[...] never taken into account the attention span of the younger set when previously talking about how many great kids’ comics are out [...]

My kids (7, 10, 11) are first and formost superhero fans. (They are my kids.) But they are just as likely to read “Brave and the Bold” as “Showcase Presents: Batman” or “Mini Marvels” as “Power Pack”. (Old School, Simonson Pack. Bless you quarter bin!) At the same time, when confronted with an issue of (Post Crisis Wally West) “Flash” with Icicle on the cover, they are quick to point out that this must be an Earth-2 crossover story, because Icicle is an E2 villain. Or when they meet a new character in “Tiny Titans”, they immediately want to know if they fit into the “alrger universe” in the same way: Is Trigon really Raven’s dad? (Yes.) Does the Atom have a real family? (Um…)

They have encountered manga, in small doses at my LCS, but mostly in the library. The only ones that have caught their attention to any great degree are the ones based on “cartoons”. (Anime to those older than 11.) Especially “Pokemon”, which gives them the opportunity to memorize metric truckloads of information on height, weight, evolutions, types, powers, weaknesses etc. (I can tell you about Bi-Beast’s numerous appearances, and I even own all the Marvel Handbooks, but I never thought to memorize his weight, Gruenwald bless ‘em.)

But still, as I sit there watching them enjoy B&B and TT, and I realize that I can’t give them the latest Morrison penned “Batman”, and I don’t even want to let them near the current “Titans”, I do feel a little sad. Then we look for more “Power Pack” in the quarter bins, and everything is better.

At my school, lots of girls are now checking out Babymouse; Bone and Yotsuba&! are my highest-circulating books. The kids don’t ask me for super hero stuff at all, they prefer manga and most of the books mentioned by Johanna and by Janna.

The kids in my library (K-6) who like superheroes won’t touch the Marvel Adventures books or the DCU books. Tiny Titans, Super Friends, MA Spider-Man? Forget it. Can’t give them away. Waid’s JLA: Year One, The Many Armors of Iron Man, Superman in the 50s, Simonson’s Thor – those are the books that go out and out and out. And it’s not just the collections either. The boys (and it’s generally boys) prefer an 80s single issue of Transformers, Spider-Man, or Batman to any of the newer stuff. The super-hero book that goes out the most is Sonic – and yes, I count him as a super-hero – a book that’s almost “Claremont X-Men lite” – extended storylines, subplots, lots of character development, and footnotes, but written in such a way new readers can jump on pretty much anywhere.

And as for those parents wanting the stories in canon – well believe me, that’s what the kids want! There’s something in a super-hero fan that wants the story to matter and be in continuity. It must be in the genes. :)

I can’t really explain this love for the older books and continuity, but it’s what the kids like – so maybe those parents who are asking for books like what they had when they’re young are just bowing to pressure from their rugrats.

My seven-year-old niece is enjoying the GN version of Coraline. My four-year-old nephew LOVES the Toon Books library, and I’m also sending him the random issue of Spidey Super Stories (they hooked me when I was young).

There are many “regular” books which use graphic novel techniques. “The Storm in the Barn” by Matt Phelan is generating Caldecott buzz. Previous Caldecott titles such as the hybrid “Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick, the experimental “Black and White” by David Macaulay, and David Wiesner’s silent “Tuesday” are all excellent books, for almost any age.

And… if you want to be cool before the other cool kids are, go pre-order Kazu Kibuishi’s Copper, available next month from Scholastic. It’s got soul, great design… it’s Calvin and Hobbes without the hyperactivity.

Anything “Oz” by Eric Shanower. (My store sold the $45 trade from IDW consistently with almost no special marketing.)

DC and Marvel superheroes?
Paul Tobin’s Spider-Man stories are fantastic!
DC’s “Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade” puts a new spin on the character which is fun.

And would somebody please give Colleen Coover a monthly comic? Her “Banana Sunday” was fabulous, and her backup stories set in the Marvel Universe are fun! (I want a Hydrette action figure for Christmas!)

[...] make sure some of those kids' comics don't slip beneath the radar, blogger Johanna Draper Carlson chimes in with more than a dozen recommended [...]

The sheer one-eyed self-satisfaction of that quote is staggering.

[...] “Something that benefited me as a woman who read superhero comics is that I never thought of most fans as just like me. I knew from the start that my tastes were different and so I was always a proponent of the ideas that 1) more diversity would be good and 2) having different tastes from mine was ok. But a lot of these guys running stores never had to face that, because the fandom they knew mostly was white nerdy guys like them.” – Johanna Draper Carlson [...]

[...] There Are Too Plenty of Comics for Kids! » Comics Worth Reading [...]

“…and 2) having different tastes from mine was ok.”

It sure is. I don’t read manga, but I sure am glad it’s there to interest other readers. I also don’t watch horror movies, but I see the appeal to others.

That said, there are quite a lot of canonical all-ages comics on the shelves, as the copy of Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four vol 2 I’ve been reading can attest. But I can agree with the jaded “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore” perspective — it would sure be nice to see more stuff like that in the A-list titles in CURRENT RELEASES.

Bill Williams mentioned Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and that brings up the point that there are a couple really good children’s superhero cartoons right now. I love TB&TB, as well as Spectacular Spider-Man, which I’m fervently hoping gets picked up for another season (as long as they keep Greg Weisman at the helm — Gargoyles showed us what happens when Disney picks up a beloved series for a third season and ditches Weisman). Haven’t caught Superhero Squad yet, and haven’t heard anything good about X-Men or Iron Man, but…well, you win some and you lose some.