Care Bears Roar Onto The Comic Scene

After a 25 year lapse, the Care Bears are returning to the pages of a comic book series.  Roar Comics, the young readers imprint of St. Louis-based publisher Lion Forge Comics, has announced it will be bringing the popular characters from the '80s back to life in their own comic book that will be debuting in a digital format this year and in print next year.  Readers will be able to download an app that will feature the new Care Bears series as digital single issues along with interactive educational content.  That will be followed up by a print collection of the digital issues that is scheduled to be available in May 2016.

The Care Bears series is being written by Georgia Ball (My Little Pony, Scooby Doo) with illustrations by Melanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies).  The publisher is promising that this new series will have the same emotion-driven cheerful adventure stories that first made the Care Bears franchise a global phenomenon in the 1980s.  Care Bears started as a line of greeting cards in 1981 and quickly became a smash hit children's entertainment franchise with a series of animated films and television cartoons along with a blockbuster-selling toy line.  The new comics will launch ahead of a new animated series, Care Bears & Cousins, set to debut on Netflix in 2016.

"The best thing about writing Care Bears is that each of the core characters has a distinct personality and a role to play that take them on exciting adventures to new places," writer Georgia Ball relayed to A Geek Daddy blog via email.  "I've worked with American Greetings on comic books before and loved every minute of it; I'm thrilled to be writing with them again on a property that was such a major part of my childhood.  Melanie Gillman's art is just terrific -- cheery and bright, just like Care-A-Lot itself. Kids are going to love it."

Roar Comics plans to provide more information on the new series plus release artwork samples  during the big Comic Con convention in San Diego.  The publisher also announced during the American Library Association's recent annual conference that the company's full catalog of e-book releases will be available via Follett's digital lending platform for access by library patrons across the country.  If you have a library card, you may want to check out what e-books and digital comics you may have access to.  I know that's a service our family doesn't take as much benefit from as we probably could.

"Getting comics into the hands of kids everywhere is crucial to Lion Forge's mission of making comics for everyone," Lion Forge CEO Dave Steward noted before attendees at the American Library Association's Annual Conference.  "We want our books - especially great new series like Care Bears - available to librarians and their patrons on any platform and medium they choose."

Those are words I like to hear!   Keep an eye out for more information about the Care Bears comic books as their app becomes available on digital platforms, the printed books hit retail shelves next year, and hopefully the digital and print versions will be available soon at your local public library.  I'm pretty sure a lot of children (and their parents who were kids in the 80s) are going to be excited by this new comic book series.

Keep Your Kids Amused & Learning Over the Summer Break Through A Library Reading Program

While lazy summer days may be fun they can also really set kids behind when it comes time to return back to school.  A good way to keep children amused during the break is to check with your local library to see if they are offering a summer children's program.  Libraries across the United States often participate in the Collaborative Summer Library Program which is a consortium of states working together to provide high-quality summer reading program materials for children and teens.  This year's theme is "EVERY HERO HAS A STORY" which participating libraries can base activities and programs around to entertain and educate children throughout the summer.  It is important to keep children reading throughout their summer break to maintain proficiency so they don't start the new school year with diminished academic skills.  While some library programs focus on just reading others also include programs that promote math, science, history, and an appreciation for learning in general.  These programs primarily take place during the month of July so now is a good time to check into them and get your kids enrolled.

My kids started off their summer with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle day at the library which involved doing various feats around the children's section like a bean bag toss, bucket stacking competition, and scavenger hunt to get them familiar with visiting the library.

Other activities taking place throughout June/July include reading to a therapy dog, competing in a LEGO building block challenge, doing experiments at a science fair, enjoying a magic show, attending a safety presentation with police/fire departments and participating in a program called "Be a Math Hero."  Most of these activities are an hour long and they are sprinkled throughout the month so children still have plenty of time to enjoy just being a kid during the summer.  Plus these programs tend to be somewhat entertaining for the kids as well as educational which is always a plus for me from my parenting perspective.

In addition to the activities and programs offered, my kids also are challenged to submit a list of books they've read each week to the library for a chance to win prizes.  Also every kids who participates in the reading challenge gets some FREE books from the library at the end of the year.  Our librarian has told me that they've received a donation of Kohls Cares books so that every child participating is guaranteed a good quality new book to take home as a reward for their participation. I'm sure this varies from library to library but we appreciate seeing Kohl's being involved in the community with our local public library, especially because our family does a lot of shopping there.

Most of these programs are aimed at children from preschool to fifth grade.  If you have some kids in that age range that don't have a whole lot planned to do for the summer, I encourage you to contact the libraries in your area and see what they have going on.  To search for public libraries near you, visit  publiclibraries.com

Travel to BLOOM COUNTY with a Humble Comics Bundle

Before apps and wifi, the Internet and wifi when reading newspapers were still a mainstay of how people got their news and comic strips were a regular conversation around the workplace water cooler there was BLOOM COUNTY.  This comic strip by Berkeley Breathed was published in newspapers across the United States from December 8, 1980 through August 6, 1989.  Bloom County examined American politics and culture from the perspective of a fantastic county in Middle America where children had adult personalities and animals could talk.   Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 in editorial cartooning for his work in Bloom County.  IDW Publishing has compiled all of Breathed's comic strips which are now available for a limited time as a Humble Bundle deal.

The Humble Bundle deal lets people pay whatever amount they choose to receive 4 annual volumes of Bloom County comic strips for the years 1980 - 1984 from IDW.  You could pay $5, $10, $25, $50 whatever you'd like to purchase this comic bundle and designate from that sum how much IDW receives, how much of a tip to give Humble for its serve, and how much to donate to a designated charity, in this case Traveling Stories .  So if someone were to purchase the bundle for $15 they could designate $5 to each or could give $10 to Traveling Stories with $2.50 each going to the other two.  You get the gist. It is hoped people will appreciate getting a good deal and at the same time also be generous enough to support the charities using the Bundle as a fundraiser.

In addition to the basic package, if you spend the average amount of purchases on this comic bundle, you'll also get Bloom County: The Complete Digital Library Volumes 5 - 9 which covers the years 1985 - 1989.  Plus paying the average price + $5 unlocks two more titles, Berkeley Breathed's Opus: The Complete Digital Library of Sunday Comics 2003-2008 & Berkeley Breathed's Outland: The Complete Digital Collection 1989 - 1995.

Money spent on this Humble Bundle also supports the charity Traveling Stories. Traveling Stories is a nonprofit organization dedicated to outsmarting poverty one book at a time and inspiring a love for reading everywhere! We build libraries in book-poor villages around the world and provide free reading support in the U.S. through StoryTent programs.

These digital books are DRM-free which means that they aren't tied to a particular website or computer program to be able to read.  Download them onto whatever device you want and read them at your convenience where and when you want.  I've heard that accessing these comics works great from a PC or laptop but some people have had difficulties with them on smart phones and tablets.  Here's a hint, for smart phones and tablets download an app called Bluefire Reader that is meant to optimize reading ebooks and you should be in good shape with those devices too.

If you are interested in traveling back to Bloom County don't hesitate in purchasing your Humble Comics Bundle as it will be gone as of Wednesday, March 18, 2015.