Kids comics back in four colors of fun

With the advent of such adult lines such as Marvel's MAX line, and DC's Vertigo, comic books for a while have slowly moved away from kid oriented comic books.

However, some comic book professionals feel that comics need to be put back into the hands of kids.

Kevin Johnson, creator, writer, and illustrator of "Strange City Heroes" felt the industry needed a change.

“I got tired of people complaining that there were no kid’s comics anymore”, he said,” so I did something about it.”

With Strange City heroes, a light hearted homage to such books as X-men and other team books, he has created an all age’s book, which can be enjoyed by anyone who loves fun comic books.

“I wanted to create comics books so that kids will still read comic books,” Kevin stated,” If we (the comic book industry)keeps making books for 20 to 40 year olds, than how can we bring in new readers?”

Strange City Heroes are all self published and available to purchase from the web. He also republishes prior panels to his site, so that readers can get an idea of what’s happening in the stories.

In keeping with the service to his fans Kevin tries to take other publishing processes under consideration:

“I try to do some self-distribution where I can, that helps me keep the cost down for what it costs for self publishing. Also, I try to keep this series as kid friendly as I can, in both content and the way it’s written so that they can understand the books as well.”

His stories center on the hero The Golden Cape, and his fellow heroes’ adventures in their home city.

“I think its great someone wants to bring kids into comic books”, said Wayne Kelley of Baytown, TX, an attendee of the Wizard World con in New Orleans. “We used to have those kind of books when I was kid, it’s good to them come back.”

Another publisher taking a look at the return of the kid’s books is HeadHunta studios out of Atlanta, Ga.

Koi Turnbull a partner and artist with the company felt that bringing kids back into comics is a good thing.

“I have been in the comic book industry for 17 years”, he said, “and I remember how comic books were written then and when I was a kid.”

“Comic books just aimed at the adult or 20 year plus market is going to lose readers. And that is no way to keep the industry going.”

HeadHunta studios, has published and will be publishing children’s books and lists client’s such as Nickelodeon, PBS, and Disney whom they produce storyboards, artwork, and other projects for.

“We have freelancers that work with Marvel and DC for example, but they all participate with our studio.” stated Koi. “We are looking at producing a line of graphic novels for 12 to 14 year olds that are written on their level, so that way they have comics not for adults but not so ‘kiddy’ either.”

“Although a lot of people feel that digital comic will dominate, the printed book will still be there, we need to bring hose kids in that are part of the digital age into comic books, or we’re going to kill our industry. We need to keep the ’bubble gum’ for the younger kids, and let the books grow up with them.”

Both artists attended Wizard World New Orleans, during the January 29th and 30th show.