Archie Comics’ openly gay character Kevin Keller gets his first kiss in August—and provokes the ire of a Riverdale mom, whose reaction Veronica catches on video. Archie writer and artist Dan Parent discusses the storyline at USA Today, and Archie co-CEO Jon Goldwater notes that the remarkable thing about Kevin’s kiss is not that he is kissing another guy but that he is kissing at all: “There aren’t that many on-panel kisses in the pages of Archie, but you often see the lipstick on Archie’s face afterward.”

Kieron Gillen talks about writing Young Avengers as a comic for teens, and the challenges that presents.

Steve Morris interviews Neill Cameron and Daniel Hartwell, the co-creators of The Pirates of Pangaea, a strip in the UK weekly The Phoenix (available digitally in the U.S.) that features pirates and dinosaurs.

Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy) and Jerzy Drozd of the Kids’ Comics Revolution podcast are teaming up with former Nickelodeon Magazine editor Chris Duffy and the Ann Arbor District Library to create the first-ever Kids’ Comics Revolution Awards. Kids can vote online at the KCR site or in person at the Kids Read Comics event in Ann Arbor on June 22 and 23, and the winner will be announced at the end of the event.

Chris Giarrusso was the guest on a recent episode of the Comics Are Great podcast.

Nathan Hale unleashes a Hazardous Trails poster that shows how dangerous it used to be to go out West; librarians will be able to pick up a full-size copy at the Amulet booth at next month’s ALA convention.

CBR has an exclusive preview of Adventure Time #16.

Reviews

William Kulesa on Adventure Time (NJ.com)
Patrick Reed on Aw Yeah Comics! (MTV Geek)
John Hogan on Benny Breakiron: The Red Taxis (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Richard Bruton on the latest issue of The Phoenix (Forbidden Planet)

The Archie Comics folks have something new going on this year: Each of their Double Digests will double in size, to 320 pages, for one of their releases. Chris Sims took a look at the Archie Double Double Digest for Comics Alliance, and it’s a handful. As I’m a big Jughead fan, I was thrilled that Good Comics for Kids gets the first look at the Jughead Double Double Digest, which won’t be out until September; here’s the solicit information.

It’s double the Jughead, and double the laughs! When Jughead’s Uncle Clabberhead gives him a palace guard hat as a gift, Reggie challenges him to walk—er, stand—in a guard’s shoes. In order to win a free lunch, Jughead has to remain still for an entire free period. That shouldn’t be too hard—until Archie leaves an important task in Jughead’s hands that could decide whether or not Veronica goes to the dance with him! Will the real challenge be for Jughead, or the distraught Archie? Find out in “All I Can Stand,” the first of many hilarious stories in this Double Double Digest with TWICE the laughs!

Script: Craig Boldman
Art: Rex Lindsey
Cover: Fernando Ruiz, Rich Koswloski, and Tito Peña
On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: 9/11
320-page, full color comic
$5.99 US.

The List:

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS
Archie And Friends Double Digest #27, $3.99
Mega Man Volume 5 Rock Of Ages TP, $11.99
Sonic Super Digest #3, $3.99
Sonic Universe #52 (Patrick Spaziante Regular Cover), $2.99
Sonic Universe #52 (Patrick Spaziante Team Mega Man Variant Cover), $2.99
Sonic Universe #52 (Patrick Spaziante Team Sonic Variant Cover), $2.99

BONGO COMICS
Simpsons Comics #202, $2.99

BOOM! STUDIOS
Adventure Time Marceline And The Scream Queens Volume 1 TP, $19.99
Adventure Time Volume 1 Playing With Fire GN, $11.99  ^^AA Pick^^
Garfield Volume 2 TP, $13.99
Regular Show #1 (Cover A Nick Edwards), $3.99  ^^AA Pick^^
Regular Show #1 (Cover B Nathan Fox), $3.99
Regular Show #1 (Cover C Phil McAndrew), $3.99
Regular Show #1 (Cover D John Allison), $3.99
Regular Show #1 (Cover E Jeremy Tinder), $3.99
Regular Show #1 (Cover F Chuck BB), $3.99

CINEBOOK
Lucky Luke Volume 27 Lucky Luke Vs Joss Jamon TP, $11.95
Lucky Luke Volume 28 The Dalton Cousins TP, $11.95

DC COMICS
Green Lantern The Animated Series #13, $2.99

HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS
Big Nate Genius Mode TP, $9.99

IDW PUBLISHING
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #2 (Katie Cook 3rd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #7 (Cover A Amy Mebberson), $3.99
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #7 (Cover B Stephanie Buscema), $3.99
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #7 (Cover RI Tony Fleecs), AR
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Volume 1 TP, $17.99

MARVEL COMICS
Disney Girls Presents #14 (Disney Publishing Worldwide), $4.99
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23, $3.99

The Picks:

Adventure Time Volume 1 Playing With Fire GN – In Adventure Time‘s first original graphic novel, Jake and Finn take Flame Princess to the Carnival Kingdom for cotton candy and a day of fun, but Finn is kidnapped by a dragon! It’s up to Flame Princess to solve the puzzles that stand in her way, rescue Finn, and save the day! This full-length story is different from other Adventure Time stories in a couple of ways. This volume is in black and white, and this time, it’s Finn that needs saving, and it’s a princess that will do it! Adventure Time continues to be a great title for all ages, and getting a whole story at once is even better. Tween to teen collections will definitely want to add this title.

Regular Show #1 – BOOM! Studios brings another Cartoon Network series to comics: Regular Show follows the wild adventures of Mordecai the Bluejay and Rigby the Raccoon, a couple of twentysomething best bros for whom acting grown-up is the last thing on their minds. They work in a park, usually picking up trash for a man with a gumball machine for a head, and always getting into trouble. Like Adventure Time, Regular Show appeals to both kids and adults with its quirky, off-beat and often outlandish humor. Get on the ground floor for this new series.

Images © Boom! Studios.

Dave Roman discusses his new release, Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry, the sequel to his first Astronaut Academy book. Here’s a sample to get you started:

I pitched “Astronaut Academy” to First Second as two books, because a futuristic space station school is filled with endless possibilities. Book 1 establishes a world where people (like characters in a videogame) have multiple hearts in order to survive physical and emotional attacks. Señor Panda (a secret agent/Spanish teacher) enlists Miyumi to help him to track down a strange creature that’s hiding somewhere in the school, feeding off human emotion. In Book 2, the monster disguises itself as different people, specifically objects of affection in order to win the hearts of the student body.

Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon talk about their new all-ages book Odd Duck, out this week from First Second (and previewed here yesterday), and then they drop in on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for an interview there. And there’s a super-cute cartoon interview at Shelf Awareness.

And at Guys Lit Wire, Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks discuss their new First Second release, Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong.

Brian Gardes interviews Hicks for a podcast at Stumptown.

Kevin Keller creator Dan Parent won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book for his comics, which brought the first openly gay character to the Archie Comics universe.

J.L. Bell finds so many good things among the Eisner nominations for children’s graphic novels that he doesn’t know who to root for.

John Jakala looks at the kids’ comics among this year’s Free Comic Book Day comics.

Christopher Schweizer, of Crogan Adventures fame, posts some thoughts on writing historical fiction.

Good news for Bizenghast fans: M. Alice LeGrow’s newest book, The Elephant Book, is now available.

On the other side of the pond, Neill Cameron posts about the Oxford Children’s Comics Festival, where he helped make a really big comic.

Reviews

Sterg Botzakis on Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry (Graphic Novel Resources)
Kelly Fineman on Around the World (Guys Lit Wire)
Ken H on Atomcat (Comics Should Be Good)
Vik Gill on August Moon (Spandexless)
Drew McCabe on The Beano and The Phoenix (Comic Attack)
Drew McCabe on Benny Breakiron and The Sesame Street Comic #1 (Comic Attack)
Sterg Botzakis on Dim Sum Warriors, vol. 1: Enter the Dumpling (Graphic Novel Resources)
John Hogan on Jinx, vol. 2: Little Miss Steps (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sterg Botzakis on Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (Graphic Novel Resources)
Brian Gardes on Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (Stumptown Trade Review)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 8 of Sailor Moon (Anime News Network)
Joe Hennes on The Sesame Street Comic Book #1 (ToughPigs)
Helen on Smile (Narrative Investigations)

We have a treat for you today: A preview of Odd Duck, written by Cecil Castellucci and illustrated by Sara Varon, out this month from First Second.

Castellucci is well known for her young adult work, which includes the Minx graphic novel The Plain Janes (illustrated by Jim Rugg) and the hybrid graphic novel The Year of the Beasts (illustrated by Nate Powell). Varon has focused on younger readers with her graphic novels Robot Dreams and Bake Sale, and her style is similar here, with a focus on simple shapes, pastel colors, and wide areas of open space that really let the art breathe.

The book was released yesterday, so take a look at our preview and then go see it for yourself!

The Smurflings

By Peyo

Papercutz

The monotonous blue and white color scheme of the Smurf village gets broken up a bit in this fifteenth installment of Papercutz’s Smurfs reprints, which introduces a quartet of new characters to Smurf village, each of who eschew the white pants and hat ensemble that most Smurfs favor.

These new characters are The Smurflings, kid Smurfs younger than the adult Smurfs, but older than Baby Smurf. Smurf biology being what it is—the only female of their race was artificially created, after all—these young Smurfs come about much differently than human kids, and the first of the four stories collected here details their origins.

When Papa Smurf’s hourglass breaks, he sends a trio of Smurfs—Snappy, Natural and Slouchy—to Father Time’s in order to get a new one. There they accidentally stumble into a magical clock and find themselves de-aged, and decline Papa Smurf’s offer to restore them to normal. “Calm down! Calm down!” Slouchy Smurf says, “We think we’re just smurf like this.”

Their youth puts them at gentle odds with the grown-up Smurfs, as they each adopt their own style of dress, try to introduce slightly more swinging music than that of the Smurf orchestra Brainy conducts and makes them a little more daring and reckless—daring and reckless enough to steal one of Gargamel’s spells in order to create a second Smurfette, so Smurfette  will finally have a girlfriend (That’s the pink  cover-all wearing, red-haired tomboy smurfling Sassette).

The remainder of the collection includes the introduction of Puppy (the dog the Smurflings were always in the company of in the 1980s cartoon); story in which the Smurfs befriend some tiny, Smurf-sized little ghosts; and one in which Gargamel encounters a Booglooboo bird.

As with the previous volumes in the series, The Smurflings offers charming, accessible, character-driven adventures (with a very low threshold of previous knowledge needed to enjoy it), drawn by a cartoonist whose work is just as vital today as it was when originally published, due in large part to the timelessness of that work.

There remains room to quibble with specific choices the publisher might have made with the presentation, including the lettering and the small production size, which might not serve Peyo’s line-work as well as a larger format might, but it’s unlikely young readers will notice, let alone care. The size is, after all, perfectly appropriate for the hands and eyes of child readers, and even apropos of comics featuring such tiny protagonists.

Benny

By Peyo and Will Maltaite

Papercutz

American audiences have certainly embraced Belgian cartoonist Pierre “Peyo” Cuilliford’s most famous creation over the decades, with a successful cartoon series a cornerstone of 9 Saturday morning memories, 2011 live-action/CGI movie popular enough to generate a sequel and a series of translated reprints of the original comics numbering fifteen volumes and counting.

But will they be as accepting of his other, Smurf-less comics?

We’re about to find out, as the Smurfs’ American publisher Papercutz has just released their first volume of their new Benny Breakiron series, starring  super-strong little French boy who went by “Benoît Brisefer” in his original 1960s appearances in his home continent comics.

Benny, we’re told on the first two pages, is much like any other young boy: Nice, polite, studious and hard-working. Where he differs is that he’s strong, incredibly strong, like Superman-strong or, perhaps more apropos, Asterix-strong. His strength allows him to jump super-high and run super-fast, and the only thing that can strip Benny of this strength is the common cold. When he catches one, he’s just a normal little boy again.

After a short introduction to the character, his powers and the day-to-day problems they can cause if he’s not careful (the simple act of opening a door, for example, can tear it from its hinges), the title conflict kicks in.

There’s a shady new taxi company in town, the Red Taxi Company, whose shady drivers seem more like criminals than cabbies. They’re trying to strong arm Benny’s pal Monsieur Dussiflard out of business, and as the pair pull at a string of suspicion, they unravel a big, hugely ambitious criminal enterprise to  rob the entire town.

Along the way, there’s a couple of kidnappings, a couple of elaborate chase scenes, a stranding at sea, an inconveniently timed cold, and, at the climax, a super-strong boy in a beret, scarf and shorts battling a fleet of taxi-driving bad guys, mostly by tossing their cars into trees or flipping them on their roofs like big, red turtles.

The format is identical to that of the Smurfs graphic novellas, right down to the Peyo’s page layouts. Where it differs most sharply is in the content. Instead of the medieval, pastoral world of the Smurfs, in which the only human being to commonly appear is the evil sorcerer Gargamel, here we see a modern (well, 1960s modern), urban world, where every character is human.

The change of scenery and subject matter is a treat for Peyo fans, and a fine demonstration of the cartoonist’s range (He gets an assist on the background art, however, from artist Will Maltaite, who is credited simply as “Will” on the title page).

Whether Benny’s comics will ultimately be as well received as those of the Smurfs’ remains to be seen, of course, but based on the contents of this first volume, I see no reason why they wouldn’t be.

The List:

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS
Jugheads Double Digest #192, $3.99
Life With Archie #29 (Fernando Ruiz Regular Cover), $3.99
Life With Archie #29 (Jon Gray Variant Cover), $3.99
Mega Man #25 (Matt Herms Evil Friends Forever Variant Cover), $2.99
Mega Man #25 (Patrick Spaziante Gatefold Regular Cover), $2.99
Sonic Super Special Magazine #7, $9.99

BOOM! STUDIOS
Bravest Warriors #8 (Cover A Tyson Hesse), $3.99
Bravest Warriors #8 (Cover B Nick Edwards), $3.99

MARVEL COMICS
Disney Princess Magazine #13 (Disney Publishing Worldwide), $4.99
Marvel Universe The Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #14, $2.99
Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Digest Volume 3 TP, $9.99
Wolverine Young Readers Novel SC, $6.99  ^^AA Pick^^

PAPERCUTZ
Benny Breakiron Volume 1 The Red Taxis HC, $11.99  ^^AA Pick^^
Smurfs Volume 15 The Smurflings SC, $5.99
Smurfs Volume 15 The Smurflings HC, $10.99

UNITED PLANKTON PICTURES
SpongeBob Comics #20, $2.99

VIZ MEDIA
Pokemon Adventures Volume 16 TP, $9.99
WINX Club Volume 7 GN, $6.99

The Picks:

Benny Breakiron Volume 1 The Red Taxis HC – Papercutz brings out another series from Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs! Benny Breakiron is a little kid with an exceptional ability: He has superpowers! Honest and polite, Benny uses his superhuman strength, speed, and leaping to stop crime and injustice. In his first adventure, Benny’s friend, the taxi driver Mr. Dussiflard is in trouble when a new taxi service, the Red Taxi Company moves in. The more Benny learns about them, the more he realizes something isn’t right. It’s up to Benny to learn who is behind them, what they are up to , and to stop them once and for all, while keeping the property damage to a minimum. Benny Breakiron looks to be another winner for Papercutz. With a protagonist that kids can relate to, and good role model potential that parents and teachers can get behind, this new series is a must for any elementary or teen library and/or collection.

Wolverine Young Readers Novel SC – Marvel moves Wolverine from the comic shelf to the bookshelf. This illustrated prose story follows Eric Mattias, a new student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Students, and has the “suckiest” mutant power. Through a series of blog posts, Eric describes life at the school and what seems to be his worst day ever, which also turns out to be Wolverine’s worst day ever. Written from the perspective of a complete outsider, this book gives a different look at some of Marvel’s most popular mutants in a form that kids can relate to and enjoy. Fans of superhero comics and Wolverine in particular will want to check this book out.

Images © Papercutz and Marvel Comics respectively.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles isn’t just my favorite Sherlock Holmes story; it’s one of my favorite novels period. Combining murder mystery with gothic horror in a setting that feels as real as it does gloomy and atmospheric, Hound of the Baskervilles deserves its status as a beloved classic. But that standing is both advantage and drawback when it comes to adapting the story. I expect that I’m not alone in loving it so much that I’m always eager to explore a new version of it, but by now I’ve seen so many adaptations – comics and otherwise – that it’s tough to offer a take that I haven’t seen before. Impossibly, Martin Powell and Jamie Chase have found a way.

It’s not that they’ve gotten especially innovative with the unfolding of the plot or even the visual depictions of the characters. Chase’s Holmes, for instance, looks like a cross between Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing, the stars of two, iconic film adaptations of the story. And Powell is very faithful to the order in which Doyle reveals information. What struck me most about Powell’s script is the way he’s able to condense the novel into 64 pages without removing elements from the story.

One of my favorite Baskervilles comics adaptation is Ian Edginton and I.N.J. Culbard’s extremely faithful one from Sterling, but it’s twice the length of Powell and Chase’s and very wordy with lots of caption boxes to record Watson’s every thought. It’s a beautiful piece of work and a great way to experience the story, but it’s perhaps not the best volume with which to expose younger readers to the tale. Powell hits all the beats, but he does it efficiently, abridging narration and dialog while letting the art focus on action and setting the mood.

This isn’t Powell’s first run at adapting Hound of the Baskervilles. He also wrote the script for Stone Arch’s version, drawn by Daniel Perez. The Stone Arch edition is explicitly designed for kids and that’s reflected in Perez’ clean lines and exaggerated character and creature designs. The Sequential Pulp edition is appropriate for kids, but Chase’s art is darker than Perez’. His inks are loose and expressive with brushy shadows obscuring details to create a spooky mood.

Though both of Powell’s adaptations are the same length and hit the same scenes at roughly the same places in the page count, it’s interesting that Powell didn’t just use the same script over again for the Sequential Pulp version. The Stone Arch edition has fewer panels per page to allow for bigger art, and as a general rule it also has less dialogue. The best way to explain the difference in the two approaches is just to show an example of how each presents the same scene. Here are two full pages from each version, first the Stone Arch, and then the Sequential Pulp.

I was curious about the difference and how Powell approached each version, so I contacted him about it. He told me that the Stone Arch version altered and deleted a lot of Doyle’s language and that he “adamantly” wanted that back again for the Sequential Pulp edition. The Sequential Pulp version isn’t slavishly faithful to the dialogue from the original novel, but Powell imitates Doyle’s style. My sense is that this gets the authentic feel while also giving Powell the freedom to play with it for the sake of pacing.

The Stone Arch version ends up being perfect for the youngest readers and a fun, lighter version of the story for adults. In contrast, the Sequential Pulp edition – while still suitable for any age – retains the dark tone and spookiness of Doyle’s book. It’s not too intense for young ones, but feels less like a children’s book, so older kids and grown-ups will enjoy it too.