Comic books for children

January 21, 2013 10:21 AM

My five-year-old son and I just finished reading Bone, and we need a new comic to read together. I'd prefer something with an ongoing story, but good non-serial comics are also welcome.
posted by mokin to media & arts (19 answers total)

Usagi Yojimbo!
posted by buxtonbluecat at 10:28 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]

I've been buying all the superhero-obessed little boys in my life the Tiny Titans series of comics. They are really adorable and funny. (Though I did have a friend jokingly yell at me that they are a Marvel family, not a DC family, so keep that in mind, I guess.)
posted by Aquifer at 10:29 AM on January 21

The Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi is beautiful, fun, and kid-oriented but has some scary parts - a parent dies at the beginning of the first one IIRC - so you'll want to check first to see if it should wait til he's a little older.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:29 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]

Seconding Amulet, it's terrific. My kids are a bit older (9 & 7) but started reading these more than a year ago. Do read through a volume and see if it's OK for your particular situation.
posted by Mister_A at 10:32 AM on January 21

Owly!
posted by jbickers at 10:37 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]

Hildafolk.
posted by feckless at 10:40 AM on January 21

Fantagraphics has begun releasing volumes of Pogo, Peanuts, Nancy and will soon bring out Crockett Johnson's (who wrote Harold and the Purple Crayon) Barnaby.
posted by brujita at 10:52 AM on January 21

Digger!
posted by tdismukes at 11:06 AM on January 21

Sidekicks has been one of our favourites.

She loves the Little Dee books, though they're more collections of strips - great characters though.

Polly and the Pirates she quite liked.

And her all-time favourite, in the epic adventure style of Bone, is Spera.


(and here is one of my previous questions on the subject of graphic novels for that age-ish, wonderfully answered - we've read almost everything mentioned there by now, except Asterix and some of JDCB's suggestions, because we just haven't gotten there yet.)
posted by peagood at 11:08 AM on January 21

It's fairly short, but Jeff Smith's Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil was pretty good. And while Pogo might be a bit out his age range (for now), Calvin and Hobbes ought to work.
posted by hades at 11:18 AM on January 21

There's a new series by J. Torres with Faith Erin Hicks as the artist: Big Foot Boy.
posted by jillithd at 11:30 AM on January 21

All good suggestion so far, but what you really need are the Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories, now reprinted by Fantagraphics. These were after all the stories that inspired Jeff Smith to start Bone in the first place.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:58 AM on January 21 [2 favorites]

We have a lot of manga (Doraemon and other stuff meant for kids) in the house, since it's a great way for my sons to keep up with Japanese (it's how I learned Japanese), and I often wish there was a similar mainstream manga culture here too.

But, I love the Carl Barks Donald Duck books - they're the closest thing to manga we have here (besides the insipid Archie digests), and would recommend them in a flash.

A little pricey, though. But just good storytelling, great artwork. True cultural treasures.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:27 PM on January 21

I always seem to plump for Yotsuba&! here, but it is really good.
posted by clerestory at 12:47 PM on January 21

Squish! And Babymouse, but I think Squish would appeal more to a boy.
posted by Flannery Culp at 1:42 PM on January 21

My son went from Bone to Amulet, so thirding that.
He's also liked reading Tin Tin's adventures for some time.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:55 PM on January 21

A little off the beaten path, but reminiscent of Bone: Evan Dahm's Order of Tales. The whole thing can be read online or you can order the book from his site. It's completely self published and really very good.
posted by Doleful Creature at 3:40 PM on January 21

Re on MartinWisse and Scrooge:

Volume 1 in particular has some seriously... cartoonish... views on race. Read them yourself first.
posted by gregglind at 4:46 PM on January 21

I really enjoyed doing a dramatic reading of Marvel's family super-team Power Pack comics for a friend's children.
posted by JDC8 at 8:35 PM on January 21