The Bravest Warriors artist has his own all-ages book coming out — Welcome to Showside — and he picks 13 great reads anyone can enjoy.
Ian‘s launching Welcome to Showside on two fronts: The book is due out in October through Z2 Comics and he’s produced an animated pilot co-starring Henry Rollins. (Read all about it here.) Here are his Top 13 All-Ages Books:
By IAN McGINTY
1. Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake, Boom! Studios
I prefer the gender swapped version of Finn and Jake to the main series. Its got a lot more humor and the art is pretty gosh darn great, not to mention some skeleton dudes heads getting exploded.
2. Oishinbo: A la Carte, Viz Media
A very cool manga that focuses on Japanese cuisine, specifically a son and father in competition to learn and master certain cooking techniques. The series also gives insight into Japanese culture, flora and fauna.
3. Super Pro K.O., Oni Press
An all-ages wrestling comic, what more can I say?
4. Dr. Slump, Viz.
Early Toriyama, Dr. Slump is hysterical. The characters are extremely strange and lovable, and the humor is just so out there it’s really worth checking out. (Caution: shows Superman‘s butt once).
5. Bone, by Jeff Smith.
Most of of us at least know of Bone, but it’s gorgeous and actually quite complex for a fantasy epic, perhaps a bit too much for younger readers but I enjoyed it at a fairly young age.
6. Calvin and Hobbes (all series), Bill Watterson.
Obviously!
7. Invader Zim, Oni Press.
The new comic series is gross and hysterical and fun. It’s honestly just cool, as well. Score big points with your kid by snagging this one.
8. Garfield (all series), by Jim Davis.
He hates Mondays and loves lasagna and blah blah blah. HOWEVER, the early Garfield is insanely good, funny and the art is charming in its early depiction of the character before the ’90s ruined him forever.
9. Bee and Puppycat Volume 1, Boom!
Great all-ages work here, a bit scattered admittedly, but still better than 90% of the trade collections out there. Good for boys, girls, everyone, and fun in space travel, or cleaning up, or cooking, anything really!
10. The Amazing World of Gumball, Boom!
Amazing sight gags in this one, like the show, and overall a fantastic representation of a comic successfully integrating itself and adapting from the animation.
11. Simpsons Treehouse of Horror (all series), Bongo Comics
Classic stuff, everyone should read it for funny spins on EC Comics-type stories. Not scary at all, quite fun really.
12. Adventure Time (main series), Boom!
The heavy hitter, I enjoy this series’ newer releases quite a bit. Just like the show, can’t say enough good things.
13. Incredible Change-Bots, Top Shelf
Hysterical and intentional rip-off of the Transformers, this one by Jeffrey Brown features a robot that can turn into a golf cart named Balls, so I mean, yeah.
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Issue 1 of Welcome to Showside is due in shops 10/28. And in case you want to order the first two issues, the codes are:
AUG151857 WELCOME TO SHOWSIDE #1 MCGINTY
SEP151765 WELCOME TO SHOWSIDE #2 MCGINTY
