This ham is sweet enough for readers to want seconds.
Peter Porker is hamming it up in Hollywood.
Spider-Ham, an alternate version of Spider-Man from a universe where anthropomorphic animals are the norm, sets his sights on Hollywood when he learns that the lovely Mary Jane Waterbuffalo is starring in a movie by proclaimed director Alfred Peacock. Oddly though, Spider-Ham seems be the antagonist in this cinematic outing. Traveling to Los Angelfish and finding a way into the studio, Spider-Ham uncovers treachery in the form of the Swinester Six: Mysteriape, Raven the Hunter, Buzzard (who’s actually an Opossum), Sandmanatee, Eelectro, and Doctor Octopussy Cat. With help from Mary Jane, Porker is able to save the day and stop the Swinester Six. Along the way, readers who love the Marvel characters will giggle at the various animal-themed cameos of popular characters and Peter Porker’s general bumbling. It’s an amusing graphic novel for younger or reluctant readers and one that should have a lot of popular appeal on school or library shelves. The artwork is bright and inviting, and even readers who aren’t that familiar with all the Marvel references will still be able to enjoy the story. Adults will appreciate that Mary Jane plays a more proactive role than just “damsel in distress” and has a big role in ultimately saving Spider-Ham from the baddies.
This ham is sweet enough for readers to want seconds. (Graphic novel. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-80669-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
There’s pleasurably messy, madcap humor, but the casually dismissive cultural representations are très désagréables.
When her parents aren’t looking, a girl and her toys go on secret-agent adventures in this duo of French graphic stories bound together for publication in the U.S.
Lola is convinced her perfectly ordinary stay-at-home dad, Robert Darkhair, is secret agent James Blond. Whether he is or not is almost irrelevant; what’s important is that mustachioed archvillain Max Imum believes it, too. Thus Lola dons a cape and mask (the former cut from her bedroom curtains) and hares off on a series of joyfully chaotic adventures to thwart the villain and rescue whichever parent has most recently been kidnapped. In both of the short tales collected here (“My Dad Is a Super Secret Agent” and “My Mom Is Lost in Time”), Lola is assisted by her cat and a collection of toys and drawings, most of which become person-sized and animate whenever her parents aren’t looking. The excitement proceeds at breakneck pace, as Lola and her friends are propelled from frying pan to fire and back to frying pan every few pages. The adventures, translated from the French, don’t make the trans-Atlantic hop altogether smoothly. One sequence is an extended homage to the Asterix comics that relies on familiarity with same. Nonstop silliness and lively use of the form will propel most readers through jokes lost in translation. Harder to overlook are the hackneyed representations of race, especially when mute “Mayans, Incas, or Aztecs” serve Max Imum, who threatens human sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl. Main human characters all seem to be White.
There’s pleasurably messy, madcap humor, but the casually dismissive cultural representations are très désagréables. (Graphic fantasy/adventure. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0563-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
A helter-skelter take on Dahl’s gleefully gross rodentine ruckus.
Even being transformed into a mouse doesn’t keep an 8-year-old orphan boy from turning the tables on a convention of child-hating witches in this graphic makeover of the classic novel from 1983.
Generous use of wordless panels and close-up, exaggerated reaction shots lends both speedy pacing and cinematic flair to this version—though so deliciously terrifying is the Grand High Witch once she takes off her disguise that viewers may be compelled to linger over every hideous detail. The disgusting witchly potion concocted to turn all of Britain’s children into mice, plus blood-splashed scenes of the unnamed young hero getting his tail chopped off and the Grand High Witch—herself transformed into a (fantastically feral-looking) mouse and smashed to smithereens—are showstoppers too. The plot remains unchanged overall except that Bruno Jenkins, the unsuspecting lad the witches use as their test subject, is switched for an unnamed and more competent girl and the protagonist’s cigar-smoking, purple-haired Grandmamma has both her thumbs. But unlike the 1990 film, here our protagonist remains a mouse as he and his new mouse friend charge off at the end to serve just deserts to all the witches of the world. The boy and his elderly caregiver are brown-skinned, and the witches are ethnically diverse.
A helter-skelter take on Dahl’s gleefully gross rodentine ruckus. (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-67743-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
