Comics at Seven Stories

One of the treats of my recent visit to Seven Stories in Newcastle Upon Tyne was the current exhibition: Comics.I've been asked to add an element about creating graphic novels and kids comics to my Picture Book Design course at Hollins University in our MFA in Writing and Illustrating Children's Books program, so I've been trying to familiarize myself with the genre. Happily, there were tons of examples on display, and I just plopped down and read. (Little did I know Yaxi was taking my picture!) I was reading ZITA THE SPACE GIRL. Fine, I got a picture of her indulging too! In the Seven Stories store, I saw a copy of Nate and Vince Evans' TYRANNASAURUS RALPH (read my interview with these creators HERE). I also read DEREK THE SHEEP, which had me laughing out loud!
     The nice thing I'm learning about this genre is the vast range of genres within the genre. There are graphic-novel-like picture books like David Wiesner's TUESDAY or anything by Toon Books, wordless graphic novels like OWLY, 40-page graphic novels for kids like DEREK THE SHEEP, longer mid-grade graphic novels like SMILE, ROLLER GIRL, or EL DEAFO; and of course, there are the superhero fares. Heck, Random House just announced a new imprint of graphic novels for kids and teens - READ HERE because this is a booming field! I've decided to concentrate on the ones for the younger set, of couse, multi-cultural mid-grade graphic novels and 40-pagers. Happily, they've been getting so much press recently, it's easy to research:

From PW: Middle Grade Storytelling Goes Graphic
From The Scottish Book Trust: 10 Diverse and Inclusive Comics
From Multi-cultural Children's Books Day: A list of links to resources on Diverse Graphic Novels

And I'm happy to say that The Encyclopedia of Black Comics will be waiting on me when I get to Hollins this summer!I came across a great list of must-read graphic novels for kids at BookRiot, and I'm working on a slideshow to share with students. That said, I am open to your fave suggestions! Leave them in the comments below!