Crogan's Vengeance

Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer is the first of a planned sixteen volume graphic novel series that covers the adventures of the Crogan family through three centuries. This volume was short listed for the graphics novel category for the 2009 Cybils. I read it as a panel judge. At first I was excited to jump into the book. It's a nice hard cover with an obvious pirate theme as shown by the artwork on the cover. Although the series is aimed at boys, I grew up reading pirate stories, watching pirate films and even researching pirates. So no, I wasn't expecting parrots on the shoulders. My excitement though quickly vanished when I saw the framing story. The youngest Crogan has gotten into trouble at school and dear old dad has decided to use the situation as a teachable moment (gag). He tells his son about Catfoot Crogan, the unwilling pirate who maintained his honor in the face of temptation. Let's just do away with the humans and stick the Veggie Tales characters on board because that's what Crogan's Vengeance is most like. Without a compelling story to keep me going, I was left with the goofy artwork. Except as a Sunday school comic it doesn't work. Since though this book (and maybe the whole series?) is heavy on the morals, I suppose the artwork is appropriate. I showed the book briefly to my son who is technically younger than the intended age group but he's reading through older books such as the Percy Jackson series so I wanted his honest opinion. He politely read a couple pages and handed it back to me telling me he wasn't interested. I reviewed the book for the Cybils but I bought the copy I read.