URBAN LEGENDZ by Paul Downs, Nick Bruno & Michael Yates
✯✯✯✯ Review by Astrid Galactic
Tales of the big city involving flying
gargoyles, giant rats, monster bed bugs, toilet alligators, territorial gangs, urban
renewal and political intrigue is the stuff that urban legends are made of in a
new kids comic book entitled Urban Legendz. Paul Downs, Nick Bruno and Michael
Yates have joined forces to create a an urban story about a group of good, yet
troubled, kids in Brooklyn, New York who join forces to fight off an array of
monsters destroying people within their community.
Our story starts when young Dwayne (D for
short), his teenage brother Curtis and his police officer father move from
their home in Indiana to live with their Grandma Ri who is the mother of their
recently departed mother. The plan is to live with her in her apartment in Brooklyn,
New York until they are able to get themselves situated in their new city. This
is not an easy move for the family, especially for Dwayne who is still very
much grieving over the loss of his mother as well as having to be uprooted from
his home in Middle America.
Despite his unhappiness about the move, Dwayne
manages to quickly become friends with a small group of kids his age who each
have their own personal troubled lives to deal with. Together, they provide
comradery, safety and support for each other as they then team up to tackle the
monsters of urban legend fame which are now terrorizing their hometown.
Urban Legendz is a beautifully hardcover bound
comic book with nice colorful thick pages meant to delight its readers and
withstand lots of usage for many reads in its lifetime. You could say that it's
kid proof and should hold up well in a school or public library. Or just a
sturdy book that would be a nice addition for a family library.
The illustrations are highly professional and
fitting for the story. In fact, the book itself, to me, felt like I was reading
a refined storyboard for an animation feature film that the publishers are
using to promote a future movie release or hoping to drum up enough excitement
to get funding in order to do so.
My only real issues with the book involves the
story itself. Though a great idea that starts out well enough, ultimately, I
felt like it started out well, moved along okay, but then left a lot off the
table once we got towards the end. It came off to me as all set up with very
little substance once the monsters were defeated and various town issues were
supposedly resolved. In fact, I never felt like the town issues were resolved
at all. Nothing but a little spin that affected some family issues only
slightly while the real housing developers too easily moved along, as in,
business as usual. Regarding the book, the last third felt like a rush job just
to get to the end before they ran out of paper. It wasn't a major flaw and I
doubt a child would notice, but it left me feeling like some important details
were missing.
The book is rated as being for ages 12-18 and
for grade levels 7 and up. Personally, I'm leaning towards thinking that's a
bit high. Depending on the maturity of the child, reading skills and personal
fear factors, I would think that it would be more 8-14 and from grade 3 and up.
It's fairly easy reading with a storyline that is moderately developed. A
younger child would need some help with some of the words but the illustrations
would have them excited enough to want to go through the book over and over so
that they would easily enough learn those words that are newer to them. Unless
the reader has a love of comic books, I would think that it's much too juvenile
for one 15 and older.
This would make for a nice gift for a young
reader especially if they have an interest in urban lifestyles, monsters or a
fascination with comic books. Probably more appealing to boys but don't assume
that the girls wouldn't take to it just as easily.
As with any book you are planning to give to a
young person, give it a good skim through before you decide to make sure it
might interest them as well as it suiting your standards for what you feel is
acceptable exposure.
Comic Books
Children
Hardcover, 112 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1594657146
Publisher: BiG
Release Date: June 11, 2019
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