We should apologize for that… Mari Ahokoivu is a Finnish illustrator and a comic artist. Her magnum opus is a massive 400-page graphic novel called Oksi, illustrated in her striking artistic style. “Poorling is a little bear. She’s a bit different from her brothers. Mother keeps their family safe. For the Forest is full of dangers. It is there that Mana lives, with her Shadow children. And above them all, Emuu, the great Grandma in the Sky. From the heart of Finnish folklore comes a breathtaking tale of mothers, daughters, stars and legends, and the old gods and the new.” Now Chronicle Books have released Oksi in an English translation, available in hard or softcover. There’s a look inside at Bleeding Cool.
October, 2021:
Watch Out for the Weasel
American Mythology has a new horror mini-series comic, and it’s out now just in time for the Halloween Season. Willy’s Wonderland was a surprise hit horror movie from earlier this year. Though at first dismissed as an obvious Five Nights At Freddy’s cash-in (duh!), it turned out people really liked the film, mostly for the over-the-top performance of star Nicolas Cage. So the folks at American Mythology wondered: What happened before the movie? “Hey Kids! Do you know what time it is? It’s your birthday and we want you to have Fun! Welcome to Willy’s Wonderland! Nicolas Cage unleashes a can of Punch Pop on the Willy’s serial killing animatronic crew in the film, but what came before the janitorial rampage? Find out here in this official prequel to the movie giving you all the party filled blood spatter you can handle! Willy, Ozzie, Arty, Cammy, Tito, Gus, Sara, and Knighty Knight all are back with a blood soaked romp through homicidal birthday parties!” This special series is written by SA Check (Volcanosaurus) and James Kuhoric (Freddy vs Jason vs Ash) with interior art by Puis Calzada (Hatchet).” Looks like there’s a lot of seasoned horror talent behind this thing.
TV for the Young and Young At Heart
Cartoon Brew just announced that Neflix has given the green-light to four new animated TV series for young viewers… and the cool thing is, three of them are quite furry! Check out The Creature Cases, created by Gabe Pulliam. “An animated action-comedy series which follows the adventures of Sam Snow and Kit Casey, agents of CLADE: the Covert League of Animal Detective Experts. In a world populated exclusively by animals, these brilliant sleuths travel the globe solving mind-boggling mysteries that mix real zoological facts with wild detective action!” Then there’s Big Tree City: “Hot-sauce volcanoes, biscuit dinosaur mysteries, and exploding soda pop factories; join the wild rescues of Major Prickles and his overzealous team, as they try to save the animal citizens of Big Tree City.” And finally there’s Deepa and Anoop, “An all-new animated preschool series from Mattel Television that follows the adventures of fun-loving seven-year-old Deepa and her best friend Anoop, a color-changing elephant, at Deepa’s family’s bed and breakfast Mango Manor.” All heading our way in 2022.
Smart Him
One thing this last summer did of course was bring attention back to everyone’s favorite ocean-born anthro-villain, King Shark. Taking obvious advantage of that, DC Comics have brought us the new Suicide Squad: King Shark 6-part miniseries, written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Scott Kolins and John Kalisz. “On leave from the Suicide Squad, King Shark and unfortunate tagalong the Defacer get swept into a mystical tournament for totemic animal spirits at the behest of King Shark’s father, the god of sharks! Now King Shark must battle brutal warriors like Queen Tiger, King Roach, Prince Nematode, Princess Peregrine, and the terrifying Man King to finally attain his destiny and make his dour dad proud!” Sounds even furrier than usual, don’t it? There’s a review over at CBR.
More High School Hi-jinks
Here’s another one from Seven Seas — one that we missed earlier this year! Tamamo-Chan’s A Fox! is a very-furry-sounding manga by Ray Yuuki. The description goes like this: “Fushimi Tamamo is a fox from the Inari Shrine in Kyoto who longs to try high school life. She transforms into a human girl — but while she thinks she’s nailed her disguise, she’s a little furrier than she realized. Adults don’t seem to notice, and her classmates pretend not to, but Tamamo is definitely shaking up their ordinary high school life!” Heh, a little furrier, they say. Several volumes of this graphic novel series are out already.