Links: Level Up, Air Bender!

Coming soon from Dark Horse: an all-new Avatar: The Last Airbender comic written by Gene Luen Yang, author of American-Born Chinese and Level Up! Yang seems bullish about the project. “The pencils I’ve seen have been pure comics bliss,” he reports. “I giggled when I first saw them. Out loud. No joke. I sounded exactly like my four-year-old daughter when she gets an ice cream cone.” Look for The Promise on January 25, 2012.

At FEMA’s Ready Kids website, grade schoolers can read a comic strip about natural disaster preparedness. No one will confuse it with an issue of Tiny Titans, but it might just inspire eight-year-olds to hoard batteries and bottled water.

Speaking of educational comics, Chris Wilson, founder of The Graphic Classroom, is writing lesson plans for Bluewater Comics. The program is designed to help teachers integrate such bio-comics as Female Force: Hillary Clinton into the social studies curriculum.

Johanna Draper Carlson files a report from Baltimore Comic-Con 2011.

Over at The Fandom Post, John Rose offers his first impressions of Gate 7, CLAMP’s long-awaited new series.

Beginning in January 2012, BOOM! Studios will be publishing a monthly Peanuts series featuring Charles Schulz’s iconic characters in brand-new adventures. Reaction among older fans was mixed, with some criticizing BOOM! for even considering such a project, and others viewing it in a more favorable light: as a gateway for young readers to discover Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy for themselves.

Here’s a book that Forbidden Planet blogger Wim would love to see translated into English: Zazie dans le Metro, by Clément Oubrerie, co-creator of the Aya books.

Reviews: Drew McCabe takes a look at the latest Pokemon manga, a Percy Jackson parody, and some other upcoming releases in his column From Friendly Ghosts to Gamma Rays at Comic Attack.

Jason Thompson on After School Nightmare (Anime News Network)
Xaviar Xerexes on Bad Island (ComixTalk)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Bakuman (Manga Worth Reading)
Brigid Alverson on vol. 1 of Cage of Eden (MTV Geek)
Kevin Hodgson on Dawn Land (The Graphic Classroom)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Infinite Speech on Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #4 (Comic Attack)
Collin David on The Homeland Directive (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Aaron Albert on Korgi, Book 3: A Hollow Beginning (About Comics)
Ed Sizemore on Knights of the Lunch Table: The Battling Bands (Comics Worth Reading)
Elizabeth Bird on Lily Renee: Escape Artist (A Fuse #8 Production)
Kevin Hodgson on Mathemagick and Mystiphysics (The Graphic Classroom)
Amanda Tarbet on Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 (Sequential Tart)
Gavin Lees on Nursery Rhyme Comics (Graphic Eye)
Brigid Alverson on Okie Dokie Donuts: Open for Business! (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sterg Botzakis on Resistance: Book 2 (Graphic Novel Resources)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Manga Xanadu)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1-2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Graphic Novel Reporter)
John Hogan on Super Diaper Baby 2: Invasion of the Potty Snatchers (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (I Reads You)

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