My son and I spent a few hours today at the Small Press Expo, an annual festival of comics and cartooning in Bethesda, Md.
Our biggest find was discovering Frank Cammuso, author of a terrific new children’s comic book, Knights of the Lunch Table. My son and I just read his book at bedtime. Cammuso has a wonderfully vivid style, with bright colors and bold lines. His tale of a young boy struggling to fit in at a new school is conventional, but supremely entertaining. Even though my son didn’t understand the Arthurian references, I had to tear the book from his hands to get him to go to sleep.
Bonus: Cammuso is a political cartoonist for the Syracuse Post-Standard. I’m acquainting myself with his fine work.
My son and I are also fans of Jen Sorenson’s Slowpoke cartoons, although he isn’t old enough to grasp her political commentary. He just likes her funny, exaggerated characters. Jen seemed genuinely surprised and flattered to have a 6-year-old counted among her fans. She patiently told him how she got started in drawing. She graciously signed her new book for him and drew him a character.
I was also pleased to get a signed book from August Pollack, one the most compelling up-and-coming commentators, I follow. When he’s not working at his new job at the Cartoon Network, August draws and blogs at someguywithawebsite.com.
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