Michael Gagne serialized his popular comic-book story Rex over a period of seven years in the Flight anthology magazine series. Now Image Comics have collected the whole thing together in one place as The Saga of Rex, available now as a full-color trade paperback. Here’s the publisher’s description, taken from Michael Gagne’s Rex Page: “The adorable little fox named Rex is plucked from his home world by a mysterious spaceship and transported to the arcane world of Edernia, where he meets Aven, an enigmatic biomorph with a flying saucer. Follow his epic journey as he travels through outer-worldly landscapes, faces strange perils, and makes surprising encounters. A story that is in turn adventurous, heroic, tragic, romantic, and wonderfully surprising, The Saga of Rex perfectly captures a vision of whimsy and wonder that will delight young and old.” The web site also features sample pages from the new book.
November, 2010:
Cats and Dogs Get Help — From Hell!
A power-house team-up has brought together Dark Horse Press’ new full-color one-shot, Beasts of Burden & Hellboy. Evan Dorkin (Milk and Cheese), Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy, of course) join forces to bring us the latest story of the animals of Burden Hill. A team of dogs (and one cat) have been fighting together to find and destroy the source of evil energy haunting their neighborhood with strange events — and brutal murders, human and non-human. But when things start going really bad, the animals have no choice but to bring in outside help — in the form of Hellboy, perhaps the world’s greatest supernatural detective.
When the Beast Became Furry
Dedicated Marvel Comics readers (and at this point, historians!) might remember that there was a time before Dr. Hank McCoy, known to his fellow X-Men as “The Beast”, was blue… and furry. Once he became both of those (but not yet lion-faced… long story), he left the X-Men to seek membership in the Avengers… and now, Marvel has collected those first Avengers issues featuring our newly blue and furry friend in a new hardcover book Avengers: The Coming of the Beast. It brings together Avengers issues 137 – 140 and 145 – 146 from the 1960’s, scripted by Steve Englehart and Tony Isabella, with original full-color art by George Tuska, Don Heck, and Keith Pollard. Two variant covers are available, with art by John Romita and Gil Kane.
image c. Marvel Comics
Movie Calendar for 2011
Thanks to Animation Magazine, we now have a more precise schedule of animated movies coming to theaters in 2011. Some of them we knew about, some of them (we’ll admit) we didn’t! So, in order: Rango (starring the voice of Johnny Depp) comes to us on March 4th, Rio (from Blue Sky) hits the air on April 8th, Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom (whew!) kicks off May 27th, Cars 2 (from Pixar of course) takes off on June 24th, Winnie the Pooh (in 2D, based on never-before-adapted-stories) comes to us July 15th, Puss in Boots (the long-awaited Shrek prequel) slices up the fall on November 4th, and Happy Feet 2 (once again directed by George Miller) finishes things off on November 18th. Oh, and if you haven’t seen it: The first teaser trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2 is playing in front of Megamind, in theaters now.
The Pet Avengers Hardcover Collection
“Once upon a time, in a world of super heroes and villains, there lived a team of animals that saved the universe…and no one knew it. These creatures asked not for fortune or fame, merely to help the humans that pet them. But a new threat to the world has arisen, which only they know of, that could change everything…and kill one of them. Join Chris Eliopoulos, Ig Guara, and Chris Sotomayor for an epic tale of adventure, courage…and sacrifice.” This new hardcover collection (available now from Marvel) brings together issues 1 through 4 of Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Unleashed, as well as Tails of the Pet Avengers: The Dogs of Summer. Check out the review at Amazon.com.
image c. Marvel Comics
Spider Man Helps The Duck
Whenever Howard the Duck turns up in your comic book, things are almost guaranteed to get weird — or weirder than usual. Such is the case in Spider-Man: Back in Quack, a new full-color one-shot comic written by Stuart Moore with illustrations by Mark Brooks and Joe Suitor (and published by Marvel Comics, as if you didn’t know). It’s seems that Howard the Duck’s brain has been thoroughly scrubbed, and his hard-edged humor has been ground down to make him more… socially acceptable. It’s up to none other than Spider-Man to save to the duck from the threat of mediocrity… But does the world prefer the new “Cynical Duck” over good old Howard? You can find out now: This book is on the shelves.
Playing Kids and Critters
Beyond Belief Games have packaged three of their most popular RPG game systems in a single paperback edition. The press release for Kids & Critters (edited by Simon Washbourne) goes like this: “Bringing to mind stories like Watership Down and Duncton Wood, the fabulous Tales from The Wood is a great role playing game for all ages. Lashings of Ginger Beer sends you back to Idyllic England, where nosey kids investigate real and imagined crimes, in the great tradition of Enid Blyton. Finally, we have the unusual but brilliantly charming It’s a Dog’s Life; definitely the best prairie dog role playing game ever.” Kids & Critters is also available for download (at a very low price) as a watermarked PDF file at rpg.drivethrustuff.com.
image c. Beyond Belief Games
A Young Lady’s Transformation…
High school is hard enough to get through, but trying to do it while slowly turning into a werewolf makes things nearly impossible! That’s the situation a teenage girl named Alice finds herself in when she and her brother are bitten by what they thought was a pack of large rabid dogs. Werewolves: An Illustrated Journal of Transformation is a new softcover graphic novel, available now from Chronicle Books. It was written by Paul Jessup, with full-color illustrations by Allyson Haller. The book is Alice’s personal journal of her and her brother’s experience as they not only transform, but have to adopt new lifestyles: Learning to eat raw meat, avoiding the werewolf hunters who are after them every night, and finding their place among the pack that caused their transformation in the first place. You can find out more at Amazon.com.
Two VERY different Disney/Pixar books
The things we find amaze even us here at In-Fur-Nation sometimes. Disneystrology is a new hard-cover book by Lisa Finander, available now from Quirk Books. According to Amazon.com it “combines astrology, numerology, and the magic of movies to help readers understand their own personalities. Noted astrologer Lisa Finander has identified 366 unique Disney character types everyone from Snow White to Wall-E and paired these characters to corresponding birth dates. Readers born on November 9, for example, are typically exuberant, friendly, and youthful traits best exemplified by Pinocchio. By contrast, readers born on February 22 are often powerful, principled, and determined the perfect words to describe King Mufasa of The Lion King. Readers will also discover character profiles, compatible birthdays, tips for dealing with others, and much, much more! Illustrated with hundreds of stills from more than 90 years of classic animation, Disneystrology is an entertaining tribute to the most delightful characters in movie history.” We do not make this stuff up folks. Meanwhile there’s also The Pixar Treasures by Tim Hauser, described in a review as “a scrapbook of instinct and inspiration, experiences readers can touch, and visions that exist only in the imagination. It begins with a group of animators who were inspired by Walt Disney films. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Joe Ranft were hired into an apprenticeship program at Walt Disney Productions. The last of Disney’s golden age artists, including animators Eric Larson, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston mentored the young dreamers, and as Pixar later developed, their work would draw heavily from this direct connection with Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men.” The tale continues with Pixar’s foray into computer animation, and the resulting success of Toy Story. With chapters on A Bug’s Life; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; The Incredibles; Cars; Ratatouille; and WALL*E, Hauser’s narrative covers the struggles, growth, and successes of an incredible animation studio. And it gives readers a sneak peak at the newest Disney*Pixar film, Up. Filled with unique removable keepsakes, The Pixar Treasures is an essential collector’s item for every Pixar fan.” Latest film at the time of publication, obviously. It’s available, also in hardcover, from Disney Editions.
