I grew up in a family that was half English speaking and half French speaking. The French side brought us all these great kids comics like Tintin and Asterix. And the English brought us Carl Bark's Donald Duck and superhero comics. So I was fortunate to grow up with loads of fun comics to read at a time when comics for kids were being produced less and less. In the eighties there was great excitement about exploring adult themes in comics. Many comics that had once been made for all ages were now being made for adults. Which is great. This has lead to an increasingly sophisticated type of story telling in comics and has brought in whole new audiences. But having high quality Tintin and donald Duck as a kid gave me a hunger for great stories and art. It made me fall in love with comics.
But I think we have to shift some of comic book culture back to stuff made for all ages. I realized this on my recent trip to Little Island Comics, seeing the crowds of kids come in excited to see comics they could actually relate to. It was an amazing sight, a real eye opener. And my book shelves are crammed with comics. My son Henry is always pulling down colourful comics to read. Well, look at. But he loves them. And my comic Maddy Kettle isn't even out yet and I already get fan mail from young readers excited about a new book made for people like them. I draw my comics for my own tastes but my tastes tend to be all ages.
So, now I'm kicking off a new Monday tradition where I'll feature a great all ages comic book.
Let's start with suggestions, either here or on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, wherever. You can even email me. What do you think are the best all ages comics? Either being published today or something you or your kids grew up with.Or a comic you heard about and would like to know more about. Let's all support this important part of the industry.
