The Loud House #16: Loud And Clear by The Loud House Creative Team

Y’know, I think this was the first Loud House anthology where I actually wasn’t clear on what the theme was, which is ironic given the title.

That said, I really appreciated the editor’s afterword praising veteran comics letter Wilson Ramos Jr. His work graces the Loud House pages and ensures that it’s fully legible for younger readers, as well as those of us with, ahem, veteran eyesight. It’s always nice when credit is given where it’s due, especially to undersung artists whose contributions are just as important as the more celebrated pencillers and inkers on comics titles.

This collection of Loud House shorts riffs off of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon revolving around middle child Lincoln Loud, his ten sisters and assorted other family and friends. There are several inter-related bits on fashion, dolls, farm animals and musical performances, as the various members of the Loud family get up to their various hijinks. Lincoln himself suffers a (fake) fashion faux pas when he shows up to school in the same shirt as a friend, while Leni both wins a design competition and gets involved in fixing more (fake) fashion faux pas while trying to order dinner for the family. Why do I say “fake” in both instances? Because unless the clothes are completely inappropriate for the setting, there’s no such thing. Let people wear what they want, mixing and matching as they please. Maximalism!

Ahem. The stories are cute but not terribly cohesive overall. My personal favorite was probably the gritty fantasy riff, Loud Of The Thrones, where baby Lily has an imaginative face-off against her pre-school rival. The vignettes are each short and sweet and perfect for younger kids with shorter attention spans. The colors are also really nice, particularly in Uniform Upheaval, where Lori and Leni team up to compete in a design contest at Lori’s college.

This wasn’t my favorite of the collections so far, but it’s a good way to encourage kids to read, especially those who are already big fans of The Loud House cartoon.

The Loud House #16: Loud And Clear by The Loud House Creative Team was published September 27 2022 by Papercuts and is available from all good booksellers, including