Cedric Book 2: Dad's Got Class
Cedric Book 2: Dad's Got Class, by Cauvin & Laurdec, Cinebook.
CEDRIC HAS surface similarities to American newspaper strips like their version of Dennis the Menace, the extended family antics of British humour and the pacing and wry maturity of French comics, but above all it's the story of a little boy and so it has universal appeal.
It's the most modern comic strip about little kids I've read without it feeling patronising or trying to be too worthy and hip. It just is. It's take on the modern youngster feels right, and what's more it's even funny.
Eight year old Cedric has a crush on Chen, a girl at school, but that's going nowhere fast. The fact that his father's an embarrassing daddy-dancer in the making type doesn't fare well as role models go (so the book's title's a misnomer), and you can tell the lad gets his grumbling ways direct from his cantankerous grandfather (his mother's father) and will probably grow up to tell just as many tall stories as him, but hopefully continue to be an old romantic too!
In this collection Cedric goes to a party dressed in drag, visits his great-aunt and her cats, goes scouting and suffers the bitter slings and arrows of love.
Cedric 2 is a nice collection, with short strips that you can dip into and read when you've the odd spare minutes for a satisfying break. For those who presumably first read them as stand-alone tales in some French anthology or other it must have proved a regular weekly or monthly delight.
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