Cat Kid Comic Club is the perfect gift for the kid (and adult) in your life who wants to make comics
Dav Pilkey's Cat Kid Comic Club series dives deep into the existential and practical concerns of making art
Are you looking for the perfect gift for that kid in your life who just really wants to make comics? Well, you're in luck, because the newest Cat Kid Comic Club book 'Influencers' has just been released.
Cat Kid Comic Club is a series by Dog Man and Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey. (In fact, it's actually a spin-off of Dog Man, as the title might suggest.) However, instead of following the exciting adventures of Captain Underpants or Dog Man, Cat Kid Comic Club follows the exciting adventures of a bunch of baby frogs (and others) learning to make comics.
Now, how does Cat Kid Comics Club teach kids to make comics? Not in your typical 'here's how to draw a comic' way. Instead, the series dives into the actual practicalities as well as anxieties around making and then sharing your work with an audience. Not only does Cat Kid Comics Club deal with the nervousness around making things (What to make? and how?) and wanting them to be perfect, it also addresses negative criticism, differing points of view, and even, with this most recent chapter, book banning.
But lest that make the series seem too serious (it isn't), Cat Kid Comics Club also addresses things like how kids love poop jokes and stories with violence in them and how that's okay. If you're familiar with the criticism around Captain Underpants when it debuted, you'll find particular humor in this.
What's really incredible about this series is that Pilkey, with his healthy dash of wisdom, knocks down some big creative issues that have plagued artists forever. Of course, he doesn't solve everything, but he certainly does seem to address a lot of those nagging questions that worry artists all the way from conception to conclusion. Because of that, scratch the notion that this series is just for kids - Pilkey's wisdom makes Cat Kid Comics Club the perfect gift for comics creators of any age.
Cat Kid Comics Club: Influencers is out today.
We covered Pilkey's choice to address Frederic Wertham in the new book earlier this year.
