The problem with some kidlit or graphic novels is that there isn’t enough evil. The ‘good’ elements to the story, no matter how engaging, will always be part of a lackluster story if it’s not countered with a great heel. Evil, can take many forms, it can be something that is unknown, mysterious or simply straight up bad, a la Hanibal Letcter. Kid Savage is an original graphic novel from Image Comics that will remind adults of how much fun reading can be. Bonus: Kid Savage is appropriate for ages 8 and up. It has action, mystery, great visuals, a classic soul and characters that every kid will relate to on some level. This will easily be one of the 10 best all age graphic novels of 2017.
Kid Savage is indeed, a savage that lives seemingly by himself on an isolated planet. It’s a place that’s rife with danger, dinosaurs and large blob monsters. He’s a kid, but his internal monologue is a poet, who remembers life with his family and the seemingly peaceful times that existed before this. The graphic novel opens up with him recounting the story that his mother told him about the fact that he was the voice of his people. He’s remembering this as he’s jumping off a ledge about to pummel a dinosaur that he’s going to eat for dinner.
And just then a space ship zooms overhead just before crash landing onto his planet. Inside the ship is Ethan, Alina and their father. Once on ground Ethan exits the ship to sort out its condition where he’s confronted by Kid Savage, who promptly faints due to seeing a metal suited God walking on his planet. Ethan calls for his dad to see what’s happening where they then take him inside to see exactly what he is.
From here Kid Savage regains consciousness and fights with the family as the two sides come to grips as to what each other want. However, before they can really accomplish that, a giant frog monster, about ten times the size of their ship starts to eat them.
Kid Savage moves at a very fast pace. From a content perspective the vocabulary is such that a 7 year old will be able to read most of it. The father in the book uses a couple scientific words that might require some assistance both in reading and definition. There is also one use of the “H” word.
The art is fabulous. The panels in Kid Savage are presented in a way that older comic readers will call classic. They’re mixed in sizes, with some taking up the entire page, different angles and font that really accentuates the peril that the characters are going through. There is one image of a decapitated dinosaur that might bother readers younger than 7.
Between all of the action we see glimpses of Kid Savages prior life, the tribal rituals they experienced, social customs and family relationships that make us realize that he’s not really a ‘savage’. It’s just that he’s doing what it takes to survive on a harsh landscape and that seems savage to the astronauts who are the new residents.
I also love that Kid Savage is from Image Comics. They don’t do much in the all age comics realm, but they are responsible for one of our favorite all age comics, Super Dinosaur. As an adult I’m an old school Image fan, with lots of 90’s era Savage Dragon, Spawn and so forth in our collection. To that end, it’s great to see them back in the young reader market with Pix and now Kid Savage.
This is the kind of graphic novel that can spawn (pardon the pun….) many more graphic novels. Where are the rest of his people? What is that metal plate that we see at the end of book 1? What happened to the mother? It’s also weird enough to have that illusive street cred that makes certain graphic novels cool in the eyes of kids. There is danger, fun, great art and a fantastic aspect of ‘evil’, even though the heel has changed from when readers started the book.
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