Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
John Uhrich is a professional illustrator. His motto is “Have sketchbook, will travel.” Recently on his art blog, Duck Duck Gorilla (yes, that’s the name!) he’s been trying his hand at a new on-line comic strip, Live Bait. Two talkative birds doing what John considers one of his more prominent skills: Geeking out about comics and fandom.
image c. 2014 by John Uhrich
Well okay, the middle of summer, but hey… Llyn Hunter is an Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, also known for her humorous illustrations and poetry. Many of those have been collected over the years in her Little Book series (like A Little Book of Monsters, reviewed here previously) put out by her own Bobcat Publishing. Her latest work is called Punnies — a collection of pun illustrations (cat fish, duck tape, cow bell…) each accompanied by a verse. She’s started up a Kickstarter campaign to help her fund publishing the book in a large-size coffee table format. The campaign is up from now until the end of September. Also make sure to visit her home page to see samples of the many other projects that she’s worked on over the years.
image c. 2014 by Llyn Hunter
It might seem like an age ago, but earlier this year the animated sensation of the moment was Rio 2. Now that we’ve moved on to the summer, Paperkutz have announced a new tie-in graphic novel, carrying on after the events of that film. “While recording bird calls, Linda loses her new digital recorder, but when Blu finds it, it’s full of strange and horrifying growls! Is some sort of new predator on the loose in the sanctuary? Before the gang can solve the mystery themselves, monster-hunters and reality shows invade, turning their quiet jungle home into pandemonium. ” Rio 2: The Creature from Blu’s Lagoon is written by Arie Kaplan and illustrated by James Silvani. The full-color trade paperback is available for pre-ordering; otherwise look for it in stores this fall.
image c. 2014 Paperkutz
Word is spreading fast that the creators of the Ursa-Major-nominated film Ted are facing a lawsuit. “The creators of web series about a foul-mouthed teddy bear with a penchant for drinking, smoking and prostitutes have filed a copyright infringement suit against Seth MacFarlane, Universal Pictures and the producers of Ted, the 2012 film about a foul-mouthed teddy bear with a penchant for drinking, smoking and prostitutes. Bengal Mangle Productions claims that Ted ‘is an unlawful copy’ of its own animated teddy, who was featured in two different web series, Charlie The Abusive Teddy and Acting School Academy. The suit, filed today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, states that those web series aired in 2009 and 2010 on You Tube, FunnyOrDie.com and other streaming websites.” Any merit to this? So far the targets of the lawsuit haven’t responded, but you can visit Charlie’s official web site and check things out for yourself.
image c. 2014 Universal Pictures
More 80’s furry comic nostalgia! Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew was, of course, DC Comics jumping head-first into the growing funny animal scene with a Warner Brothers meets Superheroes pastiche created by Scott Shaw! and Roy Thomas. Now DC have brought together the original full-color issue #1 through #20 of CC in a new trade paperback, Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. The collection also features a team-up with the original Teen Titans, as well as the special and little-seen 3-issue Oz/Wonderland War mini-series (which the Super Rabbit and his cohorts had a large part in). It’s available for order now, and hits the shelves this August.
image c. 2014 DC Comics
Who knew that Natasha Allegri, creator of Bee & Puppcat, was the one who came up with the idea of gender-swapping the main characters of Adventure Time to create Fiona and Cake? And who knew that her Kickstarter campaign for Bee & Puppycat would become the highest-funded web series in Kickstarter history? (Well, okay, if you’re a fan of hers you probably knew those things!) All of this was more than enough inspiration for Boom! Studios to launch their own full-color Bee & Puppycat comic book mini-series under their Kaboom! imprint. It’s out there now (written and illustrated by Natasha Allegri with help from Garrett Jackson), and you can read more about it at the Kaboom! web site.
image c. 2014 Kaboom!
Hoping to duplicate the success they found with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (admit it, you know it’s true!) IDW now brings us Littlest Pet Shop in full-color comic book form. Animal-talker Blythe and her multi-species compadres are off on adventures all over Downtown City on their famous polka-dot moped. The series is written by Georgia Ball (My Little Pony) with art by Nico Pena and Antonio Campo (Penguins of Madagascar). The IDW web site has more. There’s also a variant cover version by Katie Cook (My Little Pony).
image c. 2014 IDW Publishing
What features the likes of Prozac Bear, Crack Bear, Lech Bear, and Death Bear, among others? Why it’s Bear Nuts, a full-color on-line comic strip by Canadian artist Alison Acton. Surprisingly nice for their many… quirks, these odd bears live in a magical realm where they all learn to get along… and not disgust the neighbors. It’s all part of Studio Dooomcat, an on-line art collective (with prints, t-shirts, and more) started by Alison and Jim Charalampidis. Check out their web site, and follow the links to find the first two volumes of the collected Bear Nuts, available from DMF Comics.
image c. 2014 by Alison Acton
Word has gotten around that Dreamworks Animation has pulled a switch: The aliens-land-on-Earth comedy Home, originally scheduled for release this winter, has been pushed back to 2015, while the Penguins of Madagascar movie has been moved up to this coming November. To that end Dreamworks has just released the first trailer for the penguin movie. It seems that our military-style black and white team meets up with a secret agency known as The North Wind, a collective of high-tech armed animals from the arctic. The film is directed by Eric Darnell, who of course directed all three of the Madagascar movies. Fine, fine, but what we wanna know is: Will Marlene the otter be in the movie too??
image c. 2014 Dreamworks Animation
