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Urban Legendz
After his mother's death, teen Dwayne is forced to uproot himself and move into the home where his mother grew up: a shabby apartment in Brooklyn. Overshadowed by his socially salient older brother, and pressured by his policeman father, Dwayne often feels out of place, a sentiment that is only intensified in these unfamiliar surroundings. Before too long, however, his personal problems are cast aside when he gets suckered into joining a new crew of young vigilantes, devoted to solving a series of sinister cases surrounding mysterious monsters that have been wreaking havoc throughout the city.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
December 21, 2020
Tries to be The Goonies set in Brooklyn. The thin plot is merely just an excuse to incorporate the urban myths centered around New York City. Kudos for using the Gowanus Canal monster though.
March 5, 2021
Monsters/urban legends are rising up and Brooklyn is in trouble! It is up to Dwayne and his friends to fix the situation.
Given that this is the first volume I had expected that this would be an intro into the world of Urban Legendz/s. Instead it is a full story! It takes place in Brookly, and according to the ending the next will be on Coney’s Island. Now I am curious if the author will go for other boroughs/parts of New York as well and I am of course curious what legends and monsters we will see in that one.
In overall, I did enjoy the story, BUT, due to it feeling like an intro yet having a complete story has thrown me off and at times it just felt a bit too stuffed and too rushed. It is just 112 pages, and I think that it may have been better if the story had been spread out over 50 more pages. Just to get a better feel of the story, of the characters. Plus, I still am curious what happened to those who were taken. Dead? Not dead? Something else?
The story begins with Dwayne and his dad and brother going to live with his grandmother after the death of their mother/wife. My heart broke for this family. We see how each family member is dealing with the situation.
I loved that Dwayne made friends so quickly, BUT I wasn’t happy how they pressured them to steal his dad police phone thingie (lost the word for that, haha). But after that they did improve and I started to like them quite a bit and I loved that we learned quite a bit about them.
The monsters were creepy and scary and OMG. They were really well drawn and I loved seeing the various monsters appear. Since I have no clue what Urban Legends they are meant to represent I just saw them as normal monsters. I think out of all of them… the bugs were the scariest. I already don’t love bugs, but this was just too much for me.
We get more and more clues on why these monsters have awoken and we also see our group along with other friends find solutions and get ready to kick some monster butt. Though in the end there is a lot more going on with the monsters than the kids may have expected and what I expected.
The ending was good, but as I said, it felt a bit rushed and a bit too magical. I am happy of course that that person has had a change of heart, but it felt too unnatural, especially given what we know about that person.
All in all, I am still happy I read this one, it was just what I needed. Something with monsters, something exciting, but also a bit emotional. Great art!
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Given that this is the first volume I had expected that this would be an intro into the world of Urban Legendz/s. Instead it is a full story! It takes place in Brookly, and according to the ending the next will be on Coney’s Island. Now I am curious if the author will go for other boroughs/parts of New York as well and I am of course curious what legends and monsters we will see in that one.
In overall, I did enjoy the story, BUT, due to it feeling like an intro yet having a complete story has thrown me off and at times it just felt a bit too stuffed and too rushed. It is just 112 pages, and I think that it may have been better if the story had been spread out over 50 more pages. Just to get a better feel of the story, of the characters. Plus, I still am curious what happened to those who were taken. Dead? Not dead? Something else?
The story begins with Dwayne and his dad and brother going to live with his grandmother after the death of their mother/wife. My heart broke for this family. We see how each family member is dealing with the situation.
I loved that Dwayne made friends so quickly, BUT I wasn’t happy how they pressured them to steal his dad police phone thingie (lost the word for that, haha). But after that they did improve and I started to like them quite a bit and I loved that we learned quite a bit about them.
The monsters were creepy and scary and OMG. They were really well drawn and I loved seeing the various monsters appear. Since I have no clue what Urban Legends they are meant to represent I just saw them as normal monsters. I think out of all of them… the bugs were the scariest. I already don’t love bugs, but this was just too much for me.
We get more and more clues on why these monsters have awoken and we also see our group along with other friends find solutions and get ready to kick some monster butt. Though in the end there is a lot more going on with the monsters than the kids may have expected and what I expected.
The ending was good, but as I said, it felt a bit rushed and a bit too magical. I am happy of course that that person has had a change of heart, but it felt too unnatural, especially given what we know about that person.
All in all, I am still happy I read this one, it was just what I needed. Something with monsters, something exciting, but also a bit emotional. Great art!
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
July 1, 2020
The monsters are cool, and a lot of readers will like it, but it is more about Brooklyn than it is about a mystery or monsters.
November 23, 2020
More like Urban myths. Might have liked this more if the title hadn't been misleading.
October 3, 2020
There's some good stuff surrounding the main character's family relationships, and I liked that the villain of the story gets significantly more complicated at the end of the book. But the storytelling is really, really thin. For example, the main character's mother died before the book starts, but I have absolutely no idea how she died. Illness? Accident? It's never stated or even alluded to, and I feel like that would make a big difference in how the characters process their grief. Likewise, giant sewer gators show up without anything to explain why there might be giant sewer gators at all. This is a book aimed at a middle grade audience, and not all of those kids are going to be familiar with the concept of sewer gators. And it's just a missed opportunity, to skip over what should be a creepy storytelling scene. This sort of thing is all over the book. I think Bruno needed to spend a lot more time plotting out his story before writing it.
September 23, 2020
A disparate group of kids take on all of the wild and scary happenings in the neighborhood--giant alligators in the sewers, huge bedbugs everywhere, and gargoyles that have come alive and swoop down to collect unsuspecting couples. Full of adventure. Great friendship book. Perfect in the graphic novel format.
December 7, 2022
Fast read. Funny, clever, and has good art.
July 31, 2019
Tales of the big city involving flying gargoyles, giant rats, monster bed bugs, toilet alligators, territorial gangs, urban renewal and political intrigue is the stuff that urban legends are made of in a new kids comic book entitled Urban Legendz. Paul Downs,Nick Bruno and Michael Yates have joined forces to create a an urban story about a group of good, yet troubled, kids in Brooklyn, New York who join forces to fight off an array of monsters destroying people within their community.
Our story starts when young Dwayne (D for short), his teenage brother Curtis and his police officer father move from their home in Indiana to live with their Grandma Ri who is the mother of their recently departed mother. The plan is to live with her in her apartment in Brooklyn, New York until they are able to get themselves situated in their new city. This is not an easy move for the family, especially for Dwayne who is still very much grieving over the loss of his mother as well as having to be uprooted from his home in Middle America.
Despite his unhappiness about the move, Dwayne manages to quickly become friends with a small group of kids his age who each have their own personal troubled lives to deal with. Together, they provide comradery, safety and support for each other as they then team up to tackle the monsters of urban legend fame which are now terrorizing their hometown.
Urban Legendz is a beautifully hardcover bound comic book with nice colorful thick pages meant to delight its readers and withstand lots of usage for many reads in its lifetime. You could say that it's kid proof and should hold up well in a school or public library. Or just a sturdy book that would be a nice addition for a family library.
The illustrations are highly professional and fitting for the story. In fact, the book itself, to me, felt like I was reading a refined storyboard for an animation feature film that the publishers are using to promote a future movie release or hoping to drum up enough excitement to get funding in order to do so.
My only real issues with the book involves the story itself. Though a great idea that starts out well enough, ultimately, I felt like it started out well, moved along okay, but then left a lot off the table once we got towards the end. It came off to me as all set up with very little substance once the monsters were defeated and various town issues were supposedly resolved. In fact, I never felt like the town issues were resolved at all. Nothing but a little spin that affected some family issues only slightly while the real housing developers too easily moved along, as in, business as usual. Regarding the book, the last third felt like a rush job just to get to the end before they ran out of paper. It wasn't a major flaw and I doubt a child would notice, but it left me feeling like some important details were missing.
The book is rated as being for ages 12-18 and for grade levels 7 and up. Personally, I'm leaning towards thinking that's a bit high. Depending on the maturity of the child, reading skills and personal fear factors, I would think that it would be more 8-14 and from grade 3 and up. It's fairly easy reading with a storyline that is moderately developed. A younger child would need some help with some of the words but the illustrations would have them excited enough to want to go through the book over and over so that they would easily enough learn those words that are newer to them. Unless the reader has a love of comic books, I would think that it's much too juvenile for one 15 and older.
This would make for a nice gift for a young reader especially if they have an interest in urban lifestyles, monsters or a fascination with comic books. Probably more appealing to boys but don't assume that the girls wouldn't take to it just as easily.
As with any book you are planning to give to a young person, give it a good skim through before you decide to make sure it might interest them as well as it suiting your standards for what you feel is acceptable exposure.
Our story starts when young Dwayne (D for short), his teenage brother Curtis and his police officer father move from their home in Indiana to live with their Grandma Ri who is the mother of their recently departed mother. The plan is to live with her in her apartment in Brooklyn, New York until they are able to get themselves situated in their new city. This is not an easy move for the family, especially for Dwayne who is still very much grieving over the loss of his mother as well as having to be uprooted from his home in Middle America.
Despite his unhappiness about the move, Dwayne manages to quickly become friends with a small group of kids his age who each have their own personal troubled lives to deal with. Together, they provide comradery, safety and support for each other as they then team up to tackle the monsters of urban legend fame which are now terrorizing their hometown.
Urban Legendz is a beautifully hardcover bound comic book with nice colorful thick pages meant to delight its readers and withstand lots of usage for many reads in its lifetime. You could say that it's kid proof and should hold up well in a school or public library. Or just a sturdy book that would be a nice addition for a family library.
The illustrations are highly professional and fitting for the story. In fact, the book itself, to me, felt like I was reading a refined storyboard for an animation feature film that the publishers are using to promote a future movie release or hoping to drum up enough excitement to get funding in order to do so.
My only real issues with the book involves the story itself. Though a great idea that starts out well enough, ultimately, I felt like it started out well, moved along okay, but then left a lot off the table once we got towards the end. It came off to me as all set up with very little substance once the monsters were defeated and various town issues were supposedly resolved. In fact, I never felt like the town issues were resolved at all. Nothing but a little spin that affected some family issues only slightly while the real housing developers too easily moved along, as in, business as usual. Regarding the book, the last third felt like a rush job just to get to the end before they ran out of paper. It wasn't a major flaw and I doubt a child would notice, but it left me feeling like some important details were missing.
The book is rated as being for ages 12-18 and for grade levels 7 and up. Personally, I'm leaning towards thinking that's a bit high. Depending on the maturity of the child, reading skills and personal fear factors, I would think that it would be more 8-14 and from grade 3 and up. It's fairly easy reading with a storyline that is moderately developed. A younger child would need some help with some of the words but the illustrations would have them excited enough to want to go through the book over and over so that they would easily enough learn those words that are newer to them. Unless the reader has a love of comic books, I would think that it's much too juvenile for one 15 and older.
This would make for a nice gift for a young reader especially if they have an interest in urban lifestyles, monsters or a fascination with comic books. Probably more appealing to boys but don't assume that the girls wouldn't take to it just as easily.
As with any book you are planning to give to a young person, give it a good skim through before you decide to make sure it might interest them as well as it suiting your standards for what you feel is acceptable exposure.
September 14, 2019
URBAN LEGENDZ is the start of what promises to be an awesome new graphic novel series. I love how Bruno is able to weave together grief, gentrification, father-son relationships, homelessness, and found family, in addition to giant alligators and sentient evil gargoyles. At its core this book is about Dwayne finding his people and reclaiming his life after losing his mother, and the friendship between him, Cashew, Mya, and Worm. I also LOVED how Bruno perfectly orchestrated the prep montage in the middle of the book, complete with screen printing tee-shirts and signing up for library cards. The art style and humor reminded me a bit of INTO THE SPIDERVERSE and I think middle schoolers will dig this authentic, diverse, supernatural read.
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October 2, 2020URBAN LEGENDZ is the start of what promises to be an awesome new graphic novel series. I love how Bruno is able to weave together grief, gentrification, father-son relationships, homelessness, and found family, in addition to giant alligators and sentient evil gargoyles. At its core this book is about Dwayne finding his people and reclaiming his life after losing his mother, and the friendship between him, Cashew, Mya, and Worm. I also LOVED how Bruno perfectly orchestrated the prep montage in the middle of the book, complete with screen printing tee-shirts and signing up for library cards. The art style and humor reminded me a bit of INTO THE SPIDERVERSE and I think middle schoolers will dig this authentic, diverse, supernatural read.
March 9, 2025
Dwayne is forced to move with his brother and dad from the midwest to his grandma’s in Brooklyn. Dad hopes it will be a new start for all of them after mom died.
Dwayne gets in with a teen group of vigilantes connected with an older group of locals. They are fighting monsters. Dwayne gets into the group when he steals his dad’s police radio.
Weird monsters attacking. Powers that be don’t want to believe because it will stop development on a new project.
Turns out the project is causing the influx of Urban Legends and their attacks. Neighbors come together to fight the monsters. Helps that the head of the project is the dad of one of the teen vigilantes and wants to protect son.
It was pretty good. Kids will like it, but probably won’t get the urban legend angle.
Dwayne gets in with a teen group of vigilantes connected with an older group of locals. They are fighting monsters. Dwayne gets into the group when he steals his dad’s police radio.
Weird monsters attacking. Powers that be don’t want to believe because it will stop development on a new project.
Turns out the project is causing the influx of Urban Legends and their attacks. Neighbors come together to fight the monsters. Helps that the head of the project is the dad of one of the teen vigilantes and wants to protect son.
It was pretty good. Kids will like it, but probably won’t get the urban legend angle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2019
I learned to read from comic books when I was a kid. I'm afraid I wasn't really impressed by this. And I thought, perhaps it's just my age showing. I gave it to my teenage granddaughter and unfortunately she wasn't impressed either. She's more into Manga. We both agreed that it was better suited for maybe 13-15 year old boys.
There were a couple of places where it seemed hard to follow.
Redeeming Value: Shows friendships, cooperation with others. At the end it gave a little review of each character's traits, strengths, and what they offered to the others. I think some of that info may have been better at the beginning.
There were a couple of places where it seemed hard to follow.
Redeeming Value: Shows friendships, cooperation with others. At the end it gave a little review of each character's traits, strengths, and what they offered to the others. I think some of that info may have been better at the beginning.
November 23, 2019
I enjoyed this graphic novel and I’m looking forward to the next installment. I think it was a good start to the series and I am eager to see what happens to the different characters. I would have liked to have learned more about each of the kids as well as Riff Raff in this book but I have a feeling the authors deliberately left a lot to explore as the series develops. If there had been more about the individuals or a slightly deeper focus on any one character I would have rated the book higher. Having said that, this is a fast-paced, monster and danger-filled story that I think 4th-6th graders will really enjoy!
September 14, 2020
Dwayne's family just moved back to his mom's old stomping ground. Dwayne isn't happy about moving but his mother just passed away and he, his older brother and his father, move in with his mother's mom. According to his father, the neighborhood has unfortunately changed a lot. Dwayne makes friends with some other kids and soon ends up helping them solve a mystery about why people are starting to disappear. He learns there are mythical creatures who are equally unhappy about the changes in the neighborhood and are showing it.
September 24, 2019
I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway. Although the concept was interesting, overall felt more like an early storyboard for a movie than a completed, cohesive graphic novel. I had trouble following some of the panels and there were some pretty significant plot holes than a young kid might be able to overlook, but some of images might be too scary for a kid that young. As a result, it's hard to know who exactly the target audience is.
September 29, 2022
This was a cute graphic novel about urban legends coming to life in Brooklyn. There are secondary themes of friendship, community, and inclusivity. I found the positive portrayal of the city's homeless to be particularly uplifting, especially in a middle grade book.
Diverse characters. Fast paced. I'm not usually much of a graphic novel fan, but I think this one did a great job of being both fun and woke.
Diverse characters. Fast paced. I'm not usually much of a graphic novel fan, but I think this one did a great job of being both fun and woke.
July 8, 2023
I’d like to thank edelweiss and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I liked the storyline and the art that went with it. When Dwayne and his older brother and policeman father moved back to Brooklyn from Indiana, things in the neighbourhood start to go awry and things that people thought were urban legends are starting to appear. It’s up to the whole neighbourhood to come together and fight.
August 7, 2019
The story is a little underdeveloped but it's still a good book for middle grade/teens. My affection for it on a personal level also runs pretty deep. And, maybe because the authors have a background in film animation, there are particular panels with really interesting ways of exploring depth of field the way that a camera would to emphasize dramatic effect/character emotions. <3
December 7, 2020
Very interesting i like urban legendz because its in a comic like style its about a kid moving back to where his parents grew up after his mom died so him, his dad and brother moved in with their grandma then while walking to a party he met some kids to soon be his friends to eventually save Brooklyn.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2021
Oddly violent for its age range? My library has this shelved for the under 12s which makes sense for the protagonists' apparent ages and the complexity of the plot but the violence seems more appropriate for teens and up. Like a man gets eaten alive by bed bugs on page and then the kids fight them with homemade propane flamthrowers and molotov cocktails?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2022
Thrilling young heroes facing the monstruosities of the world comics.
I was going to purchase this for my 9 year old nephew but after reading it, I decided he was going to have to wait to read it because it gets quite gruesome, between the killings, the attacks and the intense bullying, I would recommend it for 12 year old and up.
I was going to purchase this for my 9 year old nephew but after reading it, I decided he was going to have to wait to read it because it gets quite gruesome, between the killings, the attacks and the intense bullying, I would recommend it for 12 year old and up.
September 3, 2019
I liked the use of the urban legends- although it probably can get a little graphic for younger and more sensitive children (there's a lot of death and people getting eaten). Pretty entertaining, though, and I can see it being very popular.
August 9, 2020
A fun graphic novel/comic book. Leave it to the kids and the wise homeless man to realize that all the mysterious disappearances are caused by urban legends come to larger-than-life and to figure out how to save the day.
June 12, 2021
This was a dark graphic novel about urban legends in Brooklyn protecting citizens from gentrification. Perfect for middle and high school aged kids. The monster pictures are probably a little much for younger kids.
April 1, 2022
This was a fun graphic novel. I thought the various monsters were inventive and interesting. Also, the friend group that Dwayne gets adopted into was great. I hope that the authors continue on with the series.
September 8, 2025
No adults believe what is happening to this town but the kids with the help of one "crazy" adult are on the case. Urban legends are coming to life but why? How can that be? and how can they stop it? It's time to save Brooklyn!
July 2, 2019
This was such a fun book!! I won this book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
September 29, 2019
3.5/5 solid characterization, good illustrations, and interesting story. Grades 4-7.
November 30, 2019
This was fun! Looking forward to the next installment!
April 26, 2020
Okay for the entire library.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews