PRIDE MONTH 2026! Over the course of Pride Month at Broken Frontier we have included coverage of a number of children’s books on the grounds that there’s a growing adoption of comics storytelling tools in this area. That is, of course, alongside the obvious importance of spotlighting queer graphic narrative for kids at a point in time when DEI attacks have become commonplace and targeted this kind of literature in particular. Ian Eagleton and Hayley Wells have gone one step further than sprinkling in elements of the language of comics in their book Superheroes in the Park by also including reference to that most prominent of tropes in Western comics. Although here the real super-power involved is ultimately family love.
Superheroes in the Park centres on one young child’s day out with parents Dad and Daddy. The implication is that this is a new family unit as the two Dads become overly cautious about safety in the playground and end up apologising for finding their feet with their parenting skills. But all is resolved when the trio let go of their anxiety and allow their imaginations to run wild as the park’s environs become a world of dinosaurs, super-heroes, sea monsters and more…
Eagleton writes from a child’s eye perspective designed to give the younger reader an empathetic connection with the page and a character to instantly identify with. This is a story that succeeds so well not simply for its message about the power of family, or its wild forays into fantasy realms, but also for its quiet and subtle rejection of heteronormativity.
Wells’ artwork is a delight throughout. Colourful and vibrant, again adopting comics norms like speech balloons and sequential sequences in places, they are given free rein to jump back and forth between sweet everyday scenes of family life to expansive shots of imagined prehistory, pirate ships and alligator-filled obstacles. Lettering is used cleverly throughout to stress the emotion and excitement of the day.
This is our last sidestep into children’s illustration for Pride Month this year at Broken Frontier but we could not have ended on a more life-affirming, joyous and positive piece of storytelling for kids.
Ian Eagleton (W), Hayley Wells (A) • Otter-Barry Books, £12.99
Review by Andy Oliver
