Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
We could not make this stuff up if we wanted to, folks. Mickey’s Inferno. Yes: The scary portion of Dante’s Divine Comedy as re-told in full-color graphic novel format by Mickey and his friends. And Papercutz got Disney’s okay with this! It’s written by Guido Martina (who is a well-known creator of Disney material in Italy), illustrated by Angelo Bioletta, and available in softcover and hardcover editions — on the shelves right now. Gosh, is Purgatory next?
image c. 2017 Papercutz
Speaking of Keenspot: Thomas Fischbach, creator of the Ursa Major Award winning on-line comic Twokinds, brings us into the creation of his realm with the release of The Art and Evolution of Twokinds — newly available in hardcover. “Deluxe full color hardcover artbook exploring the art and evolution of Twokinds, the wildly popular webcomic following the adventures of a lone mage with no memory of his past and the beautiful tiger girl that captures his heart.” Nearly 100 pages in full color. Be warned though: Keenspot says they’re going fast!
image c. 2016 Keenspot Entertainment
Hollie Hibbert was born to be an artist, she says at her web site. “Growing up in Idaho, crayons, colored pencils, and markers were her most loyal companions. However, the thought of becoming an artist never crossed her mind until college. She has a big soft spot for hound dogs, otters, and especially bears.” To that end she has created fine art prints, theater posters, and also fan art works. She has even illustrated several books for young readers, all of which have anthropomorphic interest: An Orphan No More (a story of adoption) by Jerry Windle and Jordan Windle, The Three Bears ABC (which uses the classic fairy tale to teach the alphabet) by Grace Maccarone, the Dolphin School series by Catherine Hapka, and Pupunzel (you can guess!) by Maribeth Boelts.
image c. 2017 by Hollie Hibbert
Ha Huy Hoang is a freelance animator and character designer who signs his work with the name Splendid River. Over at his web site he has many samples of his work, and also a short trailer for Rescue, a 2D animated film he is working to complete. A chubby wolf must discover his inner hero when an evil monster kidnaps the love of his life — a pretty mushroom. Yes. Also for sale at the web site are his books of character design sketches, Toontastic and Animatoon.
image c. 2017 by Ha Huy Hoang
Karen Krajenbrink describes her job quite succinctly: “I do art.” Going into perhaps a bit more detail, she elaborates: “Associate Art Director at a mobile gaming company by day, freelancer by night. I’ve worked in games, film, and TV for art direction, visual development, character design, story, pipeline creation, BG paint, prop design, and technical pitches.” Add to that one more achievement: In 2015 she completed her first illustrated children’s book called Fox & Boots, “… a 24 page story about friendship, love, and loss, illustrated in full color.” It’s available at her store, along with her sketchbook and several art prints. [Let us wish you all a Happy and Safe New Year in 2017!]
image c. 2016 by Karen Krajenbrink
Another artist with a distinctive style goes by the distinctive name of Edwardian Taylor. He works as a concept artist, storyboard artist, and children’s book illustrator. According to his web site, “Edwardian Taylor has always loved to draw. It became so bad, that his parents had to hide his crayons from him because when he was out of paper he would draw all over his bedroom walls. He got familiar with the uses of cleaning supplies at an early age, but this never kept him from drawing.” Among his interesting current projects is a new book called The Animal Alphabet Fairy Tale Edition, which presents each letter of the alphabet via a different creature from myth, legend, and classic literature. His Shop also has a collection of his books and art prints.
image c. 2016 by Edwardian Taylor
Paul Schoeni is an artist, illustrator, and animation designer who has spent much of his career working for Dreamworks Animation. According to his web site, the films he’s worked on have included Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, Megamind, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Shrek Forever After, The Croods, Turbo, Trolls, and The Boss Baby. He works in 2D and 3D on computers, but he also has a passion for working with good-old pencil and paper. Not to mention that he has a very distinctive art style! At his Shop you’ll find his sketch book called Monsters and Mayhem for sale, plus many examples of his other works.
image c. 2016 by Paul Schoeni
Like many other fans, we were disappointed to recently be informed that Dreamworks Animation has pushed back the release date of How To Train Your Dragon 3 again — this time to the spring of 2019. But in the meantime came some good news: Early next year Dark Horse Press is releasing a new full-color graphic novel, How To Train Your Dragon — The Serpent’s Heir. “Picking up just after the events in How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup, Astrid, and company are called upon to assist the people of an earthquake-plagued island. But their lives are imperiled by a madman and an incredible new dragon who even Toothless—the alpha dragon—may not be able to control!” The big news is that Dean Deblois, who has worked on the Dragons movie series as both writer and director, is one of the co-scripters of this new graphic novel (along with Richard Hamilton). Hollywood Reporter has an interview with the creative team.
image c. 2016 Dark Horse Press
This is from a couple of years ago, but we just found it recently at Comic Con in San Diego. Mouseheart is a fantasy adventure series for young readers, written by Lisa Fiedler and illustrated by Vivienne To. “Hopper is just an ordinary pet-shop mouse—until he escapes. Soon he finds himself below the bustling streets of Brooklyn, deep within the untamed tangles of transit tunnels, and in Atlantia, a glorious utopian rat civilization. But all is not as it seems. Hopper misses Pinkie and Pup, the siblings he lost in the escape attempt. Atlantia is constantly threatened by roving rebels who wish to bring the city to its knees. And there are cats everywhere, cats who would normally eat a rodent in a second, but leave the rats unharmed . . . and no one can seem to answer why. Soon Hopper is caught in the cross-hairs of an epic battle, one that spans generations and species. As the clashes rage, Hopper learns terrible, extraordinary secrets.” Mouseheart was published in 2014 by Margaret K. McElderry Books. Since then there have been two more, Hopper’s Destiny and Return of the Forgotten. There’s lots more at the official Mouseheart web site.
image c. 2016 Margaret K. McElderry Books
