Category Archives: graphic novels

April 7, 2016 · 1:45 pm

What Do You Want to Read in Graphic Novels?

As many of you out there know, I am currently working on a graphic novel about the life and times of science fiction writer George Clayton Johnson. I am also working on some other projects that are just as important. They all share something in common as they use the graphic novel format. I invite you to take a moment to complete a quick survey that will prove quite useful. For the first ten respondents, if you choose, I will send you a free copy of the first issue of George’s Run. Just reach me by email, which you can find in CONTACT right on the navigation bar, and let me know that you completed the survey. Thank you to all my loyal followers. You can go to the survey right here.

Interview: Matt MacFarland and DARK PANTS

Matt McFarland’s DARK PANTS comics series

Matt MacFarland is an interesting artist working in various mediums including comics. He is one of those hybrid artists who make for the best cartoonists. I am impressed with his comics and that initial interest led to this interview. Matt is a kindred spirit. That has a lot to do with us being a couple of cartoonists in the same boat, navigating still unchartered waters, which can often get pretty choppy.

Silkscreen print adapted from DARK PANTS #1 by Matt McFarland and Maggie Lomeli

Interviews can be organic and creative things in their own right. Sometimes they require the right balance. As I mentioned to Matt, I have done more interviews than I care to count but I always strive for them to be fun and insightful. I’m always hopeful of what may result. In the case of a young cartoonist finding his way like Matt, who already demonstrates a seasoned approach to his work, it’s really good to gather up some observations from him and add to our general understanding of where we are headed with the comics medium.

The focus here is a cartoonist as a fine artist and that usually means someone who does the whole thing alone just as you would if you were a painter. Matt is in a very good place as someone who has a traditional art education. I say this because Matt’s ongoing series, DARK PANTS, seems to me a fine example of going through the rigors of art critiques. I sense that the recurring theme of those dark pants is a hard-won motif. It is through these mysterious pants that various displaced characters in Matt’s story find some clarity and, most significantly, a sexual awakening.

What you will find instructive here is listening to a particular breed of cartoonist describe how he goes about building his particular work. This is the work of an alternative comics/indie cartoonist. This type of cartoonist often does not care for superhero or genre comics. And, as I say, they usually work alone. Alternative cartoonists do not concern themselves so much with whether or not their comics are legitimate art. They already know they are creating art. The ones that have taken their work in comics past a certain point, they most certainly know since they are employing the same methodology used with other art mediums. This is the sort of work I do. This is the sort of work Matt does.

Check out our conversation right below:

And be sure to visit Matt McFarland and keep up with DARK PANTS right here.

You can find DARK PANTS at these fine establishments:

Los Angeles, CA
MELTDOWN COMICS! (Hollywood)
Bookshow (Highland Park)
Cool Cats Comics and Cards (Culver City)
Comics vs. Toys (Eagle Rock, CA)
Los Angeles County Store (Silver Lake)
Mega City One (Hollywood)
The Pop Hop (Highland Park)
Stories Books and Cafe (Echo Park)

Austin, TX
Farewell Books
Tribe Comics

Seattle, WA
Zanadu Comics

Pittsburgh, PA
Copacetic Comics

And you can pick up a print and t-shirt right here.

1 Comment

Filed under Alternative Comics, Art, Comics, graphic novels, Independent Comics, Indie, Interviews, Los Angeles, Matt MacFarland, Meltdown Comics, Minicomics

Tagged as alternative comics, Art, arts, comics, Comix, Entertainment, graphic novels, indie comics, Los Angeles, Media, Meltdown Comics, minicomics, Pop Culture, Publishing

March 22, 2016 · 4:00 pm

Review: ‘Cruising Through the Louvre’ by David Prudhomme

CRUISING THROUGH THE LOUVRE

Paris, and the Louvre, are beacons to artists and art lovers and will always be. What we know is that such things matter dearly, are a deeply essential part of life. Now, in the aftershock of the horror of the terrorist attack in Brussels, we choose to remain alert and vigilant but we also choose to remain steadfast in our celebration of humanity at its best. There is no other way. So, with that in mind, it gives me added resolve and passion, as I share with you this latest item. Oh, yes, this is such a relevant book with that heightened sense of timelessness. Look at this book and you’ve met a good friend, David Prudhomme’s new graphic novel, “Cruising Through the Louvre,” published by NBM Publishing.

With old pal, Rembrandt

David Prudhomme is a man to watch, indeed. He is a fellow cartoonist who I would love to meet sometime. I’m sure we’d have plenty to talk about. I see his work as full of a zest for life in all its lusty and gritty splendor. Now, take a cartoonist such as this and set him loose in the Louvre. Well, Mr. Prudhomme certainly lives up to the challenge. I know that, if I was set loose in the Louvre, I would have my own idiosyncratic view, and so it certainly is with this masterful artist. It may seem easy but to throw down the scenario of an offbeat observer wandering through some of the greatest art of all time is quite a mind-bending proposition. This requires a steady hand, brain, and hours of editing as all these impressions that come to mind must finally adhere to some coherent narrative.

Reading “Cruising Through the Louvre,” by David Prudhomme

Prudhomme has a beautifully loose style that evokes a stream of consciousness outlook. Prudhomme is in the Louvre ostensibly to find his girlfriend, Jeanne. This may or may never happen. That does not really matter. The guy is wearing a baggy coat, a huge Russian fur cap with ear flaps, and he’s got his cell phone at the ready. He gets to spend some time with his good pal, Rembrandt, and then he’s on the move, looking for Jeanne, marveling over art, and endlessly people-watching. The sensory overload is intoxicating. Soon he is recombining people with art: one tourist’s foot aligns with the foot from a sculpture; or one sleepy heap of museum patrons seamlessly fit as an extension of Théodore Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa.”

A zest for life

We enter into a whole other world when we inhabit such a place as the Louvre. It really isn’t something you want to leave for just a couple of hours. I would easily go each day for weeks, months, if not years. It would not take too much in the way of convincing for me to return to my old museum guard days. Roaming through such vast expression of sensual delight, it would also not take too much convincing for me to return to my days as a life drawing model. Ah, such is the power of the Louvre. But, most of all, it is a place that inspires me both as writer and artist. Everyone finds something to lose themselves in. Prudhomme is wonderfully uninhibited with his observations. He is keenly aware that, once out of one’s element, people can get in touch with content they would normally zone out. For instance, consider Prudhomme’s drawing of a tourist snapping a photo of an old warrior’s genitals. Well, within context, it makes total sense. Snap away!

What Mona Lisa saw

The Louvre has always been a place for the people. Give people a chance to enjoy art, and they will rise to it. Give them the Louvre, and you have provided heaven on earth. Prudhomme does not shun or ridicule the public’s hearty appetite for snapping photos and video. In fact, instead of shaking his head over what some might dismiss as the spectacle over viewing the Mona Lisa, he wonders what people do after they’ve gotten their good look. He also wonders what Mona Lisa would see if she bothered to look back at all her admirers. There’s no easy answer. There’s just too many people to consider. All that humanity enjoying their time in the Louvre for a multitude of reasons, no one reason being better or worse than the other! All this, Prudhomme manages to speak to in this quite remarkable book. Bravo! This is a keepsake that you will enjoy many times over.

“Cruising Through the Louvre,” by David Prudhomme

“Cruising Through the Louvre” is an 80-page full color hardcover. For more details, visit NBM Publishing right here.

2 Comments

Filed under Comics, David Prudhomme, France, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, NBM, NBM Publishing, Paris, The Louvre, Travel

Tagged as Art, arts, Books, Brussels, David Prudhomme, Entertainment, Europe, France, graphic novels, Media, NBM Publishing, Paris, Pop Culture, Publishing, Rembrandt, The Louvre, The Mona Lisa, Travel

March 11, 2016 · 12:45 am

Review: PATIENCE by Daniel Clowes

Just like Alfred Hitchcock and Edward Hopper are familiar to neurotic connoisseurs and average slobs alike, so too Daniel Clowes is one of those select alternative cartoonists known to the general public. “Ghost World” is a bona fide cult classic that evokes better than most that special blend of Gen X rage. The Clowesian world is mired in self-loathing coupled with self-delusion forever seeking some sort of redemption through perpetual self-deprecation. Clowes perfected an ironic noir in the ’90s all his own. Since then, many readers have been catching up. His latest graphic novel, “Patience,” finds him in top form. It is published by Fantagraphics Books.

When I first moved to Seattle in 1993, Fantagraphics began publishing “Ghost World” in the one-man comics anthology, Eightball (1989-2004) by Daniel Clowes. I remember it, at the time, as being so perfectly rendered and mirroring the sarcastic bite of the hipster scene I was experiencing. It seemed too good to be true. And yet it did exist. There are other great alt cartoonists to enjoy, to be sure, but Clowes has the pulse on a certain strain of disconnected disquiet. His work will always be inextricably linked with the DIY/zine/grunge era. That’s the sweet spot his characters revolve around whether it’s 2006 or 2029. Clowes, as he ages, just keeps getting better. Like a cartoonist version of David Letterman, he cannot, nor should not, try to extricate himself from his roots. In Clowes, the Gen X muffled rage lives on. In this new book, we see just how timeless a Clowesian world can be.

This is as classic as you can get when it comes to Clowes. The title character is a young woman named, Patience. It is through the actions and thoughts of a young woman, it seems, that Clowes believes the secrets to life can be unlocked or, at least, we have our best chance at experiencing true grace on Earth. To act as our guide, and fully explain the rare quality of said lady, is a stand-in for Clowes. We begin with an attractive young couple. Patience and Jack have just learned that Patience is pregnant. While the timing is not great in respect to their finances, the two of them are happy. And then our story takes a turn that makes it, as billed, “a science fiction love story.”

Clowes has created an excellent vehicle for his vision. He has Patience, his ideal young woman, and he has Jack who, due to just the right touch of strange, becomes an ideal Clowes alter ego. This is quite a remarkable, beautiful, and ambitious work. Clowes gets to play with all the Clowesian toys in this one. It is a far better world, perhaps a tad too melancholy, but a far better world, to have the work of Daniel Clowes in it. Patience makes for a wonderful Clowes girl, full of grit with just the right amount of stubborn optimism. Jack makes for a great befuddled Everyman, just one step away from either utter self-destruction or blissful epiphany.

“Patience” is a 180-page full color hardcover and will be released on March 21st. For more details, and how to purchase, visit our friends at Fantagraphics Bookstore right here.

And don’t miss out on the Daniel Clowes “Patience” book tour. If you are in Seattle, you can see Mr. Clowes at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday. Details are right here.

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Filed under Comics, Daniel Clowes, Fantagraphics, Fantagraphics Books, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, science fiction, Time Travel

Tagged as comics, Daniel Clowes, Entertainment, Fantagraphics Bookstore, graphic novels, Media, Pop Culture, Publishing, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Seattle, Time Travel

February 10, 2016 · 2:10 pm

Batton Lash’s New Kickstarter: A VAMPIRE IN HOLLYWOOD

Batton Lash, a comics legend in his own right, has launched a new Kickstarter campaign in support of his latest collection, “A Vampire in Hollywood.” You can join the campaign, which runs thru March 11th, right here.

With a distinctive wit and style, Batton Lash has entertained readers over the years with the misadventure of “Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre,” the only law firm that represents vampires, zombies, and other ghouls. Wolff and Byrd has subsequently been known simply as, “Supernatural Law.” It is a cross between Archie comics and The Walking Dead. It is definitely something different!

Press release follows:

Continue reading →

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Filed under Batton Lash, Comics, graphic novels, Hollywood, Kickstarter, Monsters

Tagged as Batton Lash, comic books, comics, Entertainment, graphic novels, Hollywood, Kickstarter, Media, Monsters, Pop Culture, Publishing, Vampires, Witches, Zombies

February 4, 2016 · 11:11 pm

Review: ‘Fante Bukowski’ by Noah Van Sciver

I’d been meaning to read Noah Van Sciver’s latest graphic novel, “Fante Bukowski,” and I guess I was waiting for a good time to do it. I thought I had it figured out: a silly little satire about a ne’er-do-well. It is that, in a nutshell. But, after reading it, I wasn’t totally sure of what to say about it. Well, actually, I had some idea. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Steve Martin in his film debut, 1979’s “The Jerk.” It is both subversively offbeat and totally hilarious.

“Fante Bukowski,” is worthy of your attention in all its irreverent splendor. Part of the humor is that it is quite obvious that Van Sciver has no real axe to grind within the literary community and yet he seems to manage to provide some quite effective biting satire. The bite is not aimed at anyone in particular. It’s more like the Marx Brothers poking fun at the absurdity of life in general. And, it’s safe to say that the pomposity and pretentiousness that Groucho ridiculed a century ago has not changed much for Millennials.

And lest you think this book has anything meaningful to say about Charles Bukowski, think again! Our main character decided to have his name legally changed from Kelly Perkins to Fante Bukowski to honor his childhood idol. It’s, by far, the saddest thing, Audrey, another unpromising writer, has ever heard! Fante meets, or stumbles upon, Audrey during a reading Fante gives of an incredibly brief and ill-conceived bit of his so-called poetry. It is Fante’s dumb luck that Audrey finds him attractive and decides to spend the night with him. To her dismay, she discovers that Fante slaves away on an actual typewriter.

While Van Sciver seems to favor light humor, it also seems that he doesn’t suffer fools lightly either. The following scene can’t help but sound familiar to many an aspiring writer: there is much chit chat over a certain literary magazine at a party and it results in Fante pleading with the editor for the chance to submit some work. After some back and forth, the editor accepts Fante’s half-baked drivel. After more small talk, Fante asks how big the magazine’s circulation is. The editor, without a hint of irony, says it’s a dozen. Brilliant. That, and the fact that Fante is obsessed with using a typewriter does seem to say something about a new generation allowing itself to walk into walls it could have easily avoided.

Van Sciver’s latest subject, and what he does with it, is a prime example of a cartoonist who understands why he keeps going back to his drawing board to toil away. He has made certain choices like keeping the artwork within reasonable limits and cranking the humor just right. This is all in the service of telling the tale of a terribly delusional young man. It’s an absurd story. When it’s all said and done, it is a silly satire about a ne’er-do-well. But it’s an impressive silly little satire too.

“Fante Bukowski” is an 80-page trade paperback published by Fantagraphics Books. For more details, visit our friends at Fantagraphics right here.

2 Comments

Filed under Charles Bukowski, Comics, Fantagraphics, Fantagraphics Books, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Noah Van Sciver

Tagged as Books, Charles Bukowski, Creative Writing, Entertainment, Fantagraphics, fantagraphics books, graphic novels, Media, Noah Van Sciver, Pop Culture, Seattle, Writers, Writing

February 3, 2016 · 3:00 pm

Review: PRISON ISLAND by Colleen Frakes

“Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir” is quite a pleasant surprise coming from indie cartoonist Colleen Frakes. I have kept up with her work which gravitates towards ethereal terrain full of whimsical creatures and mythical themes. So, to have her share about her own childhood is a treat. Frakes is another cartoonist who I can say knows her stuff. Cartooning, I think I’ve said before in one form or another, is a harsh and fickle mistress. You cannot rush the process unless you want to end up aping the current trends; and you cannot sit on something for too long. I think Frakes has cultivated a distinctive style and knows when it’s time to push the work out the door.

As the title suggests, our story takes place on a prison island. This is where the Frakes family found employment. After a number of years where careers led to a lot of moving around the Pacific Northwest, it was a welcome change to have mom and dad both finding work in the same location with a long-lasting future. Well, everything is relative. This facility no longer exists. McNeil Island in Washington state had the distinction of being the last prison island in the U.S. accessible only by sea or air. There was Alcatraz Island but that’s another story. Come to think of it, Riker’s Island is still around but it has a bridge connecting it. Hmm, San Quentin? No, that’s not even an island. Okay then, all said and done, an usual place to grow up.

Frakes weaves a fascinating look at everyday life on an island dependent upon a prison economy as it were. We observe Frakes just trying to be a kid. But you can’t even take ordering a pizza for granted. As we find out, that is just too complicated to make happen when you live on an isolated prison island! Frakes does a great job of alternating recollections from the past with a more recent family visit to the now virtually deserted island. All in all, this is a charming story that just goes to show that, no matter where you live, a family is a family. I think that Frakes has an endearing drawing style and great enthusiasm for sharing some slice-of-life observations. And she provides a positive and realistic portrait of living in close vicinity to a prison. As Frakes makes clear, the typical prisoner in a relatively low-security prison is someone paying their debt and attempting to rebuild a life.

PRISON ISLAND is a 192-page trade paperback published by Zest Books. For more details, visit Zest Books right here.

Review: ROSALIE LIGHTNING: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart

A basic truth about good art is that it comes from an artist who is compelled to create it. I have followed the work of cartoonist Tom Hart for many years and I consider him a friend. I can see that his latest book, the graphic memoir, “Rosalie Lightning,” brings out the best in him and what he can do as an artist. This is a story about grieving. Tom and his wife, the cartoonist Leela Corman, suffered the loss of their daughter, Rosalie Lightning, a few years ago. She was nearly two years old. The process of grieving has no set amount of time. It can very well go on forever. However, for the sake of one’s own life, and one’s loved ones, there is also a process of acceptance and renewal. In his book, Hart explores all of this with great insight.

The comics medium can offer the reader entry into the mind of a cartoonist in a very distinct way. This often happens with a work from an independent creator who both writes and draws the work. If it is a personal work, and the creator is up to the task, the reader will be swept into a myriad of observations made all the more tangible by the elastic and concise nature of comics. The words must be more condensed, providing a sharper impact. And then you add the immediacy and the intimacy of the drawings coming from the very same author’s hand. Tom Hart is in a unique position, as an experienced storyteller with a highly expressive style, to tell this story.

One thing I’ve always admired about Tom Hart is his ability and willingness to open himself up to his readers. He is alright with presenting himself as a regular guy struggling with life in much the same way as we all do. Now, imagine a gifted storyteller like Hart dealing with the death of his baby girl. Is this a story he can even begin to tell? Is it one he wants to tell? You sense right from the beginning that he followed his instincts and chose to continue to share about his life through his comics. There was no set plan. The observations were intermittent posts on his blog. Organically, a narrative took root. And, I believe, the theme of exploring grieving naturally emerged. You find it throughout the book, first in moving recollections and later in greater detail as two parents walk in the wilderness and search for answers.

Aside from the medical reasons, are there any answers as to why a beautiful toddler would die? That is the question that Tom and Leela struggle with. Was it somehow preordained? Both parents torment themselves by repeatedly posing that question. The thing about Hart’s comics is, by their very nature, they are direct and are brimming with immediacy. There’s an interesting tension created by a story following a circuitous and ambiguous path which is punctuated with sharp and forceful drawings. Hart combats a need to contemplate, and recede into the background, with a strong will to tell his story and keep moving forward in his life. Of course, the goal was never to forget but to find balance. Hart’s book proves to be an excellent work of self-discovery and of keeping the memory alive of a dear soul.

“Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir” is a 272-page hardcover published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. For more details, visit our friends at Macmillan Publishers right here.

6 Comments

Filed under Comics, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Macmillan Publishers, Tom Hart

Tagged as comics, Death, Entertainment, graphic novels, Grief, Grieving, Loss, Macmillan Publishers, Media, Pop Culture, Publishing

January 21, 2016 · 11:45 am

Review: BERNIE by Ted Rall

“Bernie,” the new graphic biography by Ted Rall, published by Seven Stories Press, is a brilliant portrait of the celebrated iconoclast. Following up on his graphic biography of Edward Snowden, Ted Rall has found a kindred spirit in Bernie Sanders. Something broke in the American political system at the end of the Sixties and we have been grappling with that ever since: the demise of liberal activism and the ascent of corporate influence. We see that debate raging in this year’s presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton represents the centrist Democrat; Bernie Sanders represents a way back to progressive values. Rall not only makes a case for Sanders but, in the process, shows us how far afield the American political system has gone and why it is vital to regain balance.

Ted Rall and Bernie Sanders both do not mince words and get to the point: the American middle class is being shrunken out of existence. The American political system is out of whack. Billionaires rule. The common man is left out in the cold. So, where do we go from here? Whatever your political affiliation, it is hard to make a case for the established way of doing things. Rall begins by looking back at how we got where we are. Rall points to the death of American mainstream liberalism with the stunning and utter defeat of Democrat George McGovern to Republican Richard Nixon in 1972. From that point forward, Democrats made a decided turn to the center right. Not only did Democrats abandon pursuit of social programs and saving the environment, they found themselves scrambling to hold onto past accomplishments. In the meantime, the right-wing of the Republican party became toxic.

In the spirit of America’s robust liberal history, there emerges a voice that finds many ears, Bernie Sanders. Rall makes the case that with the Great Recession, Bernie Sanders and his vision, is more relevant than ever. Rall’s simple drawing style is quite effective in keeping to a steady pace. As always, he cuts to the chase and provides numerous examples to make his point. Rall speaks eloquently to anything an Occupy Wall Street protestor might want to share with the public.

In the end, as divisive and distracting as politics is, there are some humbling facts to consider. Does anyone really want to see their government in the hip pocket of big business and needlessly avoiding investing in its citizens and infrastructure?

Rall makes a strong case for a Bernie Sanders candidacy and what it means. Even if establishment Democrats are resistant, Sanders is paving the way for a return to progressive values. Sanders isn’t planning to change the Democratic Party but his involvement now, in 2016, is the start of a new wave of involvement. Whatever the outcome, the rise of Bernie Sanders is significant.

“Bernie” is a 205-page paperback available now. For more details, visit our friends at Seven Stories Press right here.

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Filed under Bernie Sanders, Comics, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Hillary Clinton, politics, Seven Stories Press

Tagged as Bernie Sanders, Entertainment, graphic novels, Hillary Clinton, Media, Politics, Pop Culture, Seven Stories Press, U.S. Politics

January 20, 2016 · 11:01 am

How Modern Fans Have Come to Know Graphic Novels

Guest column by Joseph Byrd

There was a time when comic books and graphic novels seemed like old-fashioned forms of fiction and entertainment. However, thanks in large part to a modern film industry that’s become obsessed with adapting these comics and novels, a whole new generation has become attached to them. Really, it’s been a gradual but fascinating development in popular fiction.

It begins with the films themselves. Since Iron Man debuted in 2008, the movie industry has been utterly dominated by superhero cinema. The Marvel Cinematic Universe now consists of over 10 films and will only grow larger in the years to come. This article reveals that the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War (due out in 2018) will include a whopping 67 characters from Marvel Comics. And it’s not just Marvel bringing comics to life on the big screen. DC Comics adaptations provide regular competition, and there have even been other prominent examples not related to the two publishing giants. For instance, popular 2010 superhero comedy Kick-Ass was based on a comic published by Icon (which to be fair is a Marvel affiliate), and movies like Sin City and 300 were based on Frank Miller works published by Dark Horse Comics. All of these films have helped to spark a renewed interest in source material among modern fans.

It’s also become particularly helpful that a number of the most prominent superhero movies have been based on very specific comics or graphic novels. For example, while a given Spider-Man movie might pull elements from several different comics and origin stories, some projects have essentially adapted screenplays from individual editions. This list ranked Frank Miller’s 1986 novel The Dark Knight Rises as the single best graphic novel out there, and millions of fans have now come to know it nearly 30 years later through the film of the same name. Likewise, Marvel has seemingly made a clearer effort to connect its own movies to specific projects. The aforementioned Infinity War movie will be based on a six-issue series of comics published in the ’90s, and this spring’s Captain America: Civil War actually pulls its story from one of the more modern chapters of Marvel lore, published in 2006-07. As long as movies remain so deeply rooted in comics, they’ll continue to spark new interest for younger generations.

But it’s not solely the movies that are helping to spread the word about some of the great comics and graphic novels out there. The gaming industry has also played a major role, largely through famous console-based titles like those in the Arkham Asylum series (which took its inspiration from a Grant Morrison graphic novel). But other areas in gaming have embraced the popularity of comic book characters, and in doing so helped to reach out to alternative audiences. This site is best known for catering to fans of casual casino games through offering a range of bingo, roulette and poker options to suit the genre. However, it’s also expanded to include slot and arcade games that invoke images and character names from popular comics and graphic novels. Iron Man and Batman are directly used, an “Amazon Queen” game implies a Wonder Woman connection, and even the Spartan 300 are used as thematic material for a game.

And then of course there’s the outreach to young kids, which is done differently now than in decades past. When comics and graphic novels originally rose to relevance, it was at least in part because there just wasn’t as much visual entertainment available. There was no regular television or film content, let alone any fit for children. Now kids have all kinds of other ways to entertain themselves, which means comics and graphic novels have lost what once may have been their greatest advantage. Still, there are a number of ways in which these characters and stories have been made available and appealing to kids.

Perhaps the most noteworthy development is LEGO’s partnerships with Marvel and DC to create gaming content that brings characters and storylines to life in a cartoonish manner. But on a more straightforward note, we’ve also seen comics and graphic novels made available electronically through app developers who recognize their new audience. Kids as young as two or three these days are learning to use smartphones and tablets, and parents now have the ability to load those devices with age-appropriate comic book material over time. It’s essentially modernizing the concept of a comic book.

Through all these developments, we’ve seen comics and graphic novels make a pretty remarkable transition into modern entertainment. And their popularity is only growing greater.