Kaput and Zosky by Lewis Trondheim (amazon)

Kaput and Zosky is a thoroughly delightful comic book for young people about inept space invaders. Kaput and Zosky travel from planet to planet looking for a world to rule but they never seem to manage to pull it off. They land on a planet where the inhabitants immediately capitulate, run into issues with another planet’s potato-like populace, accidentally take over a world due to gambling and investments, and fail in an attempt to rule through democracy. Each time, the duo’s plans for mayhem and domination are spoiled, so they set out for new worlds to conquer.
Kaput is short and squat, with a wide mouth full of sharp teeth. He’s determined to cause as much mayhem as possible, saying things about like “Let’s be charitable and share our knowledge. We’ll teach them the meaning of pain and fear!” Zosky is taller, with expressive yellow antennae. He tends to be a little more moderate and logical in his quest for absolute power; “Phase 1: Analyze the ground situation. Phase 2: Devise a plan of action. Phase 3: Seize Power!!!!”
The art is expressive and whimsical, with a variety of cool looking aliens and monsters that Kaput and Zosky are never able to enslave no matter how hard they try. There’s an excerpt of Kaput and Zosky available on the First Second web site, so you can preview the book. I’m not sure that very young children will be able to fully comprehend the finer points of a parody of democracy or the trouble with arms races, but parents reading the book with their children will appreciate these plot elements. I’m definitely looking forward to sharing this book with my sons when they’re older, because I think every child should have a book that contains vocabulary building words like destruction, ruination, and planetary domination.

Review copy provided by First Second

A couple of the books that I most enjoyed reading because of the Cybils were Laika and Robot Dreams.

Laika by Nick Abadzis (amazon)

Laika combines fact and fiction in a retelling of the story of the first dog in space. I didn’t really know a whole lot about the historical background of Laika’s flight, I enjoyed reading her story, which was told from the point of view of multiple characters. We see a little bit of Laika’s early life on the streets of Moscow. Other featured characters include the engineer Korolev who is incredibly ambitious after his experience as a political prisoner, the dog trainer Yelena, and a little girl who wasn’t able to keep Laika as a pet.
Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still got a little teary-eyed at the end of the book. The details about the unforeseen political issues that occurred after Laika’s flight were also very interesting. The thick black lines of the art serve to emphasize the anxiety and emotions of Laika’s caretakers. Laika is a must-have book for most school libraries, as it would fit in well with history curriculum since it so capably dramatizes the human elements of the early space race. Also, it has a bibliography! As a librarian, I do find bibliographies in graphic novels quite thrilling.

Robot Dreams (amazon)

I usually steer clear of wordless graphic novels. There isn’t really a valid reason for my doing so, I just tend to like text. So it was interesting that this year’s Cybils had two wordless nominations, The Arrival and Robot Dreams. In Robot Dreams, a dog assembles a robot from a mail order kit. They become friends, bonding over classic Hayao Miyazaki movies and making popcorn. When Dog takes Robot to the beach, Robot becomes rusty and can’t budge. Dog reluctantly abandons his new friend, when he comes back to attempt to repair him, the beach is closed.
Robot Dreams splits into parallel stories, as Robot dreams of all the adventures he can’t have. The dreams have vivid imagery; Robot hitches a ride on a bird only to fall asleep being embraced by a cloud, he digs his way up to the top of a mountain, and encounters a friend in his dream in the shape of a flower. Dog meets new people, but they don’t seem to be able to replace his lost Robot pal. The art is simple and engaging, portraying a variety of creatures going about their day to day tasks. Robot Dreams is a great story of friendship lost and found. And it has robots in it, so you know it has to be cool

Review copies were provided by the publisher.