List of graphic novels and comic books for younger readers to pre-YA, specifically published in 2012.
If I missed anything, feel free to comment below and I’ll update the list ASAP.
YOUNGER READERS
The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra (Toon)
Babymouse for President by Jennife L. Holm & Matthew Holm (Random House)
Squish #4: Captain Disaster by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Random House)
A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse (Toon)
The Shark King by R. Kikuo Johnson (Toon)
Dinosaurs in Space by Pranas Naujokaitis (Balloon Toons)
Hiccup! by Mike Herrod (Balloon Toons)
Bird and Squirrel by James Burks (Graphix)
Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye: Raining Cats and Detectives by Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue (Graphic Universe)
Adventures in Cartooning Christmas Special by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost (First Second)
ELEMENTARY+
Fang Bone: The Birthday Party of Dread by Michael Rex (Putnam)
Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad by Nathan Hale (Abrams)
The Captive Prince by Scott Chantler (Kids Can)
Explorer: The Mystery Boxes edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Abrams)
Binky Takes Charge by Ashley Spires (Kids Can)
Legends of Zita The Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (First Second)
Giants Beware by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado (First Second)
Little White Duck by Na Liu and Andres Vera Martinez (Graphic Universe)
Bigfoot Boy: Into the Woods by J. Torres and Faith Erin Hicks (Kids Can)
Big Nate Makes the Grade by Lincoln Peirce (Andrews McMeel)
Mal and Chad: Belly Flop! by Stephen McCranie (Philomel)
Anna and Froga: Wanna Gumball? Anouk Ricard (Enfant)
Amelia Rules: Her Permanent Record by Jimmy Gownley (Antheneum)
Girl Who Owned a City by Dan Jolley and Joelle Jones (Graphic Universe)
Luz Makes a Splash by Claudia Davila (Kids Can)
Stone Rabbit: Dragon Boogie by Erik Craddock (Random House)
Ernest and Rebecca by Guillaume Bianco (Papercutz)
Dance Class by Beka and Crip (Papercutz)
MIDDLE GRADE+
Reed Gunther Volume 2 by Shane and Chris Houghton (Image)
A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson (FSG)
Amulet #5: Prince of the Elves by Kazu Kibuishi (Graphix)
Upside Down: A Vampire Tale by Jess Smart Smiley (Top Shelf)
Cardboard by Doug TenNapel (Graphix)
Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson (Nobrow Press)
Crogan’s Loyalty by Chris Schweizer (Oni)
Princeless by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin (Action Lab Comics)
Cow Boy by Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos (Archaia)
Rust Volume 2: Secrets of the Cell by Royden Lepp (Archaia)
Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch (Abrams)
Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)
Teen Boat! by Dave Roman and John Green (Clarion)
Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second)
Broxo by Zack Giallongo (First Second)
Mighty Skullboy Army Vol. 2 by Jacob Chabot (Dark Horse)
Jinx by J. Torres and Terry Austin (Archie)
Hades by George O’Connor (First Second)
Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert (Hyperion)
LICENSED SERIES
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise (Dark Horse)
Adventure Time (Boom)
Garfield (Boom)
SpongeBob Squarepants (United Plankton)
My Little Pony (IDW)
Peanuts Comics (Boom)
Strawberry Shortcake (APE)
Marceline and the Scream Queens (Boom)
Mega Man (Archie)
Sonic Universe (Archie)
Simpsons Comics (Bongo)
Voltron Force (Viz)
Popeye (IDW)
Smurfs (Papercutz)
Annoying Orange (Papercutz)
Mameshiba: We Could be Heroes (Viz)
SERIALIZED COMIC BOOKS (Creator-Owned):
Reed Gunther by Shane and Chris Houghton (Image)
Super Dinosaur by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard (Image):
Snarked by Roger Langridge (IDW)
Sergio Aragones Funnies (Bongo)
Takio by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming (Icon)
Faux Facts by Mary Bellamy (Zorilita)
SERIALIZED COMIC BOOKS (Franchise):
Superman Family Adventures by Franco Aureliani and Art Balthazar (DC Comics)
Marvel Adventures Spiderman (Marvel)
Road to Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young (Marvel)
Life with Archie (Archie)
Archie (Archie)
Kevin Keller (Archie)
Betty and Veronica (Archie)
New Crusaders (Archie)
HYBRIDS
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kiney (Abrams)
Dork Diaries: Tales of a Not-So-Smart Miss Know-It-All by Rachel Renee Russell (Aladdin)
Popularity Papers: The Rocky Roadtrip by Amy Ignatow (Abrams)
Big Nate Goes for Broke by Lincoln Pierce (Harper Collins)
Dragonbreath #6: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies by Ursula Vernon (Random House)
Dragonbreath #7: When Fairies Go Bad by Ursula Vernon (Random House)
Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)
Ellie McDoddle: Most Valuable Player by Ruth McNally Barshaw (Bloomsbury USA)
Vordak the Incomprehensible: Double Trouble By Scott Seegert & John Martin (Egmont USA)
WEBCOMICS
Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G.
Saturday Morning Webtoons
Nemu*Nemu by Aurdra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga
The Kimbly Chronicles by Ryan Sias
Bad Apple Castle by Elio
My Sister, the Freak by Dani Jones
Ellie on the Planet X by James Anderson
Gronk by Katie Cook
Red’s Planet by Eddie Pittman
Cleopatra in Spaaace! by Mike Maihack
Chim Chum by Adrian Ropp
Yeti For Hire by Jeff Crowther
Untold Tales of Big Foot by Vince Dorse
Creepy Crowley by Steven Lewis
Little Vampires by Rebecca Hicks
Rocket Robinson by Sean O’Neill
Chili’s World by Santiago Casares
Last of the Polar Bears by Lindsay Cibos
Cody the Cavalier by Jamie Cosley
Little Guardians by Ed Cho and Lee Cherolis
Tales of the Brothers Three by Joshua Hauke
DIGITAL COMICS
G-Man by Chris Giarrusso (Image Comics + Comixology)
Action Cats (Monkey Brain + Comixology)
COMICS MAGAZINES
The Phoenix
To find out which of these comics kids think are the best of the year check out the KCR! Kids Comics Awards!
The nominees were selected by a committee of teachers, librarians, and retailers, then voted on by kids online and via paper ballots.
For more about the world of all-ages comics subscribe to the Kids’ Comics Revolution podcast!
Thanks so much for making a list like this! I’d like to add my webcomic for your consideration. I write and draw Little Vampires each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I keep my work all ages, keeping in mind inspirations like Looney Tunes and The Muppets. I’d be honored to added to the list of webcomics that kids can enjoy.
Added Little Vampires! Thanks for the heads up!
Not sure if this counts, but http://www.rocketrobinson.com/ is an ongong webcomic for kids. They have a KS campaign going for a finished story as well if you like the comics.
Good looking stuff! Added to the webcomics section!
I haven’t read it in quite a while, but Weesh is pretty good all-ages webcomic fun: http://weeshcomic.com/
If you include the school/library market publishers (Capstone/Stone Arch, Rosen, Gareth Stevens), and include such publishers as Cinebook Ltd, NBM/Papercutz, the number of titles published in 2012 zooms to 400+. I did a quick search by descriptors, age levels/grade levels, and publication date in my company’s database (Brodart – Bibz2) and got 470 hits. Some of those are duplicates, including paperback and hardcover editions of titles. But that’s a LOT of graphic novels for kids!
Two series in particular have become huge hits in my school library: Ernest and Rebecca by Guillaume Bianco (Papercutz) – 2 volumes came out in 2012; and Dance Class by Beka and Crip (Papercutz) – 3 volumes came out in 2012. I can’t keep these books on the shelf, and the girls in grades 3-5 have me put them on waiting lists for them.
Thanks Kat! You are right that I probably forgot a bunch of educational comics! But I’d certainly add the best of the best. And thanks for the reminder about the Papercutz stuff. Those are great books!
Hi Dave,
also for your consideration on the webcomics department I make an all-ages comic, Chili’s World, twice a week (http://www.chilisworld.com).
Thanks Dave for including Red’s Planet! I have to say I was very surprised when I saw it, I’m used to being under the radar. Cheers!
Fantastic list! If I may, I also produce a podcast with my son, a fourth grader, about comics. It’s called Kids On Comics and can be found on iTunes or browse a list of episodes here: http://echorift.com/home/?cat=21
Thanks!
Thanks for adding Creepy Crowley to the webcomics list! I’m still new at this, so I’m grateful to be included!
Little Guardians http://www.littleguardianscomic.com
for all-ages webcomics!
Two more “hybrid” books for reluctant readers; Stephan Pastis (of the comic “Pearls Before Swine”) has just put out “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.” Two more in the pipeline, I believe. And Michael Fry (of the comic “Over the Hedge”) has recently put out “The Odd Squad: Bully Bait.” Both very funny and with great illos.
Yeah, those both look great. For this list we only including books published in 2012. But I’ll probably get nudged into doing one for next year!
Oh, there’s no going back now, Dave.
Great list! I make an all ages fantasy comic called Of What Kind over here,
and Id love to have kids check it out!
http://www.goodshowsir.com
Thanks for putting this list together!
-Adam Szym
Under “Licensed”, you could include Popeye…
yes, yes, yes!
For consideration two books I’ve worked on:
For younger kids: Action Cats http://www.comixology.com/Action-Cats/comics-series/9272
For slightly older kids (middle school, we have a fan or two in the 8-10 range): Amelia Cole http://www.comixology.com/search?search=Amelia+cole
This is incredible! I passed it along to the retailers I know since it’s handy to have it all in one list like this.
Fantastic list!! Great resource!
What about adding SQUISH #3: The Power of the Parasite. It came out in May 2012, I think.
Also, George O’Connor’s HADES came out in Jan 2012, I think.
Hey Dave,
Is there anyway I can get you to add Tales of The Brothers Three! to you all ages webcomic list?
http://www.brothers3comics.com
Thanks,
Mort
I’m not sure which category you’d put this in – it is an ongoing comic, has trades, and is a webcomic..
http://www.loveandcapes.com/
Great “romantic comedy” that I think would be great for middle school on up – respectful of both superhero comics and romantic comedy. Great blend
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