Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an...
It’s surprising that a book with zombies and talking celery isn’t quite goofy enough to work.
Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an enormous coliseum. Once a year, on Christmas Eve, he travels across the dimensions to Earth, where his entire personality transforms, and he becomes a jolly gift giver with a bag stuffed with candy canes. Pilot and Huxley have the bad luck to meet him on December 23rd. To get home on his world-hopping sleigh, they’ll need to defeat Bruto the giant elf and Rudolph, who’s armed with a rocket launcher. Luckily, Huxley has a bowl of noodles. All of this is very silly. It’s the Simpsons’ fault it doesn’t work. Kids who’ve grown up on Captain Underpants and Shrek and Family Guy will recognize the formula: Sarcastic comment, self-referential joke, ridiculous occurrence that our heroes take perfectly in stride. In spite of the familiar pacing, some of the jokes are right on target. PILOT: “But isn’t Limbo supposed to be like an empty, blank place where lost souls roam forever?” TALKING STRAWBERRY: “…It seemed like a waste of good real estate, so we all moved in.”Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-26845-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
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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