Adventures in Cartooning

Starred review from September 10, 2012
Kids are asking for high-tech gifts instead of old-fashioned ones, and Santa is not all that happy about it (“Instead of toys, we elves write code,” a helper tells him. “Then we connect to the server... and upload!”). Santa hits on the idea of a Christmas comic book, enlisting the help of a certain elf and knight (seen in the two previous Adventures in Cartooning books). Along the way, readers get an uproarious lesson in what makes a great—or at least salable—holiday story (“This book is as good as the Scrooge—and the Grinch!!!” boasts the knight. “I don’t know about that, but it’ll do in a pinch!!!” responds the elf) and how comics are made. As smart as it is funny—and it’s very funny. Ages 4–up.

April 13, 2009
Created by the Center for Cartoon Studies' director and two of his former students, this how-to-make-comics book for young readers takes a couple of unusual tacks. For one thing, it skips the usual rudiments of how to draw in favor of explaining the formal characteristics of comics: panels, balloons, lettering and so on. For another, it doubles as a story—about a knight on a quest for a bubblegum–chewing dragon, and the magic elf who teaches the knight all about the joy of cartooning. It's a cute premise, and the art's simple, bold brushstrokes and flat colors are zippy and fun. Sturm and company even sneak in a few comics in-jokes (when several characters fall into water, the elf exclaims “I guess this would be called a SPLASH panel!”). Unfortunately, the plot and the tutorial material repeatedly stumble over each other: the goofy twists in the story occasionally have a bit of instruction shoehorned in, but more often don't serve any educational purpose—or simply seem like the result of stream-of-consciousness jam cartooning. And kids looking for cartooning guidance may be frustrated to find that the book takes its readers' ability to draw expressively for granted.

Starred review from April 1, 2009
Gr 2-6-The young princess, thought to be ensconced in a tower, is missing. A "BRAVE and EAGER knight" and his less-than-fearless horse Edward learn that she has been abducted by a dragon and remains captive on Dragon Island. Assisted by the Magic Cartooning Elf, the knight goes in search of her. In this story within a story, the princess learns how to create her own cartoon. Basic principles of creating comics are taught by context, inference, and direct instruction. The humor, action, adventure, and charming characters hold readers' attention and draw them into a fantasy world of a candy-consuming dragon and knights who have been turned into vegetables. Readers learn about the uses of panels, the importance of words, and placement of thought balloons. Each tutorial panel contains clever and inventive touches that illustrate the capabilities of the format. The progression of the pink gum bubble on the first four pages is a classic. At the conclusion of this delightful tale, cartooning basics such as panels, gutters, tiers, word balloons, depiction of emotion, and movement are explained in an organized and straightforward fashion. This is a volume for kids who love comics, who enjoy an adventure filled with action and humor, are natural-born artists, or who aspire to become comic-book creators. A surefire hit."Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2009
Preschool-G *Starred Review* Not quite a how-to book, as the cover might suggest, thisisrather a stupendous new high for childrens graphic novels, spearheaded by comics maestro Sturm (Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, 2007). Ostensibly, this is the adventure of an eager knight, a sweet-toothed horse, and a magic elf hunting down a gum-chewing dragon, and those reading for the adventure itself will not be disappointed, filled as it is with humor, action, and a great girl-empowering twist. But along the way, lessons in the language of sequential art are woven seamlessly into the narrative, explaining the basics of howelements such aspanels and word balloons work, while concluding bonus features offer specifics on terminology (like gutters and stems) and common symbols (like speed lines). Newcomers Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost, usingvarying page compositions to keep the sizable volume visually captivating, have constructed a tale that works just as well as a read-aloud for the very young as it does a lesson for everyone from fans of the form to the wholly uninitiated. As an examination of the medium, its a supremely worthy spiritual legacy to Scott McClouds seminal Understanding Comics (1993). As a straight-up graphic adventure, it may be the best of the year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)