Alexis E. Fajardo's Blog, page 8

Kid Beowulf Teachers Guide

For all of you using Kid Beowulf in the classroom my publisher AMP! Comics for Kids has put together a Teacher’s Guide full of activities and discussion for grades 3-5. Written by Tracy Edmunds, M.A. Ed. and done in conjunction with the literacy group, Reading With Pictures this free PDF is an in-depth resource full of great content for your students! Click the image below to download the PDF.

INTERVIEW – Tall Tale Radio Podcast

I’ve been fortunate enough to be interviewed by Tom Racine on his terrific podcast Tall Tale Radio since its inception.  Tom is a a long time friend and supporter of not only my work but the cartooning community at large and the vast archive guest interviews is always worth listening too.

Here’s my most recent interview with Tom and his co-host Lucas Turnbloom where we talk about the new book, the launch of the mobile game, and comics life.

Tall Tale Radio Interview – June 2016

REVIEW – No Flying No Tights

The artist and creator, Alexis E. Fajardo, has created an imaginative story perfect for young fans of mythological adventure and fantasy stories…Along with the great characters, Fajardo’s artwork and storytelling align perfectly. His cartoon-ish style will remind readers of newspaper comics, with expressive characters, little moments of humor, a bright color scheme, and comic onomatopoeia. Graphic novel readers who enjoy fantasy comics such as Jeff Smith’s Bone and Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet will be delighted with the fantasy elements and hints of mythological inspiration.

That’s just some of the great commentary from a review of book one from the graphic novel review site, No Flying No Tights. Click here for the full review!

REVIEW – InfoDad Family-Focused Reviews

The InfoDad Review Blog does a monster-filled four-star review of book one!  Read an excerpt below and the full review here.

Beowulf is so resonant that it has not only been translated innumerable times but has also been rewritten, adapted, modernized, updated, interpreted and reinterpreted to such a degree that it would seem hard to find anything new to do with it. Alexis E. Fajardo has, however, figured something out: a story very loosely based on the epic poem, reinterpreting the whole central theme of Beowulf in significant ways, aimed at 21st-century preteens and young teenagers, and packaged as a series of graphic novels. The whole notion could easily have been both silly and depressing, but Fajardo handles it so well that it is merely silly – and in some respects not silly at all. Fajardo makes Beowulf and Grendel into brothers, and yes, that is the silly part, but Fajardo twists the legend enough to make this foundational premise barely plausible and, more importantly, to turn this series into a journey both of geography and of self-knowledge.

INTERVIEW – Podcast of Two Worlds

Trevor Reece, host of The Flash podcast, Podcast of Two Worlds invited me onto his new segment “TrevTalks” to chat about KidB. I’ve known Trevor for awhile from his Sonoma County dayt – he knows his comics and I had a fun time talking craft with him. I look forward to more of his creator interviews.

INTERVIEW – Comix Experience Kids Book Club

I was honored and thrilled that KidB was chosen for the Kids Graphic Novel of the month for August at San Francisco’s Comix Experience! I went down and chatted with the book club about the series, my process, and some fun Q&A. You can check out the video below.

REVIEW – Tween Book Blog

I’m loving the art in this comic as well – for being such a serious story, Farjado has infused bursts of color to give it almost a jaunty, fun feeling that draws you in. It gives the characters a more figurative color and we feel more attached to them. I’m so excited for this series and I can’t wait to read more!

The Tween Book Blog has even more nice things to say in their review of The Blood-Bound Oath – read the rest here!

INTERVIEW – The Beat

I’ve always loved mythology. I grew up reading Greek and Roman myths. I studied Classics in college, but Beowulf was the first epic poem I read and it stuck with me.  After college I was rereading it and I was struck by the weird thought of what would Beowulf have been like as a kid? In the poem he’s like Athena–the warrior appears fully formed–so to think of him as a kid was funny notion.

This is an excerpt from an interview I did  for renowned comics industry blog The Beat! My thanks to Alex Dueben for conducting the interview which you can read in its entirety here.

REVIEW – The Graphic Classroom

The sweet scent of epical heroism is entrenched with diversity and multicultural mythos. At the end of book one the two boys, Beowulf and Grendel, set off on a quest to discover themselves and their destinies. In future installments, the twins will travel the continents interacting with numerous cultural mythologies and heroes. As the boys grow into men they will, ultimately, come to the place where the great Beowulf poem comes to fruition. For most of us, we already know what awaits the boys. It is their youthful, and fictional, journey to manhood that we will experience and appreciate.

That’s an excerpt from Chris Wilson’s review of Kid Beowulf: The Blood-Bound Oath for The Graphic Classroom. This was from his review of the original BW version which he highly recommends for teachers and classrooms! Read the full review here.

INTERVIEW – 2016 FlyCo Mini Indie Con