Tui T. Sutherland is one of the authors who created the Warriors and Seekers series of cat-fantasy novels under the collective pseudonym of Erin Hunter. You may recall we reviewed her novel series Wings of Fire previously. Well recently Scholastic requested the author to help in adapting that series into a graphic novel, which has been released by Graphix. “Not every dragonet wants a destiny . . . Clay has grown up under the mountain, chosen along with four other dragonets to fulfill a mysterious prophecy and end the war between the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia. He’s not so sure about the prophecy part, but Clay can’t imagine not living with the other dragonets; they’re his best friends. So when one of the dragonets is threatened, all five spring into action. Together, they will choose freedom over fate — on their own terms.” With full-color art by Mike Holmes, Wings of Fire: The Graphic Novel is available now.
Comic Book News
Those Other Furry Superheroes Too!
At last! A cool high-quality ashcan we saw last year at San Diego Comic Con is now being printed by Arcana Studio: The Los Valiants Volume 0 graphic novel. “From writer/colorist Edgar Delgado (Ultraduck, Superior Spider-Man, Darth Vader) comes a collection of 7 short stories about Featherbay’s resident superhero, Ultraduck and his friends from Canis Hill. Together they are Los Valiants!” If you remember Ultraduck then you know the quality of art you’ll find here.
Bushido With A Bushy Tail
The well-known funny animal cartoonist Scoot McMahon has returned with a new full-color comic book series for kids: Sami the Samurai Squirrel, published by Action Labs through their Aw Yeah Comics imprint. “When the critters of Woodbriar are under attack, Sami the samurai squirrel is there to protect them! Join Sami and friends as they battle Ninjas, Pirates and a Cyber-Yeti (that’s right, CYBER-YETI)!! This action-packed first issue also features artwork and stories from famous cartoonists Art Baltazar, Franco, and many more!” In fact they’re already up to issue #4 by now.
The Cop What Lurks
We can see how the pitch for this probably went: “HE is a hard-boiled New England cop… IT is a Cthullu-spawned horror… Together, they fight crime!” Actually, here’s what we got from Previews: “Artie Buckle is a grade ‘A’ schmuck. His excessive fondness for booze compliments his flash temper, but hold their feet to the fire, his fellow officers would agree: Artie is one helluva cop. He’s gonna need that scrap of goodwill because Brick City is under siege from its citizenry… and to top it off Artie’s been saddled with the city’s newest hero as his partner: A hideous, monstrous, but completely likable, extra-dimensional being named Vinegar Teeth. Can Artie pull his head out long enough to work together with a Lovecraftian monster with a heart of gold and set Brick City back on its feet?” Vinegar Teeth is a new 4-issue comic miniseries created by Damon Gentry and Troy Nixey. The first issue is out now from Dark Horse.
Beware of the Werewolf Queen
From Previews: “Collected for the first time, The Howling: Revenge of the Werewolf Queen Vol. 1 picks up where the cult-classic 1981 film left off: Three weeks have passed since Chris Halloran revealed on national TV that werewolves walk among us. No one believed him. Now Marsha Quist has returned for revenge–and now there is no colony to hold back her blood lust. This collection includes The Howling: Revenge of the Werewolf Queen issues 1-4, and a cover gallery— featuring Bill Sienkiewicz’s supreme cover!” Written by Micky Neilson and with art by Jason Johnson and Milen Parvanov, it’s available now as a full-color trade paperback from Space Goat Publishing. [And with that, we’ll see you all after we get back from Further Confusion!]
Share Your Sweets!
Sometimes you just gotta admit when other people say it better. This is direct from Comics Alliance: “Over the past few years Zac Gorman has made a name for himself paying tribute to his favorite video games with his comic Magical Game Time. This October the cartoonist will be spreading that same magic into his first graphic novel, Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers, a companion narrative to Double Fine’s 2010 Costume Quest RPG. While Costume Quest followed a human kid and their friends as they battled candy-stealing monsters called Grubbins to recover their kidnapped sibling from another dimension, Invasion of the Candy Snatchers will flip the script and see what the non-evil Grubbin Klem got up to that Halloween.” What he got up to, it seems, is joining up with some of his fellow young Grubbins to sneak into the human world and try and steal candy — for their own sugar-starved world. Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers is out now in trade paperback from Oni Press.
A Passion for Toys
Wow, what have we been missing? Turns out there’s an internet sensation named Johnny Wu (aka Sgt Bananas) who has made quite a name for himself with photography and stop-motion animation, featuring his impressive toy and action figure collection put together in some truly imaginative comic book style adventures. Now Mr. Wu has hooked up with comic book publisher Dynamite to bring us Ten Frames Per Second: An Articulated Adventure, a new full-color hardcover book highlighting some of Sgt Bananas’ best Instagram work. Outright Geekery has an article about it as well.
One Nervous Wallaby
Whoops! A little present from the holidays we missed: Boom! Studios and Nickelodeon have announced the first Rocko’s Modern Life full-color comic book series. It’s “…a new ongoing comic book series based on the popular animated show about everyone’s favorite wallaby! Writer Ryan Ferrier (Regular Show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and artist Ian McGinty (Adventure Time, Bravest Warriors) team to launch the first comic book in the series… Each issue will also feature bonus short stories by different illustrators, including Tony Millionaire (Sock Monkey), KC Green (Invader Zim), and David DeGrand (SpongeBob Comics). Rocko, Spunky, Heffer, Filburt, the Bigheads, and the entire cast of O-Town are back, but all is not well. The town is facing a job shortage and Rocko is hit hard. With unemployment and potential homelessness on the horizon, Rocko’s problems are just beginning. But with help from his best friends Heffer and Filbert and his faithful dog Spunky, Rocko is (mostly) ready to take on the world (maybe).” The first issue is already on the shelves.