Strawberry Shortcake / Scouts Halloween Mini-Comic #1

I will be at Arisia this weekend in Boston MA. Come see my comics at the Dandelion Studios table in the dealers' room. I will also be reading my fiction Saturday at 10 AM and I will be on the minicomics panel Saturday at 10 PM. Yes, Saturday will be a long day.

Here's a kids' comic I picked up as a Halloween freebie from New England Comics in Quincy MA.

Title: Strawberry Shortcake / Scouts Halloween Mini-Comic
Issue: #1
Date: 2012
Publisher:  Kizoic
Writer: Heather Nuhfer, Mark Finn
Artist: Amy Mebberson, Antonio Campo
Colorist: Amy Mebberson, Dustin Evans
Letterer: AW's Adrian Martinez

Ashcan-format flip book.

Strawberry Shortcake is getting her sweets shop ready for the Valentines season, which is one of their busiest times of the year. In an effort to get some extra help, she tries recruiting a berrykin, and ends up securing the services of Littlest Berrykin, who is full of her own ideas about how to concoct treats. And some of those ideas involve chili peppers.

There is a fine line between adorable and unbearable sometimes, and this story managed to stay about a millimeter on the adorable side.

Flip the book over and you get Scouts, which is basically a comedy about a Boy Scouts style group. It's time for the pet appreciation badge, and every bad pet cliche shows up all at once. This was fairly lowbrow (but still kid-appropriate) humor, which was enough to get a mild chuckle out of me when reading it, but which is also pretty forgettable once it's done.

Rating: 5.5/10

Kidzoic Presents: Richie Rich / Kung Fu Panda

I decided to review this one because I'm including it in my 24-Hour Zine, which is about geeky parenting. Kung Fu Panda is one of only a couple of feature-lengeth films that the Kiddo has watched (the other is Kiki's Delivery Service).

Title: Kidzoic Presents: Richie Rich / Kung Fu Panda
Date: 2011
Publisher: Kidzoic / Ape Entertainment
Writer: Jason M. Burns, Quinn Johnson
Artist: Tina Francisco, Dario Mazarra, Chris Houghton
Colorist: Dustin Evans, CV Design, Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: David Hedgecock
Cover: Jack Lawrence, Rolando Mallada

Flip book from the 2011 Free Comic Book Day offerings.

The first Kung Fu Panda story starts out too wordy (even for the character in question!). Tigress has been poisoned by bandits and it's up to Po to travel through a series of dangerous locations (one was actually named "The Canyon You Should Never Cross"!) and defeat a seemingly invulnerable armored pangolin in order to retrieve the antidote. Introductory sequence was weak, but it got better once the action got going. The second Kung Fu Panda story was wordless (much relief after the first story!) and showed the whole team of animal warriors in action. Cute, fun little story.

Flip the book over and you have Richie Rich trying to prevent a (generic) villain from setting off a volcanic eruption that threatens to destroy the beach where Richie Rich and his companions are trying to enjoy their vacation. Fairly simple and straightforward story that lacked some of the flavor that old Richie Rich comics have).

Rating: 5.5/10