by jdsmeaton | Feb 18, 2025 | 3 Questions With...
3 Questions With… Li Chen I came across Li’s work while looking for new graphic novels online. Detective Beans popped up and I was immediately sold. The art is top-notch, beautiful, and fun. And how could you not love the premise? A kid cat who’s a wannabe 1950s-type...
by jdsmeaton | Feb 3, 2025 | Recommendations
Today I’m sharing comic Josh’s origin story. Oh snap! I mostly write about current comics and artists. I spotlight creators and books that are doing great work. I want to introduce their work to new readers. Or rather the parents and teachers of those...
by jdsmeaton | Jan 13, 2025 | 3 Questions With..., Recommendations
3 Questions With… Jamar Nicholas A couple years ago Leon The Extraordinary burst on to the scene. It’s a graphic novel about an ordinary kid who lives in a world filled with superheroes and supervillains. Leon wants to be a superhero but doesn’t have any special...
by jdsmeaton | Dec 27, 2024 | Behind the Scenes, News, Recommendations, Uncategorized
I read a ton of graphic novels for kids this year. These are my favorites. Most of these came out in 2024, but a few (such as books in a series) did not. But that’s when I read them, so they made it on the list. So Time Police get lost. YOUNG READERS Hilda And...
by jdsmeaton | Dec 26, 2024 | Creativity, Inspiration, Recommendations
Couch or Cookies We recently got a used leather couch. It was in good shape, though there were some stains and a bit of discoloration. We found out that it’s a pretty straightforward process to recolor it. You clean and treat the surface, pick the color you want, and...
by jdsmeaton | Nov 20, 2024 | 3 Questions With..., Inspiration, Recommendations
3 Questions With… Dan Abdo (of Dan & Jason fame) I discovered Dan & Jason from a talk they did at Kid’s Comics Unite. The pair met in high school and have been creating things together ever since. It’s a true collaboration. They both write and draw and it...
by jdsmeaton | Nov 6, 2024 | Recommendations
Here’s something I’ve not done before, spotlight on a publisher. I’ve found myself with quite a few books from the catalog of Flying Eye Books. They do children’s books and graphic novels. Obviously my main interest lies in graphic novels but I even have (or our kid’s...
by jdsmeaton | Oct 16, 2024 | 3 Questions With...
3 Questions With… Ruth Chan I am a sucker for personal stories, memoirs, and coming of age stuff. So when I saw Uprooted, I was all in. It’s Ruth Chan’s story about when she was in junior high, her family moved from Canada to Hong Kong, where her parents originally...
by jdsmeaton | Oct 2, 2024 | Inspiration, Recommendations
The Wrong Right I was backing my car out of a long driveway that has a wall that runs along it. The driveway crosses a sidewalk before going into the street but the wall causes a blindspot for viewing the sidewalk. So I backed out cautiously. As I reach the end of...
by jdsmeaton | Sep 18, 2024 | 3 Questions With...
3 Questions With… Ryan Andrews I don’t know a whole lot about Ryan. Just what he has on his website. He lives in Japan and works in animation doing backgrounds for Disney. What I do know is that when his graphic novel, This Was Our Pact came out in 2019, it blew me...
