I read Ted Naifeh's Couurtney Crumrin series a while ago and really loved it, but didn't really get into other things I tried by him. I must not have looked hard enough, because Death Jr. is a gem. Making a young grim reaper into a sweet little kid is probably not easy to do convincingly, but he and Gary Whitta have done it here. The humor is sharp, the story and characters fun. I'll be recommending this at both my jobs every chance I get. ( )

Adorable! ( )

Fun and quirky if a bit oddly paced, I liked the art, especially how differently Death was drawn than the rest of the world.
The story was interesting, it was clearly more an intro into the world than a strong, stand on it's own story and for that it worked quite well.
A good start and a series I am looking forward to reading more of. ( )

I'm a sucker for books about Death--as a character, at least. New Adventures of Death, Death Takes a Holiday--Death makes a great character in comics. In this one, we're mostly following Death's son and his friends (Pandora, Stigmartha, a pair of conjoined twins who share a brain, and something that I think was maybe a fetus in a jar?), who are trying to fit in while juggling the weirdness that comes with being friends with Death's kid. Who himself is trying to prove that he can do his dad's job, and that Dad Treat Him Like a Baby. We've all been there--we just didn't have the dangerous tools that DJ has.

The writing is okay--I'd pass it on to kids looking for something sort of goofy-fun--but what really holds this together is the art. Naifeh really made his name with Courtney Crumrin, and this is the same art style--it's a nice blend of goofy-cute and goth, appropriate for middle-school readers, I think. I'm going to go ahead and read volume 2 because it's already on my desk, but I don't think I'd really go out of my way for it. So, good, but not great.
( )

Okay, so this concept is a little strange. I mean how nice can the grim reaper really be as a dad? As we find out in this book, it's a different kind of nice. It's a weird concept to have a comic book about the son of the Grim Reaper and there's another character named Pandora who can't seem to keep her hands off of locked boxes, chests, and other box-like things. It was cute and clever and still made you feel good at the end of the story. ( )