123 Sesame Street #1

The fourth in my short series of reviews from my son's collection.

Title: 123 Sesame Street #1
Date: 2013
Publisher: Kidzoic / Ape Entertainment
Writer: Jason M. Burns, Jay Fosgitt, Patrick Storck, Paul Morrissey
Artist: Scott Ball, Amy Mebberson, Jay Fosgitt, James Silvani, Scott Underwood, Ryan Davis, Misseri Studio
Colorist: Dustin Evans
Letterer: Deron Bennett, Jay Fosgitt
Editor: Jason M. Burns, Aaron Sparrow
Cover:Amy Mebberson

This opens with a very clever feature: A guide for kids on how to read comics, presented by Elmo with guest appearances by some of his friends. It works pretty well, and is gets the job done in one page.

The main story in this issue comes next, and it's the story that was previously printed in Kidzoic's 2013 Free Comic Book Day offering, which I reviewed here. Liked it then and still like it. The story features Super Grover teaching Super Elmo a lesson in heroism, and how to be a hero without needing flashy powers. It's a well told story with humor and heart.

The remaining stories take the theme of imagination that was introduced in the Super Elmo segment and run with it, exploring it from several different angles and in several art styles. It is all very cute and they do a nice job of playing the different variations on the theme. The mix of lengths of stories is also good for reading out loud since there are plenty of stopping points if you want to read less than the whole comic.

This was a good start to the series. It kept to the flavor of Sesame Street and did a nice job of expanding on the story that had previously been published.

The copy I bought for the Kiddo is the Newbury Comics retailer cover variant for this issue.

Rating: 7.5/10

Kizoic Presents Strawberry Shortcake/123 Sesame Street

One of our freebies from Jetpack Comics' Free Comic Book Day Festival in Rochester NH in May 2013.

Title: Kizoic Presents Strawberry Shortcake/123 Sesame Street
Date: 2013
Piblisher: Kizoic
Writer: Jason M. Burns, Russell Lissau, Meredith Lissau, Tim Beedle
Artist: Amy Mebberson, Edgar Manjarrez, Tanya Roberts, Peter Wonsowski
Colorist: Dustin Evans, Amy Mebberson, Antonio Peniche, Fernando Peniche
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Cover: Peter Wonsowski
Editor: Matt Anderson, Weldon Adams

Flip book. This is Kizoic's Free Comic Book Day offering for 2013.

The Strawberry Shortcake side of this book has three stories. First up, Strawberry's friends have to handle the lunch hour rush at the cafe when Strawberry comes down with a bad case of the blueberry flu.

The second story has the girls following a map to dig up some pirate treasure.

In the third story, Blueberry is searching frantically for Plum Pudding, who accidentally took the book that Blueberry was in the middle of reading.

These stories were heavy on the cuteness factor and fairly light on plot. The humor is fairly predictable, but I thought the first story did the best job of playing up the friendship theme of the Strawberry Shortcake characters.

Flip the book over, and it's Elmo meeting up with Super Grover, who gives him a lesson in how a hero can act heroic without flashy superpowers.

This was well written with a nice mix of humor and thoughtfulness. With only one story taking up the whole space allotted to Sesame Street, this story got some breathing room and was able to make good use of larger panels.

Centerpiece of the book is a nice two-sided poster.

Rating: 7/10.

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