There is one thing you can't deny, children love super heroes. Look at any child's backpack and you're likely to see one comic book character or another swinging, flying, or posing on the back. Although kids may buy all the merchandise, movies and comics aren't always suitable for much of the younger crowd. Mark Millar wants to change that.
Mark Millar, whose material isn't exactly kid-friendly, is launching
Kindergarten Heroes a superhero picture book. The book will blend the comic book form with a more traditional children's picture book pacing. The book will be published by
Books Noir in the UK with an American released to follow. A share of all sales will go to a children's hospital in Millar's native Scotland. Speaking with
Comic Book Resources, Millar explains the project.
I've got two or three very different projects planned over the next year or so, but 'Kindergarten Heroes' is the one that tickled me most. Little kids love superheroes, but they tend not to pick up comics. Having spent a couple of years of my life having a wonderful time on [the kid-friendly comic] 'Superman Adventures,' I can also tell you that they're mainly read by an older readership. They're aimed at seven to nine year olds, but the readership is much older, and I thought it might be interesting to really create something for all the little five year olds out there.
Millar states that the project will be written and drawn like a children's book, but will be filled with characters and concepts that are found in comics.
Interestingly, it's a genre that's never really been tackled in kids books, but I've got a good track record in creating new superheroes that catch on, and I want to see if I can flex my muscles and try to push these ideas to a whole new readership. Wouldn't it be great if kids discovered superhero comics after reading these books and went out and bought 'Superman' and 'Spider-Man' when they were a little older?
While Millar shared some concept art and information with
CBR (such as the team picture and the banner of speedster
Whiz-Kid), he is keeping some things secret.
We've got a long-term plan for the release of this book -- this is just the first step. All I'll say is that it does what it says on the box, which is that this is the kindergarten where all the superheroes leave their toddlers when they go on their adventures. We never see the parents, so we can assume that these kids are the super-powered off-spring of all your favorite heroes. It's very cute and their little adventures, in terms of tone, would be similar to Pixar. I'm trying to make it genuinely funny, genuinely exciting and genuinely dramatic when it needs to be. Pixar is pretty beat-perfect in terms of doing something that doesn't alienate the adults or the kids and that's what I'm trying to do here. I'd like my readers to buy this for their kids or little brothers and sisters, but at the same time really enjoy it themselves."
Millar reiterates, that with such a project he felt it was vital that some of the proceeds go to a deserving charity. 10% is expected to go for medical research at Glasgow University medical facility.
So, what do you think about Millar's new project? Getting kids to read comics is a great thing isn't it? Sound off below!
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