Comics for kids - an inexpensive Christmas gift

Christmas is a week away and we're knee-deep in a recession. How about giving your favorite niece or nephew an inexpensive graphic novel instead of another mind-numbing video game this Christmas? If you like the idea, I highly recommend giving Kazu Kibuishi's all-ages appropriate Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper to a child next week.

It's about a girl Emily and her brother who get sucked into another world. Their mother is captured by a octopus-crab?! creature and they must save her. Along the way they make friends with cute robots and get pursued by a dark prince intent on overthrowing his father. The last scene has a haunting house transform into a mountain-climbing robot. It's a lot of fun! If the kids liked any of Hayao Miyazaki's movies like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or Howl's Moving Castle, they'll definitely like Amulet.

Kazu Kibuishi is also the editor of the Harvey Award-winning comic anthology Flight. I recently had the good fortune to spend an afternoon sampling stories from Flight Volumes 4 and 5 at the library. I really enjoyed them and will probably pick up all five volumes at Wondercon this year.

Kibuishi and his team are actually working hard on the second volume. All-ages comics like Amulet are a huge undertaking with contributions from many creators. The commitment of so much time and energy to one's work is very admirable. So many webcomics creators churn out page after page week after week while holding down a full-time job. It's really an honor to get to work with such dedicated individuals.