HEROBEAR AND THE KID VOL. 1

A boy inherits a very special stuffed bear in Kunkel’s superhero graphic novel, originally published in 2003.

After young Tyler’s grandpa dies, the boy, his parents, and his younger sister, Katie, move into their inherited new home in the small town of Simpleton, which comes with the services of a butler named Henry. Katie and Tyler also receive smaller inheritances; for Katie, it’s a strange mechanical device, and, for Tyler, it’s a broken pocket watch and a stuffed polar bear. Disappointed, Tyler puts the gifts away, unsure what to do with them. The next day, he misses his school bus, and things continue to go badly from there, as his quick, wry wit causes trouble with the class bullies, the Bullio brothers. Tyler knows that, often, his “mouth gets waaay ahead of [his] brain,” yet he continues to goad the bullies until they beat him up at recess. Frustrated, the youngster takes his anger out on the stuffed bear, smacking it in the nose—which grows into a real, life-sized, talking polar bear with a cape. The boy soon learns that the animal is, in fact, a superhero named HeroBear. Tyler, using a secret identity (“The Kid”), starts fighting crime with HeroBear after the “broken” watch alerts them to a robot terrorizing Simpleton. During his adventures, the boy struggles with speaking before thinking and learns the power of belief. The story and art style are reminiscent of classic newspaper comics, such as Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, which also feature precocious children with animal companions. Kunkel tackles serious, weighty themes, such as grief, but packages them in an accessible and charming grayscale art style that’s heavy on linework. The only color in the book is the red of HeroBear’s cape, accentuating the fun and fantastic nature of the character. Some aspects feel dated, such as comments on Tyler’s friend Elmo’s weight. For the most part, though, it’s an enjoyable work that will appeal to kids today as much as it did some two decades ago.

A thoughtful, charming comic that pays tribute to works of the past.