Kids' comics

Last week's books releases saw two blockbusters going head to head: George W. Bush's memoir, Decision Points, and Wimpy Kid #5: The Ugly Truth. In the end, it was no contest: Wimpy Kid outsold...

Animator Kyle Bolton provides a team-up of sorts between his own Smash Comics character and a more familiar one. Smash Comics is a superhero webcomic for kids, written by Chris Bolton, that was recently picked up by Candlewick Press. More info here.

Okay, so far today we know senior citizens are reading comics, millennials are using wifi to have human contact...but WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN????? Well according to a Scholastic study, they are reading things on handheld devices We'll just jump ahead to the nut graph:

Jeff Kinney's best-selling Wimpy Kid is about to get another honor reserved for only the greatest of kids entertainment legends -- this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will include a Greg Heffley balloon. This honor is reserved for only the greatest icons of cartooning, including Bart Simpson, Garfield, Snoopy, and of course Spider-Man.

"I'm incredibly excited that Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been chosen to be a part of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," said Jeff Kinney. "When I think of all of the iconic characters that have flown in years past, I feel humbled and honored that my character will be a part of the Parade's history."

With 37 million copies of his first six books already sold, the next Wimpy Kid book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth goes on sale on November 9th and a second WImpy Kid movie is due in March, 2011. To celebrate the dawn of the Wimpy balloon, publisher Abrams has just started a contest for one winner and three friends to come to New York for the parade. While debating whether Diary of a Wimpy Kid constitutes being a comic book character or not -- the books are mostly prose but include comics interstitials, and creator Kinney considers himself a cartoonist -- we say just embrace success and enjoy the sight of the helium giant floating down Broadway.

The acclaimed artist of Marvel's Oz adaptations thinks there are a lot more kids comics around than we think:

Mark Andrew Smith alerts us that The New Brighton Archeological Society, the children's adventure comic he created with artist Matthew Weldon can now be read free online. The Book One: The Castle of Galomar is being serialized with a new page being uploaded every day.

TOON Books, Françoise Mouly's imprint of comics for beginning readers, has announced a partnership with Candlewick Press. Previously a standalone line distributed by Diamond Books, TOON will now have its backlist and future releases...

With BOOM!'s DARKWING DUCK comics doing well for the '90s nostalgia crowd, was it only a matter of time before they brought back RESCUE RANGERS, as well? Absolutely. Imagining chipmunk terrorists Chip and Dale as bold adventurers, with the addition of rodent heroes Monterey Jack, Gadget and Zipper the Housefly, the Rescue Rangers were another staple of the Disney Afternoon and a favorite of furry fans everywhere. Ian Brill is back as writer, with Leonel Castellani as artist.

It looked like a dark day for kids comics at the Big Two when it was announced last month that DC was ending most of its kids line of comics. However, via the Source...

Wimpy Kid 5 announced its title and print run today: The Ugly Truth will take Greg Heffley to the brink of adolescence. The five million copy laydown is the biggest print run for any...

Via PR, another swell-looking collection of vintage kids comics, this time collated by Craig Yoe as part of his line of books at IDW. Award-winning comics creator and historian Craig Yoe has done it...

Via PR, Green Brain Comics is organizing the Kids Read Comics event June 12 and 13th to promote comics for younger readers with two days of workshops and presentations at the local library.