Kid Book Group discussion on twitter tonight

Tonight on twitter is the monthly Kid Book Group chat.  This month, it is focusing on kids' comics.  It's set up as a comics clinic and I will be taking part as an expert (!) to give recommendations and advice.  If you want to join in, stroll on over to www.twitter.com and 9pm (UK time) and follow the hashtag #kidbkgrp (note that it is a singular kid and singular book).  The chat will last for 1 hour, until 10pm.

#kidbkgrp is the brainchild of @chaletfan, a children's and young adult literature devotee.  She's great at getting people involved and stimulating discussion.  You can find out more about the book group here:
http://didyoueverstoptothink.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/kidbkgrp-update-octnovdec-dates-and-topics/

I don't think you need a twitter account to view the tweets, but if you want to join in you'll have to register.  You can have a look at the preparatory tweets here: http://twitter.com/search?q=%23kidbkgrp&src=typd

I hope you can join us!

Marvel: Civil War

Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Steve McNiven
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colourist: Morry Hollowell
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
A group of young heroes accidentally kill themselves and 600 civilians. This alarms the government who introduce the Superhuman Registration Act - everyone with powers must register with the government and become paid operatives of S.H.I.E.L.D.  If you don't comply, you'll be arrested and charged with treason.

This Act splits the heroes. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk and others are in support of the Act.  Most of the X-Men, Captain America, Nick Fury and others oppose it.  As the supporters are hired to bring in those that don't comply, the opposing faction go underground.

The book builds on and references other key events in the Marvel universe but you don't need to know about these to read it.  The other events are used to build the case for the Act and explore the moral quandary that the Marvel universe finds itself in.   The supporters believe registration is necessary to ensure new heroes are adequately trained and to ensure a measure of accountability.  The opposers believe that heroes shouldn't be beholden to government (what if government fucks up?) and that registration puts their loved ones at risk. 

Zita the Spacegirl

Writer and artist: Ben Hatke
Publisher: First Second

What's it about?

This is a brilliant little book for kids (aged 8 to 12) about a planet hopping girl named Zita.  The book starts with her on Earth playing outside with a friend, Joseph.  Her friend gets sucked through a portal and Zita runs away in fear and shock (she is only little after all).  Given some time to get over the shock, she returns to where Joseph was taken, reactivates the portal, and goes through herself in order to rescue him.  She finds herself on a planet which everyone is evacuating as it is due to blow up in 3 days.

Patrick The Wolf Boy: The Giant Size Collection

Written by: Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani
Drawn by: Art Baltazar
Published by: BlindWolf/Electric Milk Comics

What’s it about?
Patrick The Wolf Boy is the first comic by the creative team of Art Baltazar and Franco, who would go on be the force behind such popular all-ages titles as DC Comics' Tiny Titans,  Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! and Superman Family Adventures and behind the upcoming Ity Bitty Hellboy at Dark Horse Comics.

It originally started as a self-published comic book through their own Electric Milk Comics brand, the collective duo and additional assistants being known under the "BlindWolf" name.

Patrick The Wolf Boy is the comic where they started working together. As the title says, it follows the self-titled adventures of a little Wolf Boy. It's very reminiscent of classic newspaper comic strips in the lines of Calvin & Hobbes or Peanuts. Art Baltazar and Franco were really able to get what make those classic characters memorable and timeless. Make the same concept their own and run along with it.

Seen the movie? Read the book – The Wolverine

The book has been released with a few different covers: these are two examples.

The latest Wolverine film is based on a trade, written by Chris Claremont, drawn by Frank Miller, and simply titled Wolverine.  I recently read and thought it would make a good update.  Here goes.

ZOT!

Art & Story: Scott McCloud

Publisher: HarperCollins

What’s it about?
Originally published through Eclipse Comics, Zot! was the comic debut of cartoonist Scott McCloud which started in 1984 and then ran for 36 issues.

After getting a job at DC Comics, and following the advice of comic book master Will Eisner to follow his own path rather than imitating the DC/Marvel school of superheroes, Scott McCloud was able to launch a fun, original, and lighthearted tale in a gritty comic book scene in the middle of the 1980s.

Somewhat inspired by some of his old childhood favorite, such as classics like the Golden Age Superman and the manga Astro Boy, Zot! follows the adventures of Zachary T. Paleozogt aka the self-proclaimed Zot! But in an usual twist for the superhero genre, the stories are told from the perspective of Jenny Weaver, a young "normal" girl from our world who ends up in the retro-futuristic science-fiction paradise that is the world of Zot!

A little update

Hi all.

There has been a distinct lack of posting from me recently, for this I must apologise.  My life has got really busy recently.  I've started training for a 10k race and despite how fit I thought I was before, it's pretty tiring.  It's good fun, but man oh man do I get wiped out by some of the sessions.  If you're interested in the detail, I write reports on each training session on my other blog, and you can read them here. Anyway this has left me with less time and more importantly, energy, to blog.

The other thing which is taking up some of my time, is I have joined the Radio Bamf team.  Radio Bamf is a weekly comics podcast where 5 of us record each Sunday and talk about comics news, reviews and odd points of view.  I'm having an absolute blast doing it but it does take time to prepare for it and record.  Because of me and my particular passions I do tend to say if books are kid friendly, or new reader friendly.  We cover all sorts of stuff but mainly superheroes and indies.

You can listen in various places, but I'd say start with the host website, We Are Arcade.  There are links to youtube, itunes and the podomatic host sites too.  While you're on there you might want to check out the anime and gaming podcasts too.

Bringing the conversation back to this site, I don't want the posts to dry up and this blog to die a death, so to accommodate my changing energy levels I think I'll be writing shorter less in-depth reviews.  Posts may be just a few sentences long, or a few paragraphs, and they'll probably have less art, but I just can't manage full reviews right now.

Of course, I am still accepting guest reviews and am always happy to get new regular bloggers.  If you are interested in this please leave a comment, email me on paicomics at yahoo dot co uk, or tweet me @saranagacomics.