No More Kids’ Marvel Comics from IDW | News

The comics business site ICv2 reports that IDW’s license to publish original kids’ Marvel comics will end at the end of 2021. IDW has been publishing the kid-friendly Marvel Action series since 2018 as both monthly comics and collected editions. In addition to IDW, Scholastic is publishing original graphic novels for middle-grade readers, and Marvel itself has had several kid-friendly series and has also bound up some older series in a 6 x 9 paperback format. Confused? Here’s a guide.

Good news for fans of Cat Ninja: A second volume, Cat Ninja: Time Heist, is on the way from Andrews McMeel in November, and the kids’ platform Epic, where Cat Ninja originated, is running five new comics, one a week (it started on September 13). Chad Thomas will replace previous artist Yehudi Mercado on the new volume.

Also coming from Andrews McMeel: Mutts Moments, a collection of Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts comic strips that takes the reader through a full year of comics. The book is scheduled for October 12.

Check out my articles on graphic adaptations for Publishers Weekly and quirky nonfiction for SLJ, and my latest Stellar Panels column, which looks at early-reader graphic novels.

Peering into the Future

Here’s a look at some recent graphic novel acquisitions, from the Publishers Weekly Rights Report:

Clarion/HarperAlley has signed School Spirits, a YA graphic novel series by Nate Trinrud, Megan Trinrud, and Maria Nguyen about a teenage ghost who haunts her old high school, convinced that she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, but soon learns that the school is full of ghosts—and she’s the new girl. The first volume is slated for Fall 2024.

Nidhi Chanani’s Super Boba Café stars a middle-schooler whose grandmother controls the local monsters with the boba she serves at her café. The book will be published by Abrams/Amulet in spring 2024, and a sequel is planned as well. Chanani is the creator of Pashmina and Jukebox.

Betty C. Tang’s Parachute Kids has been picked up by Scholastic/Graphix; the middle-grade graphic novel follows three children who move from Taiwan to California and then have to deal with a whole new language and culture on their own when their parents unexpectedly return home. Graphix picked up a second graphic novel as well from the first-time creator. Parachute Kids is scheduled for 2023.

Random House/Schwartz has acquired a middle-grade graphic novel by Daniel Miyares telling the story of his father’s escape from Cuba immediately after the Cuban Revolution. The as-yet-untitled book is scheduled for spring 2024. 

Filed under: All Ages