how can someone find kids stuff. The Diamond ordering system marks mature comics as MR but nothing for All Ages.

Awards can shed a little light on something that might not get the attention it deserves. This years Esiners nominees really will not show up on most Comic Shop racks. These are by and large for the libraries and bookstores. Other than Gumby, which was this years winner and the most difficult to find, not many shops have heard of the other titles. So in one sense this is great because the attention to these projects was needed. On the other hand these titles in some way are like Art House movies. Imagine if the Oscars had only one award for best picture, and all the nominees were for movies the general public didn’t know existed.

All Ages comics needs more. Best Adventure, humor, best female character, best romance, web comic, graphic novel, or best translation of a literary classic. Just more. One award really belittles the efforts of so many who care and work so hard. Have the pros or the panel selected vote, and those votes count for a percentage. Then let kids at the Comic Con vote for their award. Vote on line. If the kids pick the winner that might be the best way to get kids more involved in comics.

Anyway the list below is for this years Eisner nominees for best publication for a younger audience.

Best Publication for a Younger Audience
Chickenhare, by Chris Grine (Dark Horse)
Drawing Comics Is Easy (Except When It’s Hard) , by Alexa Kitchen (Denis Kitchen Publishing)
Gumby, by Bob Burden and Rick Geary (Wildcard) WINNER!
Moomin, by Tove Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel, by Sienna Cherson and Mark Siegel (Simon & Schuster)

We reviewed Chickenhare here:
CLICK HERE

Drawing Comics Is Easy (Except When It’s Hard), and To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel which you can find here: CLICK HERE



And now we review one more nominee.
Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Book One

Tove Jansson has created quite an interesting world for this hippo like creature and its strange adventures. Moomin is quite new here in America despite being a family favorite in Europe for several decades

From the BBC news website it was easy to find some information on Tove Jansson.
“Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson created the white hippopotamus-looking creatures whose adventures were translated into 34 languages. “
“Such was the popularity of the books and series that a theme park was opened in 1993.”
“She received some 50 awards and nominations, including the Nils Holgersson prize in 1953, the Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1966, the Order of the Smile Polish children's award in 1975 and the title of honorary professor issued by Finland's president in 1995.”

Certainly a few scenes show their age, and as a consequence have scenes that parents might object to. Moomin decides to drown some unwanted house guests to have them leave. It backfires of course as do several attempts to jump off cliffs and other scenes involving the mentions for whiskey and rum. The one scene that might be most upsetting for the youngest of readers are of Moomin’s rediscovered parents abandoning him. Of course it works out in the end.

One review on Amazon.com compared the Moomin stories to haiku poems, where much is left unsaid. That is accurate a description as any.

The publisher Drawn & Quarterly has a preview to check out here:
CLICK HERE

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Book One
Price: $19.95
Format: 96 pages Black and White
ISBN-10: 1894937805
ISBN-13: 978-1894937801
Diamond Item Code: AUG063270
Age Level: Younger readers Middle School
CONCERNS: Some language, mild threats of cartoon violence and mentions of alcohol.

Last week we mentioned a review on an Archie project, but as we ran long it will be next Tuesday. It turned out to need a lot more room than anticipated.

So hopefully this will hold everyone over:

Archie Bands Named in AOL's 10 Coolest Cartoon Rockers.
CLICK HERE

Also, a bunch of great people have been reviewing All Ages comics here at Silver Bullet Comic Books. And no begging, prodding or bribing on my part. So here are some of the recent reviews from the gang. Thanks especially to Penny Kenny and Ray Tate!

Archie's Pal Jughead #182
CLICK HERE

Sabrina the Teenage Witch #86
CLICK HERE

Fantastic Five
CLICK HERE

Futurama
CLICK HERE

Marvel Adventures Iron Man
CLICK HERE

Nancy Drew Vol. 10: The Disoriented Express
CLICK HERE

Betty & Veronica Double Digest #153
CLICK HERE

Sonic the Hedgehog #175
CLICK HERE

Sonic the Hedgehog #177
CLICK HERE

Next Tuesday well go over a Archie project that is perfect for the season! The background behind it and the mathematical equation that two Archie co-workers figured out that spells my doom. Really.

This is another big week, Shark Week’s 20th anniversary. Can’t wait to go to the beach this weekend.

Oh If you are one of the few remaingin people on the planet who has not be Simpsonied, check out The Simpsons move site: CLICK HERE

The fine gentleman who helps set this column up did his own last week. The guys at Archie after seeing this set an official Simpson version up of me. Not quite satisfied, and with the Photoshop magic elves I made a new one. That is root beer in the cartoon me’s hand. After all this is an All Ages column. So much for animosity.

Thanks for your time and the opportunity to talk about comics! See you next Tuesday!

If you have a great All Ages project, let us know!
Get in touch: mikep(at)silverbulletcomicbooks(dot)com

Check out some new All Ages comic reads on sale this week:

JUN070225 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #36 $2.25
JUN070229 LOONEY TUNES #153 $2.25
JUN072149 FANTASTIC FOUR AND POWER PACK #2 (OF 4) $2.99
MAY073479 UNCLE SCROOGE #368 $7.99
MAY073480 WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #683 $7.99
JUN072167 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #30 $2.99
MAY073141 PETER THE PIRATE SQUID $4.95
APR074019 JOHN ROMITA AND ALL THAT JAZZ HC $44.95