Kids' comics

Following his departure from writing Batwing for DC, cartoonist Judd Winick is back to writing AND drawing, as the above tweet shows. A few months ago, he told Newsarama he was writing and drawing an original graphic novel for kids, so that's probably the project he alludes to above.

To celebrate the release of her new graphic novel DRAMA today, Raina Telgemeier is running a contest with prizes of original art and more....

The Newbery Award is the gold standard for children's books; it's awarded to one book each year (along with a handufl of Honor books) and signifies the level of excellence that such past winners as A Wrinkle in Time, Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Graveyard Book imply.

It's an obscure title here in the US, but in the UK, The Dandy is akin to Sesame Street and Peanuts all rolled into one. It's the UK's longest running comic, but it's 75 year run might just be at an end, the Guardian reports. With sales that have slipped from 2 million a week to in 50s to 8000 today, you can see why. The Dandy was launched in 1937 as a children's magazine, and featured such much-loved (and mocked) characters as Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat—and came packaged with a whistle. If these characters aren't usually mentioned among the medium's shining stars they were still reliable friends for kids from the 30s on. However the market for kids comics magazines just isn't what it used to be.

In a new deal with HarperCollins, it's been announced that Neil Gaiman will be writing five new books next year. And he's bringing Adam Rex and Skottie Young with him.

Awright! A new monthly comics from the TINY TITANS team.

Okay, granted it's kind of a smallish book not a comics periodical...but at 64 pages and $6.99, the latest issue of LEGO® NINJAGO isn't really a full-on trade paperback either. Thus its announced 425,000 copy first printing does put it in kind of a "tween" land as far as sales figures go. And yes it is a licensed product. but anyway you slice it 425K is a LOT of copies—and as the attached pr mentions, it's only up from 200K printings on earlier issues. Because, well, you know, kids love comics...and Legos.

J. Bone! J. Torres! Eric Orchard! Agnes Garbowska! All these cartoonists and more can be found at Saturday Morning Webtoons, an all ages comics portal. Among the strips featured:

Whether you call it comics inspired or a comics hybrid, Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series is one of the most successful book series being published with more than 75 million copies in print. Details on the seventh book have just been announced: it will be called "The Third Wheel" and will find Greg Heffley having even more adventures in middle school—adventures perhaps of a romantic nature as the title might suggest.

Torsten gave a fantastic review of things to do this weekend but I'll focus on two fun events for the Maine and Washington people, who desperately should enjoy themselves while the sun is still out!

Also this weekend, The Maine Comics Art Festival, one of our favorite shows. Topline guests include Kate Beaton and Kazu Kibuishi. The Portland Press Herald has a preview:

Brooklyn Comics is near two primary schools and reportedly when school lets out, the shop is flooded with kids. We'd love to see that!