PROPAGANDA Reviews: Mo & Jo from Toon Books

Mo And Jo: Fighting Together Forever

by Dean Haspiel and jay Lynch.

Toon Books.

This is one of the most advanced of the Toon Books catalogue, both in concept and language. It’s also the one most grounded in standard superhero ideas. But it’s going to be immediately familiar to the younger readers it’s aimed at, since, whether they’ve seen the movie, they’ve all seen something of the Incredibles and every child has some fundamental understanding of the idea of a superhero. Likewise, pretty much every child, even a singleton like mine, knows all about sibling rivalry.

Mo & Jo are Monica and Joey, twins who just can’t stop arguing. But one day, their mailman turns up with a surprise and a secret: He’s The Mighty Mojo and has decided to give one of them his costume; the source of his incredible powers.

The Mighty Mojo may be a powerful superhero but he obviously knows nothing about these argumentative twins. A huge fight breaks out over the costume and inevitably it ends up in ripped in half. But Mom comes to the rescue (as Moms always do) and turns those two halves into two separate costumes and the latest superhero team of Mo and Jo is born, each with half the powers of the Mighty Mojo.

(With great power comes great showing off. From Mo And Jo by Jay Lynch and Dean Haspiel. Published Toon Books.)

Unfortunately Mo and Jo seem more concerned with fighting each other than rescuing the city from the evil Saw-Jaw. Can they find a way to put aside their differences in time to save the day?

What do you think? Of course they can! The fun of Mo & Jo isn’t in the unsurprising ending, it’s about the enormous fun that’s had along the way. The bickering and fighting as the twins try to out-do each other is priceless. It’s a funny, fast paced adventure with a lovingly realised pair of heroes. Lynch writes the bickering twosome really well and Haspiel’s art is suitably superhero-ish whilst never failing to get over the fun story.

(There’s a monster threatening downtown. Time to argue some more. From Mo And Jo, by Jay Lynch and DeanHaspiel. Published Toon Books.)

With Mo & Jo, we come to the end of this look at the current Toon Books lineup. Francoise Mouly’s new range of graphic novels has the tagline of “Bringing new readers to the pleasure of comics” and I really think they’ve got a great chance of being successful in that aim. We loved every single one of them, and although my test subject; Molly, is 9 and well out of the age range they’re looking at, she thought they were all lovely and wants them all on her bookcase for keeps. Fine praise indeed.

The next Toon Books releases come in Spring 2009 with Luke On The Loose and another Benny & Penny book. We’ll be looking forward to those.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Stinky

Stinky

by Eleanor Davis

Toon Books

Another great comic tale for kids from Francoise Mouly’s Toon Books. This one will find children loving the grossness of Stinky; a monster living in the muckiest, smelliest swamp and keeping well away from the kids of the town who have baths, don’t like mucky mud, slimy slugs or monsters like Stinky and eat apples and cake.

But one day one of those bath taking, muck hating, apple eating kids wanders into Stinky’s swamp and makes himself a tree house there. Stinky concocts plan after plan to drive the kid out and in the process of doing so discovers that perhaps they have more in common than he thought.

(Stinky in his swamp. Delightful little touches like the frog reading under the parasol fill this book).

For children there’s an immediate parallel with Shrek here, and they’ll be on fun, familiar ground as the monster and the kid discover they have more in common than they thought.

In the end Stinky is a simple tale of finding a friend in the strangest of places and discovering that your differences can be something that brings you together. Lovely, heartwarming stuff, beautifully illustrated and packed with delightful, funny touches and a nice turn of phrase. Another hit from Toon Books in our household.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Toon Book’s Benny & Penny

Benny And Penny

by Geoffrey Hayes

Toon Books

Benny just wants to play at being a pirate with his cardboard box ship and his wooden sword. But his annoying little sister wants to play as well, dressed in her finest princess outfit. Benny doesn’t want to play with her and calls her a cry-baby and tries to get mom to take her away. This nefarious plan goes awry when he makes Penny cry and he has to play with her. And what better way to get rid of your sister than a one sided game of hide and seek? So Benny ditches his sister just so he can make believe and play his pirate game. But when he realises that his sister is missing he begins to realise that maybe these games are better with two.

Benny And Penny; Let’s Pretend is yet another delightful little tale from Francoise Mouly’s Toon Books, told with deceptively simple layouts and delicately old-fashioned artwork.

Geoffrey Hayes tells an all too believable tale of what it feels like to be someone’s older sibling. It’s no surprise at the book’s end that he talks of his own brother and all the fights they’ve had as youngsters. All of the frustration and all of the love is represented brilliantly in the pages of Benny And Penny. This is a lovely, warm, charming graphic novel that will be immediately loved and understood by it’s readers.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Toon Books, Otto’s Orange Day

Otto’s Orange Day

by Frank Cammuso and Jay Lynch

More from Toon Books; the new graphic novel range from Francoise Mouly (“bringing new readers to the pleasure of comics”). But unlike the two books I’ve looked at previously, Otto’s Orange Day is a little more like a comic and less like a children’s book. It’s perhaps a subtle distinction, but Otto and subsequent books are all approximately comic sized with more panels to a page and slightly more advanced vocabulary, but still eminently suitable for the target audience of the emerging reader.

The story is a simple delight and can be very simply summed up as Otto loves orange, gets a magic lamp from his Aunt and makes his wish for everything to be orange. But after initial delight Otto discovers that not everything works if it’s orange and tries to get his genie to put things back.

And that paragraph above, whilst carefully summing up the story, singularly fails to get over the idea and the joy of the book. Just like all Toon Books, there’s a glorious sense of excitement and sheer fun to each simply crafted, expertly realised page.

Children will love the story, of the control, the wish-fulfillment and the discovery of the prolems of an orange world (Orange lamb chops? All orange traffic lights?) and the subsequent solution to the age old problem of one wish per owner of the magical lamp (sell it to his Aunt; new owner equals new wish – simple!). The language used is wonderful, particularly during Otto’s excited rush around his newly orange world, where all of the dialogue rhymes. Otto’s Orange Day will be lots of fun for a new reader and was great fun to read aloud. What a great bedtime story.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Silly Lilly from Toon Books

Silly Lilly and The Four Seasons

by Agnes Rosenstiehl

Toon Books

After having recently looked at the genesis of Francoise Mouly’s excellent Toon Books (first comics for brand-new readers) and the recent Art Spiegelman Jack And The Box which I thought was wonderful, I thought a spin through some of the other Toon Books might be called for.

Like all Toon Books, the first thing you’ll notice about Silly Lilly is the beautiful presentation of this exquisite hardback with sumptuous design. Louise (my dear wife) and Molly (aged 9) read this one first and both really enjoyed it. Louise was particularly taken with it and said it really reminded her of the sorts of books she remembers from her childhood. Having read it later myself I have to concur with these two esteemed judges of great books. Silly Lilly is just delightful, simple words and clear art that just entrance readers young and old.

The Silly Lilly character is based on Rosenstiehl’s “Mimi Cracra” character published for years in her native France and is a masterfully simple tale. Or rather a series of five tales, cycling through the seasons, beginning and ending with spring. Each season takes just five pages including the title page, but that’s enough, as the energetic and graceful Lilly dances her way across the pages, playing in the park with Teddy, exploring the beach, tasting apples in the fall, playing in the snow and finally flying on a swing. Each tale focuses on one simple thing,but does so in such a way that a child can find a real bond with this fun little girl.

The economy of story-telling is perfect for the age group with each page just two large panels, of clear black line and a subtle watercolour texture on the minimalist backgrounds. The language is as minimal as the backgrounds, never too difficult and with each sentence ending with an exclamation mark, it’s a fun, fast read.

It’s quite the perfect book for an emerging reader and, as discovered by Louise, one that may have as much appeal to an older audience, who’ll see a nostalgic look back to the simple picture books of their childhood. Either way, it’s quite lovely.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Art Spiegelman’s Jack And The Box from Toon Books.

Toon Books have been going for a few months now and I finally got hold of the set of the first releases. Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing up my thoughts on the whole line. Essentially it’s the latest endeavour from Francoise Mouly, famous for being one of the guiding lights behind RAW and, more recently, the excellent series of Little Lit books designed as graphic novels for all ages by the likes of Gaiman, Burns, Clowes and many more famous names.

However, whilst Little Lit was aimed at an all ages readership, it did demand a certain level of ability. But Toon Books is completely different. It’s entire line is designed for readers aged 4 up. The concept is that simple, and one that is so instantly obvious that you really can’t hink why no-one’s done it before. After all, many of the greatest children’s picture books are comics in all but name. But when Mouly took the pitch and mock-ups round to the publishers all she got was:

“Gee, that’s a wonderful idea. It’s beautifully executed. I wish we could do it but we can’t”

The reluctance was simply down to the fact that there was no existing slot for it, no section in a bookstore to fit it into. Insane? Perhaps. So Mouly decided to go it alone. And the result is the first wave of six beautiful hardbacks, lavish in their design and artwork, yet simple in their words, designed in conjunction with teachers and educators to make it immediately accessible for the initial reader, tapping into that phase of reading where visual literacy far outstrips literacy with words.

“With the Toon Books we were building from (Little Lit’s all ages appeal) … and also narrowing it down to a very specific moment in childhood development where you enter into school, where you enter into literacy. What we set out to do was to share our love of books, of books in general, of the printed object” (Mouly interviewed in Teachers & Writers magazine, Summer 2008)

(Francoise Mouly & her husband Art Spiegelman)

Of course, making the most beautiful kids graphic novels with a simple, controlled vocabulary could have produced just more dull early reader stories. Anyone with children has suffered those at some point. Books sent home from school with an emerging reader that were simple torture to get through as they just failed to engage with the child. Having read all six, and shared them with Molly I can safely say this just isn’t the case with Toon Books. Of course, Molly is 9 and is far above the level that these books are aimed at, but I’m certain that Mouly would get great pleasure from hearing that Molly absolutely adored them as well. After all, what older child doesn’t enjoy re-visiting their own childhood and going down a level or two. At one point Molly wished that these had been around for her and is already planning on giving these review copies to some of the “babies” she knows. All six were quickly read and re-read, with Molly, myself and wife Louise loving the stories, the artwork, the simplicity, the design, the everything really.

Enough with the background, onto the first Toon Book on the pile…..

Jack And The Box

by Art Spiegelman

Toon Books.

The comic fan in me picked this one first to read purely on Spiegelman’s name. And from a sense of curiosity as to whether Spiegelman; a master of the comic form, could adapt his style to such a different and challenging audience as your average 4 year old. Personally, from the view of the grown up I definitely think he does.

Jack receives a little present from his mom and dad, a jack in the box. After initially being frightened of this “silly toy”, Jack starts to play with it and soon realises the fun he can have with his new friend (who he later finds out is called Zack). The initial scaryness of the character is quickly overcome by Spiegelman’s visual emphasis on making Zack just look silly plus the clever repetition of the phrase “silly toy”. Within a few pages Jack ’s reality makes way for fantasy and the adventures of Jack and The Box get wilder and wilder, with the introduction of Mack, who lives in Zack’s hat and his duck Quack, and the lots and lots of little ducks belonging to quack. Chaos ensues in a very Dr Seuss-like way. In fact, with it’s simple set-ups and language, full of plentiful repetition for the young reader to play with, Jack And The Box felt very much like one of the good Dr’s works. And that, of course, is never a bad thing.

Visually, Spiegelman keeps things nice and simple, with rabbits playing the main roles and a page limited to 2 panels at most. But within this simplicity there’s a beauty of design. Reality is a dull, faded blue colour scheme, but as fantasy starts to creep in, the backgrounds start to change, first yellow, then pale purple and finally bright orange when things are at their most chaotic. It’s a simple, yet brilliantly effective touch. A child won’t notice it directly perhaps, but the visual stimulus of the increased vibrancy of the colour will definitely have an effect upon the reader.

Jack And The Box would be a wonderful present to give to any young child. But to a child reluctant to enter the world of reading Jack And The Box, together with all of the other fine Toon Books, may just be the best present you could give.

For more information on Toon Books, see the Toon Books website. And there’s a very nice interview with Mouly over on BookReporter.com where she talks in more detail on the genesis of Toon Books.

DFC Day – Friday? Saturday?

Oh well, late but still here. Yesterday (Friday) was DFC day at Bruton mansions where the red and yellow envelope drops through the door and I have to wait until Molly gets home and rips it open, then reads it before I get my hands on it.

Issue 35. No time to break the whole thing down. But another, as always, good issue.

Cover by Wilbur Dawburn, really playing with the logo. The DFC has let it’s covers be altered more and more as it goes on, a plus point for them not being on the local newsagent’s shelves with the children’s comics I suppose. Wilbur’s strip Bodkin and the Bear is a genuinely funny one and has very quickly become a favourite as the tale of our stupid Minstrel and his all too cunning Bear moves forward.

Okay, out of time, but the othe laugh out loud moment? Fish Head Steve with this great mock ad leading into the strip, brilliant:

Jeff Smith at Toon Books

Toon Books, publishers of great early reader graphic novels has just announced details of a new book by Jeff Smith:

Out in September. Looking forward to reading it with Molly already.
(via Colleen)

DFC Friday – issue 33 out now

Friday mercifully came around again after a nasty old week (more on that some point later on providing I don’t collapse from exhaustion). Which means it’s time for a DFC review thing.

Issue 33. Cover star is Lazerus Lemming, back for another series. Good news, but not as good as seeing Crab Lane Crew back again. Counting the weeks till Jim Medway gets back into the comic.

This issue was pretty much as good as usual, but most of the faves from last week: Mirabilis, Mezolith, Frontier having slightly off weeks. Not that they were bad or anything, just that all three had very low key episodes after some crackers recently.

But Vern and Lettuce and Sausage & Carrots made up for it by being very good. Especially Simone Lia’s Sausage & Carrots strip, which had Molly and I in fits of laughter after reading it:

PROPAGANDA @ FPI blog: Mo & Jo from Toon Books

The sixth and final Toon Books review up at the FPI blog:

Mo & Jo: Fighting Together Forever.