Kidsville and Lidsville

Sorry for today's late post. I apparently took the Labor part of Labor Day more seriously than I anticipated and spent all weekend working on home repairs for my parents. While I was back at the old homestead, I managed to find a old box of non superhero comics (Archie, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Walt Disney, Star Trek) Seeing all the old children's comics made me wonder:

What do you think of the general state of comics for kids today?

My gut reaction is to say it's pretty good.

Anytime my 6 year old daughter  and I go to the comic store, she can almost always find something she's interested in. Her latest success was the new Strawberry Shortcake comic from Ape Entertainment! (Who have put out several new kids comics recently)



Ape also publishes a Kung Fu Panda and Richie Rich (an updated version) as well as several others that are not as famous. In addition to those titles, Boom! Studios has a kids line of comics called KaBoom which up until recently published several Disney and Pixar themed comics (as well as the the award winning Muppets comics) I say up until recently, because over the past few months, there has been some shifting in the lineup of titles as Marvel, now owned by Disney, looks like it might become the publisher of choice for some of the more popular Disney properties.

Disney is a wanton lady when it comes to its liscensed properties. The very successful Fairies of Pixie Hollow line of comics is published by Paper Cutz, a New York company not widely known among comic retailers, which makes finding those comics/books difficult. Paper Cutz doesn't even have a way to buy their titles directly from them, which strikes me as incredibly awkward in this day an age. Thankfully, Amazon makes finding all of these simpler.



The art and storytelling in all of these comics generally runs very high especially when compared to some of the poor offerings I had when I was growing up. (I'm thinking of some of the poorly drawn Gold Key titles from my youth.) One artist in particular, Amy Mebberson is quickly becoming a favorite of mine with her clean line work, versatility and nice eye for storytelling.

Anyway, with all the hoopla over comic continuities getting relaunched, feared up and shattered, I thought a good choice for today's free comic would be one from a less volatile comic universe. This one is from the minds of classic Saturday Morning imagineers, Sid and Marty Krofft:

[ Lidsville 04 ]



Enjoy!

- Jim