Kidjutsu blog - kids comics, webcomics, manga, technology, and web development.

Today is Free Comic Book Day, the single day when comic book stores across the country give away comic books for FREE.

Many of the comics being given away are appropriate for kids and would have an all-ages comic rating on Kidjutsu. Here's a short list of the all-ages comics I saw in no particular order:

• Owly and Friends from Top Shelf
• Comics Festival! 2008 Volume 3 with Jellaby, Sardine, and many other favorite characters.
• Disney/Pixar's Cars #1 from Boom! Studios
• DC Kids Mega Sampler from DC Comics
• Atomic Robo and Friends from Red 5 Comics
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Dark Horse Comics
• Sonic The Hedgehog: Evolution of a Hero from Archie Comics

Wolverine: Origin of an X-Man from Marvel Comics should also be OK, but it's a tie-in for a movie that isn't suitable for kids.

Note that supplies are limited and not all titles will be available at all stores.

Tired of just reading comics on your computer screen? Now you can get the full comic reading experience with the new Smell of Books product from DuroSport Electronics.

This aerosol can is causing quite a stir. See:
http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/01/smell-of-books-doesnt-seem-to-excite/
http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/01/famous-e-book-lud-won-over-by-smell-of-books-while-meanwhile-a-patent-suit-may-be-in-the-works/
http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/01/smell-of-books-recalled-new-car-scent-mistakenly-substituted/
http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/01/authors-guild-attacks-smell-of-books-dear-author-responds/

I sense a business opportunity here. Should I franchise the Smell of Books product? Or is Smell of Comic Books a different enough product that I wouldn't be infringing on any of their patents?

Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media and a serial entrepreneur recently gave a keynote speech at the Emerging Technology Conference on ways entrepreneurs can help bring the economy out of its current slump.

A recent blog post at VentureBeat summarized O'Reilly's prescription for the economy as follows:

• Work on something that matters to you more than money.
• Create more value than you capture.
• Build a simple system and let it evolve.
• Be friendly to those who extend your reach.
• Be generous in supporting the work of others.

Although Kidjutsu is a relatively young company, our product and our vision were conceived and designed with essentially the same guidelines in mind.

Of course not all businesses need to follow such principles, but core values like these are what separates the Ponzi-scheme hedge funds, Washington Mutuals, and the inept credit rating agencies from the truly enduring and sustainable businesses.

Sandra and Woo by Novril and Powree

The Sandra and Woo webcomic is about a girl Sandra and her talking pet raccoon Woo. Written by Oliver Knörzer and drawn by Powree, Sandra and Woo is inspired and heavily influenced by Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. It features slightly more adult-oriented humor that children may not appreciate.

Here's a sample strip with Woo relaxing that I found amusing. I also liked these two strips about investment opportunities in derivatives of derivatives and onto the next big thing. It provides an interesting spin on how humans are always pursuing the next get-rich-quick scams. This is what got our nation into our current financial crisis. Bankers never heeded Warren Buffet's warning that derivatives are weapons of mass destruction before it was too late.

Bear and Tiger by Robert Quinn

The Bear and Tiger webcomic is a new comic strip about a Siberian military output manned by a Captain Tiger and Corporal Bear. Captain Tiger is pretty nutty, which is what makes the strip so entertaining.

Here's one making fun of competitive eating that I liked. And here's another one of the Yeti joining the People's Army of Russia. Bob just introduced more hilarity into his comic by bringing Laika, the drunken space dog on board.

Precocious by Christopher J Paulsen

The Precocious webcomic by Chris Paulsen is a conversation-driven webcomic about a bunch of gifted children and their antics. As an example of the trouble gifted children sometimes get themselves into, here's a strip about a surprise legal bill.

Chris often has very interesting things to say about parenting, especially of gifted children. For example, the most recent webcomic update jokes about how neglecting children sometimes results in more capable independent children. In a way, he's poking fun at all the parents who pamper their kids with hourly attention in hopes of giving them a head start in life.

Precocious was inspired by Calvin and Hobbes and other great cartoons like Peanuts, Ozy and Millie, Bloom County, and Fox Trot.

Calvin and Hobbes is my all-time favorite comic strip. It wasn't until high school that I realized the absolute genius of Bill Watterson. He peppered the conversations between Calvin and his stuffed tiger with such interesting social commentary that millions of readers of all ages found something enjoyable in his comic strips.

When I was a kid, I absolutely devoured all the collected Calvin & Hobbes comics at my library. I even convinced my parents to buy the Sunday newspaper so my sister and I can read the full-color Sunday C&H strips.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Gerry Canavan's blog post collecting some Calvin and Hobbes fanart depicting a grown-up Calvin.

Here's a favorite and one for all the dads:

Calvin's daughter looks a little bit like a blonde Susie Derkins, the slimy girl next-door. If you remember, Calvin formed a secret anti-Susie treehouse club called G.R.O.S.S. It stood for Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.

Here's another one of Calvin and Susie all grown-up.

I really like the coloring of this image, but it's a bit sappy for me. The Calvin I know wouldn't blush like that...

And there are a bunch more at Gerry Canavan's blog, some potentially even NSFW.

Lots of comic convention news this week. Conventions are always fun.

San Diego Comic-Con
I was fortunate to have purchased one of the last 4-day passes for San Diego Comic Con. These 4-day passes are now completely sold out after being on sale for less than a week. For those not familiar with SDCC, it is the biggest comic convention of the year. It's a great show for those into comics, toys, video games, and people-watching. It's just a ton of fun. Last year, I met many small press creators as I was evaluating various opportunities for comics online. Last year's show was completely sold out too and I actually had to purchase a Saturday ticket on Craigslist. Most likely, 20% of the tickets bought this week were bought by flippers hoping to make a quick buck on the 4-day passes.

Kids Comic Con
Another convention I'll be attending in 2009 is the Kids Comic Con, organized by Alex Simmons. I'm really looking forward to attending this convention in the Bronx on 4/25. Not only will I be showing off Kidjutsu in person at KCC to all the kids that show up at our booth, I also get a chance to talk to some of the top creators and publishers of kids comics. Hopefully, I can prep a video demo in time for the convention. I should be able to bring some freebies and hold some giveaways for those who show up at the convention.

Mark Mariano, the creator of Happyloo will also be debutting at KCC. He's been hard at work preparing his book debut.

I'll also get to spend some time with my family. I'm originally from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival

It's not a kids comic convention per se but lots of great British illustrators and writers will be present at the Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival held between 4/24-4/26 at the Upper Norwood Joint Library in London, UK.

The DFC will be represented by some really talented creators like Garen Ewing, Sarah McIntyre, Woodrow Phoenix, Gary Northfield, Emma Vieceli, and Kate Brown.

Kids Read Comics Convention

I just found out about the Kids Read Comics Convention on children's book author Debbie Deisen's blog. Debbie did a great interview with Dan Mishkin who is one of the co-organizers of the event. This event will be held at the Chelsea District Library in Michigan on June 12 and 13.

Their mission statement is very similar to our own kids comics vision statement, but much better written:

They've got my support!

After two months of development, I can now proudly show Kidjutsu to the world. Each page on Kidjutsu is now more polished than before and there are no longer any pages that exude "beta".

For those just discovering Kidjutsu, the site looked completely different two months ago. Here are some screenshots from before:

It is now MUCH better. Marina Neira, the creator of Paleo deserves absolutely all the credit for the aesthetic improvements to Kidjutsu. She graciously designed a new logo and an adorable new mascot for Kidjutsu.

New Features
Other than aesthetic improvements, there are also many feature improvements to the reader and the site:

• Simple fit-to-screen-width zoom feature for the comic reader.
• Bookmarks to keep track of where you are in a comic.
• Simpler dock for navigation - buttons to zoom, enter/exit fullscreen, and bookmark are all at the bottom right of the reader.
• Activation "Play" button for the reader.
• Better SEO-friendly paths to comics.
• Recommendations based on genre + votes.
• Youtube-style recommendations after finishing a comic.
• Share by email and ShareThis widget
• New web design based on header+mascot designed by Marina Neira
• Better browsing of comics on Kidjutsu.
• Signup, login, request password improvements.
• Simple user profiles.

With the majority of must-have features implemented, Kidjutsu is now ready for primetime. If you like the comics on our site or really like what we're doing, please help us spread the word by linking to us on your blog or on your website. If you'd like, you can use one of our kids comics buttons or banners.

In a recession, what's the most economical way to buy physical comics for kids? When I was a kid there was a comic store every 20-30 blocks in Brooklyn. In the late 80s and early 90s, there were still comics at your local deli or newstand. It's now a little bit tougher, but there are still some good options.

Local Comic Stores
You can buy comics straight from your local comic store if you're fortunate to have one close by. Most shops give 10% discounts for regular customers. Kids comics usually don't sell many copies, so each comic store usually doesn't stock many copies. Unlike books, comics are purchased by stores on a nonreturnable basis.

Parents should setup a "pull" list to ensure they get a monthly copy of their favorite comics like Sonic the Hedgehog, Tiny Titans, Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Simpsons, Futurama, or comics from the Marvel Adventures line.

Online Comic Stores
If you don't have a comic store nearby, you can order comics at an online comic store. Midtown Comics, TFAW, and MyComicShop are respectable online stores to purchase from. For those just interested in kids comics, TFAW has a really good kids-comics-only filter at http://www.tfaw.com/comics/kids.

Online Preorder
If you find that you're ordering the same titles every month, it may make sense to pre-order the comics and buy them at a substantial discount at the Discount Comic Book Service aka DCBS. A lot of the risk in running a comic store is predicting what will sell and what won't. Remember comics bought through Diamond distribution are all nonreturnable! To remove this risk, DCBS only accepts preorders and is able to pass along up to 50% off cover price. The only drawback of preordering is that you will need to know ahead of time what your kid wants and hope they don't change their mind.

I was just going through my RSS feeds and saw the Absolutely Amazing Video Game Remake Wallpapers post at Lifehacker. These are old-school games re-rendered by Mikael Aguirre aka Orioto using advanced photoshop shading, texturing, and airbrush techniques. Absolutely amazing!

Check out this one from Street Fighter II Turbo:

And this one from Sonic the Hedgehog.

Incidentally both of these video games have ongoing comic book series. Udon Entertainment makes a very beautiful Street Fighter II series, parts of which can be read at Crunchyroll. Archie Comics does the Sonic the Hedgehog comic and it's geared toward kids. It'd be super-cool if they re-published the Sonic the Hedgehog comics in a DVD like they did with the older Archie comics. The Archie Comics publisher has a very long history of producing comics for kids and they're the only one who makes sure their comics can be found outside of the comic book and book stores.

Exploring Orioto deviantArt page some more, I noticed that IGN commissioned a Final Fantasy VI wallpaper. I can't wait to see it! That was my favorite game from when I was a kid! Too bad there's no official Final Fantasy manga based on FFVI. There's a ton of back stories in FFVI to work with.

If you like Final Fantasy, check out the Wayrift fan comic set in the world of Final Fantasy IV. I've embedded the Introduction issue into this post.

One of the best comics to come out of the New York Comic Con is The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli. Originally a concept comic book to help promote the Capt'n Eli soda brand. The concept inspired Jay Piscopo to create an all-ages adventure graphic novel series. The story is about Eli, an extraordinary scientifically-minded boy and his adventures in a world of time-travel, robots, lost civilizations, and undersea empires in conflict. Sounds like a more fun version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to me.

While surfing around the Capt'n Eli site, I noticed Jay has done a lot of interactive drawing workshops at schools. He talks about them in this Capt'n Eli School Drawing Demonstration. Here's another workshop at the NYCC Kids Day that Jay did this year. If we had these workshops when I was a kid, my paper UI mockups wouldn't be so horrible...