The phenomenon of comics and graphic novels in children’s and youth literature continues in full swing as is so well reflected in all the news that will be available in this regard for this Sant Jordi. These are not only stories told through vignettes, but also proposals that cover more informative and knowledge-based areas, where drawing provides another way of approaching, let’s say, more thoughtful subjects. Below we echo a dozen of the most interesting proposals that have reached our editorial office.
It never rains to everyone’s liking. Or if not, ask Worm, he went out to play on a nice rainy day, which is when he feels best, but no animal wants to accompany him. Almost no one likes rainy days, except Slug, who also loves them, for the same physiological reasons as Earthworm. So it is logical that they get together and have a great time together. A new chapter of Lombriz’s adventures in which we are excited to see that the author has added a surprising cameo with Esteisi and Pimiento, the protagonists of the series by Juan Feliu Sastre, of which we also openly declare ourselves fans.
The first installment of a very colorful series starring a girl and her dog who, the night before a trip to the museum with the school, sneak into a large art center on whose walls some of the most famous paintings hang. Precisely from one of them, very Picasian by the way, a light bulb escapes which Cass and her dog Otto will chase to bring the painting back to life. A very imaginative proposal to introduce the little ones to a taste for art, with famous works that are modified in a sympathetic way to contribute to the story and which the author then urges us to investigate to find their true appearance. A series, without a doubt, to follow.
The creator of the Narwhal and Medu series, Ben Clanton, now gives us a new series for early readers baptized with the generic name Cuentos patateros, this time starring another of his popular characters: the mutant potato Rot. Well, not only does he star in the first installment, The Best in the World. So do his little sister Tot and his older brother Moc, with whom he engages in a contest to guess which of the two is the best in the world. With his characteristic humor, Clanton takes us into the world of this family of potatoes that, despite being stinking and ugly, turn out to be extremely adorable. Also in Catalan.
First installment of a fun series signed by the best-seller and creator of Animalotes, Aaron Blabey, who this time focuses on a universe of cats. Its protagonist is Cuqui Cat, a cat influencer with a channel that more than 3,000 million cats follow. But a Machiavellian plan has been woven to bring her down through social networks, we do not know with what intentions, a fact that the authors of the plan achieve in just three minutes. While he is filming a video where he is fooling around typing on a computer, Cuqui Cat has inadvertently activated a missile system that puts the entire cat population in check. She hasn’t noticed because Gatricio, a handsome billionaire with whom she is madly in love, has appeared on the film set. A first installment that leaves the reader wanting more, much more, because there are too many questions to answer. Also in Catalan.
Does anyone remember how a mud cake was made, with its candles and everything? Surely more than one parent reader will have a nostalgic smile when, with the help of their son or daughter, they delve into the adventures of Bubú and his friends, a trio of children with overflowing imaginations capable of turning any trifle into a great story. Bubú is Antón’s dog, but he could very well belong to any of the other members of the gang because everyone loves him equally and treats him like one of their own. Not in vain does he have humanized attitudes and sometimes he is the one who brings common sense to the situation. Divided into chapters, the South Korean creator has found a fun quartet of protagonists who all manage to have a good time. Like the day Antón decided not to go to school and sent Bubú in his place. But the surprise is great when in the classroom there are all the pets of his friends replacing them at their desks. Everyone has had the same idea as Antón. Even the teacher, who has also decided to send her chicken. If you want imagination, there are great doses here. Also in Catalan.
First foray by the Galician based in Barcelona Roberta Vázquez, who for the occasion has chosen to present us a mix of Here there is no one who lives and 13, Rue del Percebe. The protagonists of this Disaster House are a grumpy old boot who acts as president of the neighborhood community; a ghost that is not at all scary even if she tries hard at it; a pumpkin that nothing fazes; a noodle ready and always ready for a bombardment; a rat and a spider who claim to be the children of the grumpy boot; the gardener, who is himself a flower but with a very bad hand at taking care of his compadres and a mysterious mole that no one knows if he is coming or going. With very particular drawings and a very bright color palette, Vázquez combines the vignettes with the text to trace a story by chapters like a telecomedy.
A comic as necessary as it is entertaining where the Canadian author puts herself at the service of the little ones to try to explain to them what fake news is in an era where news comes through countless channels, and not always reliable. With some fun and colorful vignettes, the creator unravels in a simple way complicated aspects such as information bias, sources of information, the difference between opinion and information, interests or conspiracies, and the role that social networks play in all this. scheme both to inform and to misinform. All of this with a lot of humor – with examples of headlines such as: ‘peanuts give superhuman strength’ – and with many truths. Also in Catalan.
The Leonese creator Javi de Castro creates a game in Cosmo in Space so that readers can continue reading once they reach the end of the book. That is to say, the drawings in the vignettes are designed so that they can work when the book is read from beginning to end, but also from end to beginning. You just have to turn the book over and read the bits that come up. Thus, the story of Cosmo is a space adventure that starts and ends in the same place, where the protagonist, a bit of a mess, spends hours falling from one place to another and trying to find his way back home. Interesting and fun proposal.
The Kalandraka publishing house recovers this sophisticated and cosmopolitan version of The Three Little Pigs, first published in 1999. With the always magnificent illustrations of Maurice Sendak, the story brings together the high society of pigs, as well as wealthy pigs and artists in the premiere from The Lake of the Pigs. The mangy wolf also comes hungry and overwhelmed by the smell of pork, who, surprised and dazzled, plots to enter the theater and eat his fill. And once inside, seduced by the performance, he is never the same again.
Graphic novel adaptation of one of the best and most enduring works of the British writer Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924). The story is set in Yorkshire, England, in a large mansion, Misselthwaite, where Lord Craven’s first-born son lives, a sickly and spoiled boy whose life is altered by the arrival of a cousin of the same age who had lived in India. until she was orphaned. Mary, that’s her name, not that she’s a waste of kindness either, but her character soon softens with the attention of the gardener, her maid in the mansion, and her brother. The almost mystical encounter at the secret entrance to the late Lady Craven’s garden will change the lives of almost everyone in Misselthwaite. The authors who have adapted Burnett’s novel have basically focused on the time in Yorkshire, ignoring the part of the original that talks about India, capturing the naive fantasy that surrounds the work. The only thing we are not clear about is whether the choice of the color palette, which seems wrapped in a layer of fog, gives the environment that suggestive envelope of being in a secret place.
Excellent and brave work is what the young Barcelona artist Maria Tena does in Dulce (Sucre in its Catalan version), where she draws her personal experience with diabetes, a chronic lifelong disease that was diagnosed when she was barely 7 years old. With a particular use of color, Tena takes an honest journey through her life, full of emotions, fears and misunderstandings, but also optimism, friendship, family and, finally, love. In this autobiographical graphic novel, Tena leaves lapidary phrases such as “a girl will never be prepared to take charge of staying alive” or “a person with diabetes makes 180 more decisions a day than one who does not have one,” which give us the magnitude of one of the most common chronic diseases in children around the world but about which very little or almost nothing is talked about. A necessary and exciting work in equal parts.
The community of Neuerkerode, in Lower Saxony (Germany) was created in 1868 with the pioneering purpose of offering a coexistence and work model to people with intellectual disabilities. Around 1,300 people currently live and work in Neuerkerode, of whom 800 have disabilities. This is the real setting of Learning to Fall, the new work by multi-award-winning German author Mikael Ross, who lived in this community for two years to carry out his work. “The person in charge of this community, Rüdiger Becker (died in 2021), wanted to make a comic to celebrate the 140th anniversary of this place, but he didn’t get it. So, as the 150th anniversary approached, he invited two cartoonists to make a comic about the place. But both rejected the proposal. I was the third person he asked and I said yes,” explained the author in a recent interview. The result is a moving and at the same time fun graphic novel that tells the story of Noel, a young man with intellectual disabilities forced to move to this community after the death of his mother from a heart attack.
The novel is inspired by the stories that the residents themselves told Ross during his stay in the community, as well as their own experiences within this small world where the freedom of its inhabitants is very important for their personal growth. That is why the comic is partly a coming of age in which Noel not only learns to fend for himself, but will also begin to delve into first loves, sex or jealousy. Ross managed not only to capture the atmosphere of the place, but also the genuine vision of the world that an autistic post-adolescent like Noel can have and his way of relating to his environment. Also, and thanks to the flashback of one of the characters, the author brings up how the community of Neuerkerode lost a considerable part of its population at the dawn of World War II, since people dependent on the help of others They did not fit into Hitler’s concept of Germany. A magnificent work that has already been translated into ten languages, endorsed by the Max und Moritz awards and the Rudolph Dirkd Award, and is now being planned for film.
