Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Creator Charles Brubaker has returned with a new installment of the Ursa Major Award nominated cartoon series Fuzzy Princess, called Oingo Bongo. “Wanting to win a new set of bongo drums, Chiro enters herself and Kuma in a poetry contest. Can Chiro keep the ever-hungry Kuma ‘inspired’?” The short is already up on YouTube, and there are links to lots of Fuzzy Princess books as well.
image c. 2022 Charles Brubaker
Apparently this is a thing we missed — but now it’s available over here. Cat + Gamer is a black & white manga written and illustrated by Wataru Nadatani, now translated and distributed by Dark Horse. “Riko’s coworkers can’t quite figure her out — she never talks about her personal life, she never works overtime, and she never joins them for happy hour. Is she antisocial? Nope, she’s rushing home to play video games! One day, a stray cat is found in the office parking lot, and before Riko knows it, the cat has moved in with her! Having no experience with pets, Riko uses lessons drawn from video games to guide her in cat care, while her cute companion tries to understand her behavior through a cat’s worldview.”
image c. 2022 Dark Horse Press
It seems like cats are getting into all sorts of business these days — in mangas at least. Check out Cat Massage Therapy by Haru Hisakawa. “Nekoyama, worn out after another long day at the office, stops at a therapeutic massage parlor — only to discover that it’s run by a cat! Not only that, but the cat actually does the massaging?! As the professional ‘meowsseur’ digs soft toe beans into Nekoyama’s aching muscles, his heart warms and his worries melt away. This is only the beginning, as he and other world-weary workers are about to meet the other feline professionals who have mastered pawfully cute techniques to reduce human stress.” Available now in full color from Seven Seas.
image c. 2022 Seven Seas Entertainment
Well here’s something we should have been covering for… quite a while now! In 2005, no less, Nick Bruel created the first Bad Kitty book — featuring the adventures of “…a housecat who wreaks havoc around her owner’s home when she is in a bad mood, hence the name,” according to Wikipedia. Turns out there have been Bad Kitty books and graphic novels ever since — the most recent including Bad Kitty Gets A Phone and Bad Kitty For President. All coming your way from Roaring Brook Press. So you’d better look out!
image c. 2022 Roaring Brook Press
If you’ve been following In-Fur-Nation for a while, you must have heard of Blazing Samurai… We’ve been following the animated film in development for nearly a decade now! At one point production ceased because the animation house that was making it actually went out of business! In fact, the convoluted history of this film’s creation would make for an interesting movie all its own. But now, it seems like things have changed: We have a trailer, we have a release date… and we have a complete change of title. Say hello to Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. Still directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King), but now being released this July through Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation.
image c. 2022 Nickelodeon Animation
He’s in L.A. County, we’re in the O.C., so of course we meet up at WonderCon this year — and made sure to pick up his comic book, Super Lucha Cats! Interestingly, we came across this in a local newspaper: “When vampires, demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night threaten the town, who will be there to save it? The Super Lucha Cats will. Created by 33-year-old Bell Gardens native Javier Solorzano, Super Lucha Cats is a brand-new comic inspired by Latin folklore, a love of lucha libre, and a couple of feline friends. It follows the adventures of Coco, Pizza, Nopalito, and Fresa; four cats adopted off the street by a retired luchadora who – with the help of a magical lucha mask – raised and trained the four siblings to piledrive the forces of evil.” Check out the interview from our local NPR radio station too.
image c. 2022 Media Noche Comics
It’s wonderful how straightforward manga titles can be. Witness: I Am A Cat Barista, written and illustrated by Hiro Maijima. “For some people, the daily grind of city life is exhausting. Yet somewhere between the busy streets there’s a mysterious cat café that can only be found by weary souls. What’s on the menu? A delicious drink, specially brewed for each customer…by a cat barista!” Sign us up! Two volumes (for now) are available from Penguin Random House.
image c. 2022 Penguin Random House
It’s no secret that Japanese manga often find the most interesting and unusual angles to take for their erotic stories. Such is probably the case with Cat in a Hot Girls’ Dorm (what a title!), a new black & white series written and illustrated by Haruki. “Follow the everyday lives of ten horny residents of a woman’s dorm – from the point of view of the feisty cat, Tama-san. The ladies find him as a stray, and soon Tama is sticking his nose in everyone’s business: What do these girls do when they’re alone, or with each other? Who’s dating who? The cat sees all, from out of the streets to between the sheets!” See what we mean? Issues are available now from Seven Seas Entertainment.
image c. 2022 Seven Seas Entertainment
Scout Comics have an imprint called the Launch Series, which is designed for the youngest of beginning readers. To quote them, “Launch bridges the gap between children’s picture books and comics”. Following a long-honored tradition, of course the effort involves funny animals — chief among them, dogs and cats. First up are the adventures of Bandit the Boston Terrier, in a series of softcover books written by Amy Harlow and illustrated by Jim Mehsling. “Bandit is a spunky Boston Terrier with a wild imagination. Bandit’s best friend, Daisy, is a jolly and somewhat lazy Boston Terrier. Follow their adventures as Bandit confronts his household nemesis, the vacuum cleaner.” Then there’s the Supercats series, written by Caleb Thusat and illustrated by Angela Oddling. “In this origin story we see the young Mewow, destined to become a supercat, in her first adventure she taps into the hero within to save innocents in trouble… because Supercats will always save the day!” Both series have several titles.
image c. 2022 Scout Comics
