‘Hugman’: A Little Red Man Made of Bricks

Sometimes we get review copies of books that are not comics but probably of interest to comics readers. Here’s a look at a set of books that came over the transom recently.

The Adventures of Hugman
Hugman Goes to the Museum
Hugman and the Animals
Hugman Makes a Friend
By Nathan Sawaya and Maarten Lenoir
Hugman Books; $14.99 each
Ages 2-5

Nathan Sawaya is an artist who makes life-size sculptures out of Lego, and a few years ago he started making little men out of Lego and positioning them around New York City, hugging trees and signposts and such. This was the genesis of Hugman, the little red character that accompanies the little boy Nathan in these cheery self-published picture books.

The first book is Hugman’s origin story: Nathan creates a little red man from his bricks (the term “Lego” is not used in the story, although it is in the frontmatter) and names him Human. The little man is sentient from the start, and soon he and Nathan are having all sorts of fun. Then Human runs away to the big city and goes around asking various objects if they want a hug. This doesn’t end well: A crow breaks off his arm. Fortunately, a friendly dog brings him back to Nathan, who fixes his arm and renames him Hugman. The titles of the other books are pretty self-explanatory.

These books have a cozy feel to them. If Hugman’s desire to hug everything seems a little weird, well, it’s countered by his charm and that of the other characters. The writing is simple, with plenty of repetition, and the dialogue is set off in a larger typeface. The art is colorful and just detailed enough for a young reader to grasp the page all at once.

This quartet of books is gentle and perfect for reading aloud, especially as young readers can have fun spotting Hugman on each page.

Filed under: All Ages