Rare John Stanley Story Posted

Nickelodeon Magazine editor Chris Duffy posts a 1965 four-page story by noted children's comics writer/artist John Stanley. Stanley's long-running Little Lulu series is currently being reprinted in a series of paperbacks by Dark Horse Comics.

Thought Balloons and Autism

Neil Cohn comments on studies examining the comprehensibility of comic book thought balloons to children with autism and more generally to developing children.

These results confirm earlier findings of the efficacy of picture-in-the-head teaching about mental states, but go further in showing that thought-bubble training more easily extends to children’s understanding of thoughts (not just behaviour) and to enhanced performance on several transfer tasks. Thought-bubbles provide a theoretically interesting as well as especially easy and effective teaching technique.

Bow-Wow Nabs A Prize

Bow-Wow Bugs A Bug, a children's book in wordless comics form by Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash, won the Society of Illustrators' first place gold medal in the organization's annual children's book competition. The book is the first in a series published by Harcourt Books.

Michael Chabon on Children's Comics

The website for Comic-Con International carries a full transcription of Michael Chabon's 2004 Eisner Awards Keynote Address, in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author strove to impress upon assembled comics industry professionals the need to create accessible comics for kids. Among his suggestions:

Okay, now we get to my one concrete suggestion. If it seems a little obvious, or has already been tried, forgive me. But I can’t help noticing that in the world of children’s literature, an overwhelming preponderance of stories are stories about children. The same is true of films for children: the central characters are nearly always a child, a pair, or a group of children. Comic books, however, even those theoretically aimed at children, are almost always about adults, or teenagers. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? Maybe somebody should try putting out a truly thrilling, honestly observed and remembered, richly imagined, involved and yet narratively straightforward comic book for children, about children.