By Michael Climek

Pic from Newsarama

During the many crisis that happened in the blogsphere recently, including tentacle issues, and Mary Jane statue problems an underlying point (or perhaps a side point) has come during these discussions. That point is that Comics are not for kids, a factoid that most people are comfortable with (myself included). But it is a bummer that there aren’t some niche titles for kids, since the current comics audience is graying and we haven’t the damndest idea how to get new readers (Manga steals them all!)

So DC is giving a new iniatitive a shot. A new line of very kids friendly books. Now some of you might be pointing out that DC already has a kids line called Johnny DC based on various animated properties (Teen Titans GO!, or Justice League Unlimited).

Well yes they do, but according to Coordinating Editor Jann Jones who is spear heading this iniatitive these titles will be even more kid friendly.

Interview from Newsarama.

“When I moved into the role of Coordinating Editor and started doing the sign off on the kids’ books of the Johnny DC line, I saw that they were really good, solid books, but I didn’t feel like I could give them to a four year old or a five year old, or just any kid in general. Despite their connection to the animated projects, they were still dealing with the more serious issues – cases where if the heroes don’t save the day, it’s implied, or shown that people will die. I think that’s kind of heavy to put on a younger audience.

Some of them were very serious in tone as well. They were good reads, don’t get me wrong, and we had great creators working on them, but they weren’t making me laugh. Likewise, I have a very religious sister, and when she would go through my bundle of comics, there was very little that I would feel comfortable with handing her to give to my nephews to read. I wanted to make sure that there was a place for that in the DC Universe.”

The three titles are Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam, Tiny Titans, and Super Friends. The Super Friends bear a noticeable resemblance to Toybiz’s Spiderman and Friends toys. We’ll keep you informed when the line launches.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.