AKiCiF: Graphic Novels

[rolanni]

A friend's son has resisted reading for most of his young life, but has recently discovered graphic novels, which he will read, as long as they're not about girls (which leaves out my immediate two suggestions: Narbonic and Girl Genius). He's 10, 12. Suggestions?

Comments

[reedrover]

The Books of Magic - they are about a young-ish boy learning about his powers. They are dark and graphic, etc. but are good for youngish people too.

[shana.livejournal.com]

Well, Dragonball and Dragonball Z are what I had to keep getting volumes via interlibrary loan for boys. The kind of boys who had asked 'what's the skinniest book on this required reading list'.

And there are a lot of volumes.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Asterix. The narration uses complete sentences, unlike some which use colloquial forms, they are fun and can also spark an interest in history. There are very few girls *g*. And there are plenty of the books (at least 30 in English).

reading suggestions

[(Anonymous)]

I've an 11 yr old nephew who would only read about science and math...got him turn on to Mccaffrey's Dragonrider series
Lorna

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think Narbonic could be said to be about Dave. You could try it on him and see what he thinks.

Hmm... Girl Genius is about a girl, Castle Waiting is about a girl, Finder is too grown-up, Ragmop is way too grown-up, Beanworld never finished, the gross-outs in Sandman might be just what a male pre-teen ordered, though. He might like Astro City, too. If any more come to me today, I'll come back & add them.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

Try Naruto, or Yu-Gi-Oh for action. In fact, check out the entire Shonen Jump collection (their girl oriented books are in the Shojo collection). In fact, I would suggest looking in the Manga section at the local bookstore. My son really enjoyed reading the collected Spiderman comics which are available in a 3 or 4 volume set. They also have X-Men and other comics. Unfortunately, most of the non-manga graphic novels that I've seen are aimed at a more mature audience.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Naruto or Neutronium Alchemist would be ok to start.

Order of the Stick

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

It's a web-comic, but there are hard-copy compilations (http://www.giantitp.com/Shop.html), and some extra back-story which isn't available online. There's even a board-game which looks kind of fun.

[reedrover]

And another thought - Ranma 1/2 is pretty amusing, even if there are girls in it. The main point is that Ranma and his father fell into different cursed pools and now change forms whenever they get wet. The father turns into a [raging] panda and the son turns into a -gasp!- girl! The books and the videos are really light hearted and quite amusing.

[(Anonymous)]

At that age, my brother read my Elfquest volumes. For other American comics, Marvel has a series called Marvel Adventures which is marketed to all ages. In the series are Fantastic Four, Spider-man and Avengers. They're the same size as manga (except page count).

As for manga, Shonen Jump Magazine is a good starting place. Popular titles include Bleach, Naruto, Shaman King, Shaman King, One Piece and Yu Yu Hakusho.

If he likes computer games there's .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet for graphc novels. There are also 2 series of translated novels .hack//AI Buster and .hack//Another Birth that may or may not be shelved with graphic novels.

The various Gundam series might interest him.
Chronicles of the Cursed Sword
Cowboy Bebop
Dr. Slump

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, somehow I unintentionally posted that last comment while I was trying to recheck his age.

To continue:
Sandland
Megaman NT Warrior
Hikaru No Go (I was pleasantly surprised that a comic about playing go was so interesting)
Mär
Flame of Recca
Lagoon Engine
Knights of the Zodiac
King of Hell
ID_Entity
Hunter x Hunter
Fullmetal Alchemist

As a final note, YALSA recommends some interesting sounding titles: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/greatgraphicnovelsforteens/gn.htm

Tanya

[(Anonymous)]

How about Tintin?

OtterB