My adoration for the work of Art Baltazar and Franco is no secret. I was pleased to hear of the wild success of their Kickstarter campaign to produce their new comic book series — Aw Yeah Comics! (They even managed to covertly plug the title in the pages of the final issue of Superman Family Adventures.)
I picked up issues #1 and #2 when they debuted in Chicago at C2E2 a couple of weeks ago, and devoured them on the spot. I instantly fell for the new heroes, Action Cat and Adventure Bug, and I even laughed right out loud more than a few times. So I took it to the real experts, my six year old son and ten year old daughter, die-hard Baltazar and Franco fans.
The first thing we all noticed was that Art Baltazar is not the only one drawing these comics. There are small backstories in each issue which feature different artists, and issue 2 appears to be largely drawn by Franco (he draws eyes with more white in them, my daughter pointed out). Aside from the art, the stories themselves seem to differ little from Superman Family stories — super heroes struggle with secret identities, something ridiculous threatens their city and they save the day in an absurd way.
The second story in #1 features a female Action Cat, with a pink dress and purple cape. There is some argument between this female cat and the male Action Cat as to which of the two is the real Action Cat, the male cat finds himself smitten, and he dubs female cat “Adorable Cat.” My son thought this was great, and I heard more than a few sighs of “awww, isn’t she adorable?” as he read. My daughter was less pleased. Her exact comment was, “they’d better not make him get to be Action Cat and leave her stuck being Adorable Cat. As if girls only have their looks while boys have action.” Her major fourth grade research project is on women’s rights, and she’s been studying the marketing of toys and clothing. So, she’s big on pointing out when boys Do Stuff and girls sit around Being Pretty.
Issue #2 featured a video game storyline which both kids found hilarious, as they recognized the game parodies. I remember spending my childhood poring over MAD Magazine movie parodies, and I saw a version of that reflected in my kids’ eyes here. So infrequently do authors remember to include the kid on the inside of an inside joke. They appreciate being included, they really do.
As in other Baltazar and Franco projects, the clean lines, well-spaced panels, and excellent sense of movement from one page to the next allows for younger kids to follow easily without getting distracted or lost on the page. My six year old (a skilled and avid reader of comic books) found himself occasionally lost in the storyline of issue #2, but the excellent layout of the pages allowed him to stick with it and he enjoyed the reward of his efforts in the end. He was particularly enjoyed the one-page Ghost Bug story, and won’t stop talking about it. Over and over.
You can get copies of Aw Yeah Comics! in person at the similarly named shop in Skokie, IL, you can order them online, or you can download digital copies at Comixology.