{"id":47021,"date":"2026-10-06T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=47021"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:18:08","slug":"shaman-vol-1-adventures-with-barefoot-critters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/shaman-vol-1-adventures-with-barefoot-critters\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaman Vol. 1 \/ Adventures with Barefoot Critters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SHAMAN IS BONKERS AND GOOFY AND ABSURD \u2013 AND GROUNDED IN REALITY<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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Shaman Vol. 1<\/em>
by Ben Kahn (author) and Bruno Hidalgo (artist)
Locust Moon Press
2015, 132 pages, 7 x 10.5 x 0.2 inches (paperback)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the one who makes your whole world possible. This is a world of noble heroes, and savage villains. A world where men and women of great power die everyday. And the Shaman? The Shaman is the one who brings them back.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Kahn and Bruno Hidalgo\u2019s Shaman Vol. 1<\/em> is, on its surface, an entertaining, fast-paced, self-deprecating story about a guy who raises the dead, his young daughter who wields magic from her mystical tattoos, and a teleporting former superhero-turned-sidekick who travel around bringing back to life those whom \u201cthe personification of life itself\u201d tells them to. Along the way, they fight skeletons and Cosmic Guardians and giant green monsters, all the while throwing down quips and wisecracks and pop culture references. It\u2019s fun stuff all around, pulling you in and making you laugh out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But coursing underneath throughout the narrative is an examination of the concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, life and loss, and what it means to be a \u201cfamily.\u201d Ben Kahn\u2019s storytelling works in the gray areas where nothing is clean cut, and everything, therefore, becomes far more interesting. What could easily be flat, one-dimensional characters are, here, complex, multi-dimensional beings whose motivations and choices are constantly examined and second-guessed. As outlandish a concept as Shaman<\/em> is, it\u2019s grounded in the human reality; the reader knows these characters because the reader is<\/em> these characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So often in comics the intent of the writer gets lost in the complexity of the artist\u2019s choices, but not so in Shaman<\/em>. Bruno Hidalgo\u2019s rendering, linework, composition, and pacing not only complement the tone of Kahn\u2019s rich narrative, they enhance it. Hidalgo understands the beats of graphic storytelling, pausing in all the right moments, and using panel structure and layout to capture the rhythm of action. Hidalgo\u2019s choices as an artist amplify both the comedic and dramatic elements of Shaman perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, much of Shaman Volume 1<\/em> is bonkers and goofy and absurd. But Kahn and Hidalgo are offering much more than Pop Tarts for breakfast here. What is the right thing to do? How do we understand pain and loss in our lives? What does it mean to be a parent, a friend, a hero? Shaman<\/em> is serving a full meal for dinner \u2013 it just happens to be one with a deliciously sweet and fun frosting on top. \u2013 Daniel Elkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ADVENTURES WITH BAREFOOT CRITTERS TEACHES ABCS WITH CHARMING WOODLAND FLORA AND FAUNA<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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Adventures with Barefoot Critters<\/em>
by Teagan White
Tundra Books
2014, 312 pages, 8.4 x 10.3 x 0.5 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A is for adorable and that\u2019s just the beginning of the attributes you\u2019ll want to ascribe to this sweet account of anthropomorphic animals and the alphabet. Teagan White has created a charming book filled with colors awash in the glow of nostalgia, where forest critters romp across a scenic woodland, bundled in impossibly cute sweaters and tiny, striped scarves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adventures with Barefoot Creatures<\/em> is characterized as an ABC book but its letter-themed, rhyming stanzas also follow the woodland flora and fauna through the seasons. A, B and C take place in deep winter as the critters clean out the attic and sniffle through colds. Spring arrives, with robin\u2019s eggs and growing things twining their green vines and reaching across the pages in a riot of whimsy. Exuberant, the critters frolic in the summer\u2019s sun, swimming in the lake and collecting ocean artifacts from the shores. As the end of the alphabet approaches, cable knit sweaters reappear and the illustrations become clotted with the changing colors of leaves and the warmth of campfires. Z arrives to find the barefoot critters snuggled together, exhausted from their delightful New Year\u2019s festivities and tumbled together in a darling snoozefest on the couch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC books are a well-explored subgenre that usually offers little in the way of novelty. Adventures with Barefoot Critters<\/em> is a title that steps outside the clich\u00e9d with playful, quaint artwork that beguiles. If you enjoy the fascinating world of the quirky, imaginative Ms. White and her cast of cheery woodland companions, keep your eyes peeled for her latest book arriving in late summer, Counting with Barefoot Critters<\/em>. Be assured that it will contain enough anthropomorphic animals in adorable sweaters to warm your literary heart through another season of reading. \u2013 Kaz Weida<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong>\u00a0first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em>\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 138<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47039,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47021\/revisions\/47039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}