I really enjoyed this! It was a lot of fun. I know this is supposed to be for kids, but I can't imagine any adult that wouldn't enjoy this too (ok, I can imagine adults who wouldn't, but they're no fun and I don't think I wanna hang out with them). Admittedly, I didn't play superhero that much as a kid (I was more of a Starfleet away team girl, blue shirt, not the more dangerous red), but I was a big fan of the Adam West Batman series, so the nostalgia feels this book brought me were quite welcome in my brain. Buy this for a kid you like, but don't forget to read and enjoy it first!

“Fann Club: Batman Squad“ with story and art by Jim Benton is a graphic novel about a young Batman fan who kind of takes things a little overboard.

Ernest Fann loves Batman. He decides to set up a crime fighting unit, including his best friend, his dog, and his babysitter. Training includes standing mysteriously on a roof, going on patrol in the neighborhood, and hunting for werewolves. When they get caught up in a bank robbery, Ernest Fann a.k.a. Gerbilwing springs into action.

This is a pretty hilarious graphic novel about playing and imagination. It’s great for younger readers as well as big Batman fans like me. The art is pretty hilarious and I enjoyed reading it

Fann Club: Batman Squad by Jim Benton

Join lovable Ernest Fann as he attempts to fulfill his destiny and “share the ways of Batman with others” by forming a fan club. Ernest’s babysitter, Harriet, his best friend, Jack, and his faithful dog, West, join Ernest in his hilarious crime-fighting adventures. Can the surprisingly unaware Ernest fight the villains and save the day? This book should appeal to fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Nate the Great and, of course, the caped crusader, Batman!

Thank you to NetGalley and DC Entertainment for sending this book for review consideration.

Jim Benton is one of my all-time favorite kids’ graphic novel authors! Also, not just mine, but my tween’s also. I remember we discovered Catwad books several years ago, it was an instant love!
When I saw this brand-new book by the same author, I just knew I am going to want to read it. And it did not disappoint!
The quirky drawings, the silly text. The laugh-out-loud moments, so much snorting – all this while reading this little book. My tween said that this book is a very funny one but in a silly way. And I agree with her completely.
How I see books like this one: not all books have to be “of value”, “educational” or “classic”. The world needs more, way more books like this one – that is just pure enjoyment. The book with the sole purpose of bringing joy, fun, and laughs into this world. This book also made me remember my very unpopular book opinion: if you give your child only “serious” and “good” books, the child will most likely never learn to enjoy reading. If you help create all the neural pathways that make the child see reading as something FUN, someday this child will voluntarily pick out a “serious”, “good”, or “smart” book and start reading those too, and this child will enjoy it. That way, reading is never going to be an annoying chore or boring homework.

I asked my tween what she liked most about this book. This is what she wrote:
- That ‘’werewolf’’ (who is a man) chewed very important socks then he threw his only batman comic book, and then he robbed a bank.
- I liked the drawings.
- There was a good proportion of drawings and text.
- I want to read more from this author.
- I think there should be many different fann club books.
- I would recommend this book to people who like really funny things.

CATWAD author/artist Jim Benton takes on the Batman mythos with an elementary school-aged Batman devotee attempting to take on the Caped Crusader's life work.

Told in short, snappy chapters, Fann Club: Batman Squad definitely captures a playful, childlike spirit along with a silly sendup of superhero origin stories and quest narratives.

The amateur heroes (and heroine) are tasked (or, rather, task themselves) with thwarting crime wherever they can, and a series of silly nonsense "crimes" lead them towards a real (and hapless and also silly) bank robbery.

There's a pure heart in this, and a real appreciation for children's imaginative play (the conversations between the members of the Batman Squad as they attempt to fight crime sound just like the conversations I hear between flesh and blood second graders at my school). Adults might not appreciate the morsels of crass humor that sprinkle throughout (dog poo, butts, and more dog poo are very well-represented in this story), but Benton's target market will eat it up.