Friday, January 12, 2007

In the Wild West, men were often felled by mystic blasts of magical energy

In my look at Image Comics' solicitations for March, I mentioned that I liked the premise for Texas Strangers, but the cover art really turned me off. Well, I'm happy to say that the preview art in CBR's article about the series looks much better. Here's some examples (as always, click to see a larger version):




This actually has me pretty interested in the series. I especially like the way the characters shout out the spell they are casting. One thing I will comment on, though: The creators (Antony Johnston and Dan Evans III) are aiming the series at kids, and the author of the article (supported by quotes from Johnston) insists that there are very few comics for kids being made these days. I call poppycock on that. DC and Marvel both have lines for younger readers (DC even has several comics based on popular kids' cartoons), Archie comics continue to come out, Owly and Bone are very popular, Slave Labor Graphics and Oni Press both have all-ages series like Alice in Wonderland and Polly and the Pirates, and manga (both Japanese and homegrown flavors) continues to be ridiculously popular with younger readers. I wish people would get over the idea that kids don't read comics anymore, just because the so-called "big two" don't really cater to that audience. Get over yourselves, people.

Anyway, I'm now interested in Texas Strangers, so watch for a review or something when it comes out.
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2 comments:

  1. antony1/12/2007 7:01 PM

    Hey Matt,

    To be fair, I specifically said *outside of manga*. And really, there aren't, not compared to the enormous amount of comics for late teens and adults.

    The young readers' section of the book industry is enormous, and in Europe kids' comics are still a huge part of their industry. By comparison, the direct market's focus on kids' comics is a bit like how the DM used to be with non-superhero comics. That's changed in recent years, of course, and I hope the attention paid to kids' comics will improve in the same manner.

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  2. Matthew Brady1/12/2007 11:29 PM

    Hey Antony, thanks for clarifying, and you make some good points about the direct market. It was less what you said (and I probably should have mentioned your comment about manga) that irked me, and more the author of the article's repeated insistence that there are NO comics for kids. Comics are definitely growing though, in all sorts of genres, so I too hope that more stuff is produced for readers of all ages.

    Thanks for stopping by! I'll be sure to check out Texas Strangers when it comes out and let you know what I think.

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