Funny and snarky as ever, with a cautionary but reassuring message that this common malady will, like most childhood colds...
School assignments, sleep and even Super Amoeba comics go by the wayside when protozoan protagonist Squish is “infected” by a video game.
Seeing best buddies Pod and Peggy mildly addicted to “Mitosis,” Squish spends birthday money for his own copy and maniacally proceeds to work his way past the game’s dozens of levels through sleepless nights and dazed days. Presented as usual in simply drawn, thick-lined panels with green highlights, the episode makes its point by switching from views of the bleary, unwashed victim to screen after screen after screen (“Uh, are you as bored as me?” the occasionally intrusive narrator interjects) of heavily pixelated cells dividing. These culminate at last in an equally pixelated nightmare and a “GAME OVER.” Fixation likewise. Happily, there’s no permanent harm done, as Squish has an English teacher who slips him a makeup assignment to cover a late book report and a dad so cool that he later accompanies his blobby son in costume to a comics convention that just happens to feature the (unnamed but recognizable) “creators of Babymouse.”
Funny and snarky as ever, with a cautionary but reassuring message that this common malady will, like most childhood colds and fevers, run its course naturally without outside intervention. (science project, drawing page) (Graphic novel. 7-9)Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-98299-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Taking a seat in first class aboard the graphic-novels-for-preteens train, this import features a carrot-topped lass who travels the starways with her piratical uncle Yellow Shoulders, foiling the plots of Supermuscleman, nefarious Chief Executive Dictator of the Universe. Presented in small sequential panels of brightly hued cartoon art and spacious dialogue balloons, Sardine’s adventures take her from the space prison Azkatraz to Planet Discoball (for a dance contest presided over by Empress Laser Diskette and her offspring, Prince Beejeez), from encounters with deadly, as well as thoroughly nerve-wracking, Honkfish to a deliciously violent round of “No-Child-Left-Behind-School II,” a virtual game. With nonstop action, humor geared to multiple levels of cultural awareness and the promise of more episodes to come, even readers stubbornly resisting the trendy format’s lure will find that, as Supermuscleman sneers shortly before gorily blasting his own foot, “Resistance is futile.” (Graphic novel. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-126-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
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