Reviewing for All-Ages
Lately I’ve really been consumed with anger…about a lot of things. I don’t really like being angry, despite the fact that I do it a lot, so I thought that to take my mind off of all the things I hate, I might have some fun talking about things I like. Thus I decided to do a series of reviews talking about the various “all-ages” comics that I pick up on a regular basis because there’s genuinely nothing to get angry about there.
So I haven’t been asked about it too much myself, because my friends are awesome and don’t judge me for what I like, and I’m not dumb enough to bring it up around the people who would judge me for it, but for those who may be wondering: Why would an adult woman be collecting all-ages comic books?
To cut right to the chase, it’s because I love epic adventure stories for my escapist reading, but am pretty disinterested in extreme violence or sex and all-ages books are pretty much the only reliable source for such stories. (Also, I admit I have a soft spot for cartoony art styles. Sorry Frank Quietly, I prefer Amanda Connor.)
Now before anyone rushes to the comment section to call me a prude (fair accusation though it may be), I would like to point out that I don’t really have a problem with extreme violence or sex in comics, I don’t find it morally wrong or anything - I’d be pretty hypocritical if I did, considering the large number of mature titles currently on my book shelf, including the very prominently displayed six hardcover volumes of Elephantmen I have, which includes both sex and gore - it’s just not something that personally interests me in a story, and generally just feels to me to be tacked on because writers feel it should be there rather than having an actual point. The long and short of it is, that’s not something I need in a story to enjoy it and it often distracts, so I’d rather just not have it.
Back to the main point, however, what are “all-ages” books exactly? Well, the term is one used by some comics companies to describe books intended for younger audiences. It may surprise non-comic readers to know that a lot of the mainstream books aren’t really intended to be read by kids, they’re for teens or older. All-ages books are exactly what they sound like - they’re books that are safe for all ages. I put the term in quotes above because I won’t be strictly adhering to the rating, I’m just using it as a shorthand for the types of books I’m talking about. For one thing, it’s not used by all companies, so I wouldn’t be able to find it on many independent comics. For another thing, it’s sometimes genuinely used to label comics for little kids, rather than the all-encompassing demographic the title implies. I mean, Tiny Titans is fun and all, but there’s really not much going on there. I’m looking for stories that have something to offer everyone.
See, the thing is that just because something is targeted towards kids, doesn’t mean it can’t be good. Take Avatar: the Last Airbender for example. That was a show which was aimed at 10-12 year olds - that was the target audience, and yet the creators took their audience seriously and produced something with depth and meaning that reached far beyond that initial demographic. It was always designed for 10-12 year olds, but adults can enjoy it too. When I buy all-ages books, I’m looking for an A:tLA, I don’t always find it, it’s a mixed bag of results, but I like to search and find those gems that others are missing because the books are “for kids”.
And since I’ve bought a good number of them over the years, I though it’d be fun to share my thoughts on each one, what worked and what didn’t, whether it holds up as a good read for adults, or if it’s insulting even to children.
The first book I’ve chosen to review is a pretty obscure one called “The Gwaii”, written by Sean O’Reilly and Grant Chastain and drawn by The Great LP (Your guess is as good as mine.) I picked this one to go first because really, there isn’t much to say about it, and yet the book honestly kind of fascinates me.
The first thing I noticed about the book was the cover. Not the art on the cover, but the cover itself. It seemed to be a weird stock and there are printing errors on it. Take a look at the scan of the cover above; those horizontal red lines across it were not caused by my scanner. It’s the sort of printing error you get on cheap machines - I should know, I’ve printed on enough of them. Check out the spine, too, see where the color is flaking off? That’s from one read of this thing. One read! The quality on MY books is higher, and they were vanity press off the internet! There are printing errors inside the book too, clearly this was produced on a fairly low budget, but what of the book itself?
The Gwaii tells the story of a young sasquatch who is left alone when his mother is taken by the evil humans. The story is set on the island of Haida Gwaii and tells of his journey through the wilds of Canada, searching for her and making new friends along the way while his mother befriends the son of the man who captured her. There’s really not much else to say about the story. If it sounds simplistic, that’s because it is, and there isn’t much about it to hold your attention. In its defense, I will say there’s nothing bad about this book. It didn’t insult me in any way, but it’s a fairly generic story with fairly generic characters. The main character Tanu isn’t all that interesting, and neither is the human boy the mom’s hanging out with.
I did kind of like Jaadaa, the splintercat that Tanu befriends, and the mom is okay, but characterization isn’t really the point of this book.
On the art side of things, the quality of the art is pretty good. It’s what caught my attention in the first place after all. It’s very stylized and has a lot of motion and expression to it. One interesting note in terms of character design - I actually had a hard time figuring out Jaadaa’s gender at first. This is how the splintercat looks upon arrival in the story:
Spoiler, she’s a girl. In fact the name “Jaadaa” literally means “girl” in the Haida language. (I was going to rant about how stupid naming your girl character “girl” is, but in English, Jaadaa is a really cool name, so I’ll let it slide.) I actually kind of like the fact that she’s not overburdened with the usual feminine markers. She’s just another character, looking how splintercats do. I think it’s kind of refreshing actually…
…though the artist does tend to draw her looking like Simba from the Lion King a lot…
…to be fair, Tanu often looks like a Tasmanian Devil more than a sasquatch.
Beware the evils of hoo-mans!
Still, though I like the art overall, it’s not without problems. There’s a weird issue with the space in this, often there are only a couple of panels per page and sometimes the backgrounds are totally blank, leaving the book feeling like it has a lot of empty space. I almost get the feeling this was designed more for a digest size rather than the full comic size.
Getting back to the writing, though, if the characterization isn’t the point and the story doesn’t really seem to be the point, then what is? Well, pretty much all of the non-human characters are either creatures of legend or cryptids from Canada. In addition to the sasquatch and splintercat, we get others like ogopogo, waheela, and the hoopsnake.
As someone who finds stories about cryptids to be really interesting, I thought this was a kind of fun thing to do. (Though I did get a little confused when the hodag showed up, thinking it was native to Australia, until I realized I’d confused it with the bunyip. They both have funny names, it’s an honest mistake.) This combined with the use of the Haida language, which it is explained in the back of the book is a native Canadian tongue that is dying, with only a few hundred speakers of it left, led me to what I believe this book really is.
This was a total labor of love. Someone (I’m guessing Sean O’Reilly since he’s listed as “creator” as well as writer) is just really passionate about their home in Canada. They wanted to write a story to share the wonderful myths and legends of the area, as well as bring some attention to a beautiful language that they want preserved. It could explain the low quality, it might not have the mass appeal to get a huge print run on a great printer, so they went a cheaper route, just to get the book out there.
It’s pretty apparent that a lot of love went into the making of it, that’s why it fascinates me so much. As someone who has done the exact same thing, I find it pretty easy to overlook a lot of the minor flaws and appreciate this book as a whole, both for what it is and what it wants to be. It’s not as polished as the mainstream books are, but there’s a lot of heart in it, as cliché as that sounds. They just wanted to share the things they love with others, to get us to see these things as they do, and in that, I think it succeeds.
So would I recommend the Gwaii to others? Probably not to adults, there’s just not enough there to engage anyone with a higher reading level. For kids though? Sure! I bet they’d have a lot of fun with it, especially if they’re into weird animals and old legends (and what kid isn’t?). It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but it’s a harmless little adventure, and some of the passion that went into creating this may rub off on them, spinning off into new adventures and stories.
That's all I've really got on the Gwaii. next review will be an all-ages independant superhero book - G-Man!
So I haven’t been asked about it too much myself, because my friends are awesome and don’t judge me for what I like, and I’m not dumb enough to bring it up around the people who would judge me for it, but for those who may be wondering: Why would an adult woman be collecting all-ages comic books?
To cut right to the chase, it’s because I love epic adventure stories for my escapist reading, but am pretty disinterested in extreme violence or sex and all-ages books are pretty much the only reliable source for such stories. (Also, I admit I have a soft spot for cartoony art styles. Sorry Frank Quietly, I prefer Amanda Connor.)
Now before anyone rushes to the comment section to call me a prude (fair accusation though it may be), I would like to point out that I don’t really have a problem with extreme violence or sex in comics, I don’t find it morally wrong or anything - I’d be pretty hypocritical if I did, considering the large number of mature titles currently on my book shelf, including the very prominently displayed six hardcover volumes of Elephantmen I have, which includes both sex and gore - it’s just not something that personally interests me in a story, and generally just feels to me to be tacked on because writers feel it should be there rather than having an actual point. The long and short of it is, that’s not something I need in a story to enjoy it and it often distracts, so I’d rather just not have it.
Back to the main point, however, what are “all-ages” books exactly? Well, the term is one used by some comics companies to describe books intended for younger audiences. It may surprise non-comic readers to know that a lot of the mainstream books aren’t really intended to be read by kids, they’re for teens or older. All-ages books are exactly what they sound like - they’re books that are safe for all ages. I put the term in quotes above because I won’t be strictly adhering to the rating, I’m just using it as a shorthand for the types of books I’m talking about. For one thing, it’s not used by all companies, so I wouldn’t be able to find it on many independent comics. For another thing, it’s sometimes genuinely used to label comics for little kids, rather than the all-encompassing demographic the title implies. I mean, Tiny Titans is fun and all, but there’s really not much going on there. I’m looking for stories that have something to offer everyone.
See, the thing is that just because something is targeted towards kids, doesn’t mean it can’t be good. Take Avatar: the Last Airbender for example. That was a show which was aimed at 10-12 year olds - that was the target audience, and yet the creators took their audience seriously and produced something with depth and meaning that reached far beyond that initial demographic. It was always designed for 10-12 year olds, but adults can enjoy it too. When I buy all-ages books, I’m looking for an A:tLA, I don’t always find it, it’s a mixed bag of results, but I like to search and find those gems that others are missing because the books are “for kids”.
And since I’ve bought a good number of them over the years, I though it’d be fun to share my thoughts on each one, what worked and what didn’t, whether it holds up as a good read for adults, or if it’s insulting even to children.
The first book I’ve chosen to review is a pretty obscure one called “The Gwaii”, written by Sean O’Reilly and Grant Chastain and drawn by The Great LP (Your guess is as good as mine.) I picked this one to go first because really, there isn’t much to say about it, and yet the book honestly kind of fascinates me.
The first thing I noticed about the book was the cover. Not the art on the cover, but the cover itself. It seemed to be a weird stock and there are printing errors on it. Take a look at the scan of the cover above; those horizontal red lines across it were not caused by my scanner. It’s the sort of printing error you get on cheap machines - I should know, I’ve printed on enough of them. Check out the spine, too, see where the color is flaking off? That’s from one read of this thing. One read! The quality on MY books is higher, and they were vanity press off the internet! There are printing errors inside the book too, clearly this was produced on a fairly low budget, but what of the book itself?
The Gwaii tells the story of a young sasquatch who is left alone when his mother is taken by the evil humans. The story is set on the island of Haida Gwaii and tells of his journey through the wilds of Canada, searching for her and making new friends along the way while his mother befriends the son of the man who captured her. There’s really not much else to say about the story. If it sounds simplistic, that’s because it is, and there isn’t much about it to hold your attention. In its defense, I will say there’s nothing bad about this book. It didn’t insult me in any way, but it’s a fairly generic story with fairly generic characters. The main character Tanu isn’t all that interesting, and neither is the human boy the mom’s hanging out with.
I did kind of like Jaadaa, the splintercat that Tanu befriends, and the mom is okay, but characterization isn’t really the point of this book.
On the art side of things, the quality of the art is pretty good. It’s what caught my attention in the first place after all. It’s very stylized and has a lot of motion and expression to it. One interesting note in terms of character design - I actually had a hard time figuring out Jaadaa’s gender at first. This is how the splintercat looks upon arrival in the story:
Spoiler, she’s a girl. In fact the name “Jaadaa” literally means “girl” in the Haida language. (I was going to rant about how stupid naming your girl character “girl” is, but in English, Jaadaa is a really cool name, so I’ll let it slide.) I actually kind of like the fact that she’s not overburdened with the usual feminine markers. She’s just another character, looking how splintercats do. I think it’s kind of refreshing actually…
…though the artist does tend to draw her looking like Simba from the Lion King a lot…
…to be fair, Tanu often looks like a Tasmanian Devil more than a sasquatch.
Beware the evils of hoo-mans!
Still, though I like the art overall, it’s not without problems. There’s a weird issue with the space in this, often there are only a couple of panels per page and sometimes the backgrounds are totally blank, leaving the book feeling like it has a lot of empty space. I almost get the feeling this was designed more for a digest size rather than the full comic size.
Getting back to the writing, though, if the characterization isn’t the point and the story doesn’t really seem to be the point, then what is? Well, pretty much all of the non-human characters are either creatures of legend or cryptids from Canada. In addition to the sasquatch and splintercat, we get others like ogopogo, waheela, and the hoopsnake.
As someone who finds stories about cryptids to be really interesting, I thought this was a kind of fun thing to do. (Though I did get a little confused when the hodag showed up, thinking it was native to Australia, until I realized I’d confused it with the bunyip. They both have funny names, it’s an honest mistake.) This combined with the use of the Haida language, which it is explained in the back of the book is a native Canadian tongue that is dying, with only a few hundred speakers of it left, led me to what I believe this book really is.
This was a total labor of love. Someone (I’m guessing Sean O’Reilly since he’s listed as “creator” as well as writer) is just really passionate about their home in Canada. They wanted to write a story to share the wonderful myths and legends of the area, as well as bring some attention to a beautiful language that they want preserved. It could explain the low quality, it might not have the mass appeal to get a huge print run on a great printer, so they went a cheaper route, just to get the book out there.
It’s pretty apparent that a lot of love went into the making of it, that’s why it fascinates me so much. As someone who has done the exact same thing, I find it pretty easy to overlook a lot of the minor flaws and appreciate this book as a whole, both for what it is and what it wants to be. It’s not as polished as the mainstream books are, but there’s a lot of heart in it, as cliché as that sounds. They just wanted to share the things they love with others, to get us to see these things as they do, and in that, I think it succeeds.
So would I recommend the Gwaii to others? Probably not to adults, there’s just not enough there to engage anyone with a higher reading level. For kids though? Sure! I bet they’d have a lot of fun with it, especially if they’re into weird animals and old legends (and what kid isn’t?). It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but it’s a harmless little adventure, and some of the passion that went into creating this may rub off on them, spinning off into new adventures and stories.
That's all I've really got on the Gwaii. next review will be an all-ages independant superhero book - G-Man!