| June
2008 |
Geoffrey Hayes, Benny and Penny: Just Pretend; Jay Lynch and Frank Cammuso, Otto's Orange Day; Agnés Rosenstiehl, Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Toon Books, 2008); $12.95 each, hardcover.
A few years ago at the Cartoon Research Festival here in
Columbus, I had the honor of driving Art Spiegelman around
looking for cheap cigarettes (and the pleasure of indulging
myself in my old vice for a few hours). I told him how much
my family loved the Little Lit books he and his wife
François Mouly had been editing, and I asked him if there
were plans for any other projects along those lines,
particularly for the younger set. All of a sudden, the joy
of finding cigarettes for under 3 bucks a pack wore off and
Spiegelman glumly told me about their vain experiences
trying to sell Scholastic, which had just begun publishing
Jeff Smith’s Bone in colorized trade paperbacks, on the
idea of a series directed toward the earliest readers. Four
years later, there are no cheap cigarettes to be had in my
fair city (although I suspect they are still a lot cheaper
than the 10 bucks he is paying in NYC), but Spiegelman and
Mouly’s vision for a series of graphic narrative books
directed at the youngest readers has come to pass. The
publisher is TOON Books (an imprint of RAW Junior), and the
volumes are a treat well worth the long wait.
So far three volumes have been published, with three more
on the way for Autumn. And by all accounts they are selling
very well, proving Mouly and Spiegelman right in their
predictions for this market. The first three are
Benny and
Penny by veteran
children’s book author Geoffrey Hayes; Silly Lilly and the Four
Seasons by French
writer/artist Agnés Rosenstiehl, and Otto’s Orange Day
by underground comix vet Jay
Lynch and political cartoonist Frank Cammuso. The books are
beautifully packages and printed, showing a deep love and
respect both for the medium and its readers. It is hard not
to envision a new generation of comics readers growing up
with these books coming to expect and demand literate,
beautiful graphic narratives, no longer associating in the
knee-jerk way of their parents comics and the lowest common
denominator.
My own kids, who are already such readers having been
beaten and bullied by their father into this enlightened
world-view, grabbed the books with great excitement, even
though both of them are older than the target audience for
the volumes. For my youngest, Otto’s Orange Day
was the most exciting of the
two. He loved the visual energy and nods toward
Disney’s Aladdin and the Eye Spy-like interactive puzzle. And while the
moral of the book (variety is good) goes back to Bread and
Jam for Frances and any number of followers it still rings
true. My eldest especially liked Benny and
Penny, the story
of an older brother who is doing everything he can to avoid
ruining his game of Pirates by including his younger
sister. Again, the lesson is familiar, but it is
beautifully told and deeply personal. Hayes has been a big
favorite around my house for years (mostly for his
magnificent Otto
and Uncle Tooth books), but he is rarely so gentle and
emotionally direct as in this lovely story.
The one book that left everyone a bit cool in my house
was Silly
Lilly, but I
suspect that the problem lies more in the intended
audience, which seems to me a bit younger than the other
two. My youngest son complained that the book would have
been better has Rosenstiehl not divided the short book up
into four sketches (corresponding to the seasons). So
fragmented and already so sparse in text and relatively
repetitious visually, there just wasn’t much for him to
connect to (or his dad either, although I enjoyed the
understated rhythms and texture of the book).
Taken as a whole or individually, this series is a cause
for celebration for all who love graphic narrative, picture
books and the kids who shall inherit their worth. RAW,
Little Lit and now Toon Books: the debt we owe Spiegelman
and Mouly for their editorial work in promoting literate
comics for strange adults and oddball kids continues to
grow. Now if we could just get them to develop some
prenatal imaging technology, we could start working on the
little ones before they’ve even entered this sinful world
of ours. Of course, the generation raised on Toon Books
will no doubt be up for that challenge.
