Daddy Mojo

Best all age comics for November 30

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This week represents something special for the best all age comics to come out on new comic book day. Comic book 101: each Wednesday is New Comic Book Day, it’s when all of the new comics for the week hit stores. Two great all age comics, The Pink Panther and Monty the Dinosaur have their trade paperback release. Our 7 year old loves The Pink Panther, each issue has two new stories and two classic stories that were originally published in the 60’s or 70’s. This trade paperback collects issues 1-3, the Halloween special and the Free Comic Book Day book that previewed the coming Pink madness.

For our money one of the best new all age comic books of the year is Monty the Dinosaur. It’s the story of a dinosaur who has befriended a little girl. She lives and plays with him, all the while he’s trying to fit into modern life. The art is great, the stories are simple and effective and this is a comic that will bring back memories of Calvin and Hobbes.

In other humor all age comics you can find lots of Walt Disney characters like Frozen, Uncle Scrooge, Mickey’s Inferno and Disney Darkwing Duck.

Two staple titles that are regularly some of the best all age comics you can pick up are Simpsons Comics and Invader Zim. Each of those titles are great for any age and we haven’t picked up a bad issue of either of them.

One superhero series that is really good is Voltron Legendary Defender. The final issue in this mini-series is out this week and it’s only $2.99, plus it’s a smart comic book that will really speak to young readers who like teamwork, logic and action with their 100’ robots.

Three teen titles that might fly under your radar are Godzilla Rage Across Time and Ghostbusters International. Godzilla collects the five comics that were in this most recent mini-series. Ghostbusters International is normally fabulous for ages 8 and up, however, this issue might have some language (that you can see on the front cover) that parents don’t want their kids to say. We also like Sensational She-Hulk. This trade paperback collect lots of her issues and is jammed with the action, art and sly humor that fans loved about this series

We’re excited to take a look at Spookhouse. Spookhouse #2 from Eric Powell comes out and tells camp-fire style spooky stories for kids. Powell’s latest, Chimichanga: Sorrow of the World’s Worst Face is a great all ages tale and that brings high hopes for Spookhouse.

The music you hear on the podcast is from D Smilez. Where is your closest comic book store? Speaking of the podcast-can you leave a rating on the system that you listened to it on? Any comments on that would certainly be appreciated.

Humor

Superhero

Action/Sci-fi

Spy Ski School, an entry into one of middle school’s must-read book series

Do you have a child in middle school? If so, then they most likely know the Spy School book series by Stuart Gibbs. Spy Ski School is the fourth in the series that includes Evil Spy School, Spy Camp and Spy School. Are you sensing a theme here? Spy Ski School continues the exploits of Ben Ripley, our 13 year old spy in training-and for the record, we do not have a kid in middle school but really liked the book.

Previously Ben has been locked up with a bomb, shot at with bullets, missiles and more, but manages to live another day. He’s in school with a group of other kids, all of whom are training to become a real spy. Despite seeing lots of action, Ben isn’t the best spy in the group. He’s got more training than his civilian friend Mike, but is certainly in the lower end of the spy pool for their specific talents.

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Best all age comics for November 23

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Thanksgiving week still has lots to be thankful for in the comic book world. Young readers have their pick of some of the best all age comics this week including some that are perfect for young girl readers, lots of humor and even a good variety in superheroes.

Superpowers is a new mini-series from DC Comics by Art Baltazar and Franco, whose iconic work fans will recognize from Tiny Titans, Superman Family Adventures and Action Cat and Adventure Bug. Their new comic book is about Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, the big three in the DCU. This will be all age comic greatness for those young readers that have been screaming for a monthly superhero book with DC heroes.

There are two girl go-to staples this week, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony. Either of these will be great for readers 5 and up who will want to look at the pictures and recognize the letters. The young kids will need help reading most of the words, but this is prime territory for certain folks.

Some solid humor titles this week include Futurama Comics, Lumberjanes, Regular Show trade paperback 07, Scooby Doo Team Up (with Space Ghost) and a couple others.

The two teen titles this week are Godzilla Rage Across Time and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both of these are great for those 12 and older.

If you’re looking for an audio highlight of some of the best all age comics this week check out our podcast. It’s a mini-podcast that’ll look into nine titles that you might miss an explain why we really like the ones that we do.

The music this week is from D Smilez. Find your closest comic book shop and give the gift of comics this holiday.

Humor

Superhero

Action/Sci-fi

PJ Masks, here to save the (Christmas) day

We’re a PJ Masks Ambassador and received compensation or product for this post. All thoughts are our own. To the elementary school set, PJ Masks is their jam. Every friend that our 7 year old has over to play is immediately drawn to his PJ Masks stuff. Now that the show is a hugely popular Disney Jr. program the full gamut of toys, games and activities are hitting stores.

Some of these products arrived at our house as a happy coincidence when some of their friends were here to play. “Stop-I must take photos of everything”, the visiting kids must’ve thought that dad was just a snap-happy photo freak. However, our children knew the deal and calmly told their friends that they could play with them after I took a picture-at which time they told me to take the pictures ASAP.

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Dart Zone Enforcer Motorized Belt Blaster 40 rounds of fun

Our oldest son just turned 7and is knee deep in a world of darts. He’s got a couple of dart guns and jumped like a cat when a pickle is placed behind him when he found out we were reviewing the Dart Zone Enforcer Motorized Belt Blaster. Aside from being a mouthful of a title, this dart gun looks impressive and manages to do so in a compact form that’s very durable.

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Is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them OK for kids?

So, I’ve only seen one Harry Potter film and that was the release from 2002, The Chamber of Secrets. As an adult watching it, having never read the book I was impressed, but not enough to read the books or see any more films from the characters. Flash forward 14 years and the prequel to the Harry Potter stories is out. But is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them OK for kids?

Well, let’s start out by saying that it is a very good film. I knew nothing about the plot and that fact served me quite well as the magic, beasts and characters came into their own. The only thing that I knew about the Harry Potter universe is that a muggle is a non-magical being and that the bulk of the previous Potter films had a kid-centered family focus.

As a review, I don’t mean that as a pejorative, it’s just that from what I saw in Secrets it was aimed at children. The true power of the Potter-Universe hadn’t been discovered at that point. After that film I know that they got more inventive, a little darker at times and much more popular. It only makes sense, as the characters in the film got older, so did their fan base.

So, is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them OK for kids?

There are elements of the film that will be great for 8 year old children. However, on the whole, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is fine for 10 year olds and in some cases 9 year old. It’s rated PG-13 and is really on the soft side of that rating. The film is such a soft PG-13 one wonders if the producers asked for it so that audiences wouldn’t think that it was too soft. To this point: it’s worth noting what worldwide audiences have their ‘official’ age recommendations as. ‘G’ in Japan, Netherlands 9 and 12 in the UK/Canada and elsewhere.

Our 7 year old would’ve been too bothered by some of the action sequences which are fraught with tension. For parents there isn’t any discernible instance of bad language. The lead character, Newt does say ‘bugger’ a couple of times. However, that’s only offensive if you’re in the UK and even then mildly so in the British colloquial vocabulary.

If our oldest were 9, I would’ve stopped watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and immediately gone home and gotten him. For that age (given proper adult supervision…..) this is a great film, jammed with humor, good/bad decisions, plus a couple solid references to Hogwarts.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is Harry Potter without the kid-centric title figure. The content in the film is A-Ok with ages 10 and up, as well as adults-who are willing to grade the film on a curve. Take the middle school and upper elementary kids, they’ll love this film and you’ll be the cool parent, just possibly enough o make them forgive you for the dreck that you thought they would’ve liked. This one is the real family deal.

An Excessive Alphabet is proof that it’s OK to have more

An Excessive Alphabet, Avalanches of As to Zillions of Zs looks familiar and that’s OK. It’s written by Judi Barrett, with illustrations by Ron Barrett, the team behind the children’s classic, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Even if you’ve never read that book there is a comfort food quality in An Excessive Alphabet that makes readers feel that everything is going to be alright.

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Thankful for play and great memories because of it

I’m a Let’s Play Ambassador and was compensated for this post. All thoughts are our own. My wife sometimes jokes with me because I don’t remember much of my childhood. I remember things here and there, but they mostly revolve around play, some neighborhood friends and the parks we used to frequent. It’s selective memory-and I do try to remember the feelings that my wife so desperately want to hear about. However, when the rubber hits the road I always remember the fun, the play.

It was those horrible games of soccer on the field that was too short. If you kicked the ball too high on one side of the field it would go into the fenced in dog area, kick it the other direction and it would go into the creek. The only thing missing from this game of soccer apparently was a crew of Lost Boys and a gasoline shortage.

As as adult I wrote down what I remember about play-and how I can make it better-and more memorable for our kids. Check out the article over at the Let’s Play website.