HeroBear and the Kid: Saving Time #1, timeless appeal for all ages

HeroBear is a comic that I’ve wanted to try for a while.   The concept of a young boy and his toy bear coming to life when he taps his nose is super cute.  It’s the classic idea of a toy that truly understands a growing kid, when the world seems not to know what to do with him.  The art in HeroBear is warm inviting and reminds you of an old friend.   HeroBear and the Kid: Saving Time is a five issue miniseries about their adventures that’s good for young readers.

HeroBear is an all ages comic-and ages 8 and up will really enjoy it, but it has lots of dialogue.  That means that readers will need to follow along and not just look at the pictures.  The pictures will get them started, but they’ll need to read the story to really know what’s going on.   It’s important to clarify the differences because some all ages allow young readers to follow along with a very limited reading ability.

Tyler is the kid, a typical eight year old living a very untypical life.  He lives in a mansion that’s staffed by his butler, Henry. As part of his inheritance he also received a broken pocket watch and a toy bear.   As a newcomer to the characters, Saving time does a good job of introducing every in the series.  We learn that Mr. Von Klon, along with his two henchmen, Max and Pauly are recurring bad guys.

They’re up to something in Saving Time and it involves that broken pocket watch.  In the issue we discover that Henry has been watching over the family for a very, very long time.  Henry is Father Time and there is one day a year, when he becomes the baby New Year that he needs someone to watch over him.  This news strikes Tyler as no big deal and he goes on to play with his friends.

Of course, being a kid you know that things are going to go awry and the first issue ends with kid friendly trouble about to happen.

It’s hard not to smile when you read HeroBear.  The comic is not laugh out loud funny for me, but if you’re 8-12 you’ll laugh out loud, make up your own stories about the characters and re-read the panels.  HeroBear is imaginative fun that kids will love, you don’t have to worry about anything in the comic and they’ll practice reading at the same time.