Kids Are Weird: And Other Observations from Parenthood - Jeffrey Brown

Title: Kids Are Weird: And Other Observations from Parenthood
Author: Jeffrey Brown
Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2014 (Hardcover)
Length: 108 pages
Genre: Adult; Graphic Novel, Parenting
Started: August 20, 2014
Finished: August 20, 2014

Summary:
From the back cover:

Eisner Award-winning author of the bestselling Darth Vader and Son and Vader's Little Princess Jeffrey Brown brings his perceptive humour to everyday parenting, capturing the hilarious, sweetly weird moments parents everywhere experience in the adventures of raising a child.

Review:
The author's "Darth Vader and Kids" books as I call them are well-loved in this house, I've given them as presents to my husband for Father's Day for two years in a row (with the brand new Goodnight Darth Vader book going in his stocking for Christmas, shhhh!). So when I saw he was releasing a generic parenting graphic novel, I figured it was a no-brainer. Unfortunately this particular book didn't make as much of an impression on me as his Darth Vader books.

Perhaps I'm just a huge geek and parenting anecdotes just seem funnier when experienced by the Sith Lord, but while this particular book definitely had it's weird episodes, the weirdness seemed to cross the boundary from "quirky but totally cute" to "so weird and quirky it makes you give the kid the side-eye." Most of the anecdotes just weren't all that funny. I'm sure they're funny to the author in the same way everything my 3-year-old does is hilarious to me, but at least I can admit that not everyone is going to be enamoured with my kid's quirks the way I am.

The image above is one part I did giggle at though, because let's face it, kids embarrassing parents is always funny.

The art style is great just like his other books, I noticed he tends to put a lot of detail into his backgrounds.

Recommendation:
Didn't make as much of an impression as the author's Darth Vader books, which if you haven't read those or bought them for the dad in your life, you need to go do that now. I'll wait...

Thoughts on the cover:
Very bright colour scheme used here, if nothing else it's really eye-catching.