Saturday Morning Cartoons- Comic Books: A Graphic History and Inbetweens

Hoena, Blake and Hampton, Daimon (illustrator).
Comic Books: A Graphic History (Amazing Inventions)

January 1, 2026 by Graphic Universe ™

Copy provided by the publisher

Led by a character named Comic, this graphic nonfiction book takes the reader through an explanation of what comic books are, and explains the storied history of "sequential art". From cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Bayeux tapestry to Rodolphe Topffer's illustrations in the early 1800s, there were a number of different attempts to tell stories through pictures. The modern comic, however, starts in the later part of that century with one of the first comic strips, Outcault's The Yellow Kid. It took a bit longer for comic books to be regularly published, starting with Comic Monthly in 1922. This publication featured a collection of strips, but in 1935, Allied Publications put out New Fun, a comic magazine, followed by Detective Comics. From there, super hero comics like Superman captured the popular imagination with a variety of characters. They had a great run until 1954, when "experts" decided that comic books were contributing to juvenile delinquency! A Comics Code was put in place, and artists like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced more popular super hero comics. 

Styles of illustration and types of content have continued to evolve. I didn't quite realize that there were different "ages" of comics, with the Bronze Age spanning the years from 1970-1985 and comics since then being considered Dark Age comics. Manga caught on in the US after 1985, as did more literary comics, like Spiegelman's 1986 Maus. It would have been interesting to include the surge in graphic novels for middle grade readers. While Telgemeier's 2009 Smile is the first really popular title, the first graphic novels I bought for my school library were Johnston and Damerum's adaptation of Horowitz's Stormbreaker and Marunas and Craddock's Manga Claus in 2006. 

The Amazing Invention graphic novels are very much like the History Comics ones, but shorter, and dedicated to pop culture phenomena rather than straight history. While Hatch's 2006 Comic Books : From Superheroes to Manga, Rosinsky's 2010 Graphic Content! : the Culture of Comic Books, and Besel's 2011 The Captivating, Creative, Unusual History of Comic Books are all informative, telling the history of comic books in a comic book format is inspired. 

Hicks, Faith Erin. Inbetweens
March 31, 2026 by First Second
E ARC provided by Netgalley

In 1999, twins Sloane and Ash are excited to attend a seven week animation summer camp at Ormidale College. The two have been obsessed with animation since a trip to Disney when they were young, and they have worked on various projects, like a comic book about themselves. Ash is SUPER excited to go, especially since she will get to meet her idol, animator Douglas Frye, who worked on her favorite film, Monstrous. Ash is always anxious about first days, and is worried that she won't make friends. Most of the participants are male, but the two meet Nisha, an excellent animator, and Cameron, who loves to draw backgrounds. There are a variety of activities and projects, although things do not go smoothly. Nisha's work is always dismissed by Frye, and Ash's work is criticized to the point where she loses motivation. Sloane, for a change, is the more social twin, hanging out with Nisha and renting Studio Ghibli videos. Ash throws herself into her work, and is devastated when Frye tells her that maybe animation isn't the right course for her. Sloane begins to realize that while she loves drawing, making it her work takes the joy out of it. Ash realizes with the help of another teacher that she shouldn't let one person's opinion make her stop doing what she loves.
Strengths: While this isn't a straight memoir, it is based on the Hick's (Ride On) own experience with an animation camp. The girls have distinct personalities but are clearly good friends as well as twins, and this was a fun vicarious summer experience, even though there are some problems consistent with the current cultural zeitgeist. I'm not sure how much progress has been made in the art world concerning women; I hadn't realized that this was similar to the treatment of women in tech fields. There are enough details about drawing to make budding artists happy, and I enjoyed learning about Canadian film initiatives. This ended on a happy note, which is always good to see.
Weaknesses: Both girls were drawn with freckles across their noses and under their eyes, but there were also black lines almost like football eye black that distracted me. There didn't seem to be a lot of details other than current films (and the video store!) that would settle this story in 1999, but that might be because the world doesn't seem that different from the 1990s to me!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Doodles From the Boogie Down, Doucet's Art Club, or Telgemeier and McCloud's The Cartoonists Club: A Graphic Novel.