T-Runt - Hardcover

McCulloch, Derek

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1607060744 ISBN 13: 9781607060741

Publisher: Image Comics, 2009

Synopsis

• He was the runt of the litter and was always picked on by the larger T-rex's... but his world is about to change when T-Runt discovers he isn't the smallest animal — let alone dinosaur — in the world!
• A Silverline Book by critically acclaimed author Derek McCulloch and artist Jimmie Robinson!

About this title

Review:

Derek McCulloch, writer of the award-winning (and superb) study of folk music and racism Stagger Lee, and Jimmie Robinson, the comics artist famous for his work on stylistically excessive Bomb Queen, don t seem like the most natural pair to collaborate on a children s book, but with T RUNT!, that s exactly what they ve done.

Based on their previous work, it shouldn t be terribly surprising to learn that McCulloch and Robinson are sufficiently talented and professional to make the gambit work for them. T RUNT! is the story of Vegrandis, the smallest of three baby Tyrannosaurs, as he discovers that being the smallest of his litter doesn t mean that he s the smallest creature around. It s a simple moral, easily digested, but couched in a solid and well-crafted narrative.

Though there have been many wonderful all-ages comics, T RUNT! is truly a children s book, with big single-image pages, minimal text and a basic lesson in behavior. Readers of all ages with likely enjoy the energetic and colorful illustrations Robinson provides, and readers with children of their own (or child readers themselves) will undoubtedly love McCulloch s fun and precise narrative. --Newsarama, Michael C Lorah

From Publishers Weekly:

Vegrandis, the smallest dinosaur in a family of tyrannosaurs, "often felt overlooked." His two larger siblings beat him to dinner, regularly step or sit on him and exclude him. And his father, reading the "Old York Times" in his stone chair, only tells him, "Somebody's got to be smallest. It's the law of the jungle." But when Vegrandis saves a ratlike mammal from a group of bullies, he realizes, in a needlessly ponderous stretch of text, that although he is not the biggest, he is also not the smallest, and "he really didn't mind being the size he was." Robinson's action-filled illustrations take on a comic book feel with hashmarks to show movement, floating punctuation above characters' heads and speech bubbles. Likewise, the story's resolution is comic book swift-suddenly, "a funny thing happened. Vegrandis got bigger... a LOT bigger." Despite his enormous size, the hero treats his siblings "very nicely, just the way he'd always wanted them to treat him." While this didactic tale is heavy on exposition, the likeable characters and cartoons make it an enjoyable, if unmemorable, read. Ages 4-8.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Image Comics
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1607060744
• ISBN 13: 9781607060741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32