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Comic Books

Secrets of the Circus Revealed!

Here’s what publisher First Second have to say about their new prequel book Animal Crackers — Circus Mayhem: “The wacky, high-action graphic novel companion to Animal Crackers, Scott Christian Sava’s highly-anticipated animated feature film. Buffalo Bob’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Animal Circus is famous for its jump-roping giraffe, tangoing lion, and knife-throwing elephant. But they have to be fakes, right? Owen is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. When he visits the circus he discovers that his uncle and, coincidentally, all of the animals, are missing. It can only be the work of Buffalo Bob’s sideshow rival: Contorto. Owen stumbles upon the one thing that can save the day: Buffalo Bob’s box of animal crackers. But these aren’t any ordinary cookies: One bite and you’re transformed into a circus animal!” Look for it in hardcover later this month, or you can read all about it over on Goodreads.

image c. 2017 First Second

The Return of the Original Original Turtles

IDW Publishing have gotten really serious with their Artisan Edition line of comic book reprintings. The latest beneficiary? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as originally created (of course) by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. According to IDW, “This book reproduces all the original art to the first issue of one of the most important comic book phenomenons of the last 35 years — The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Scanned directly from the original art, mimicking the experience of the original hand drawn page, and also collecting all the layouts (also hand drawn) by the creators of what has been called this generation’s Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Rounding out the volume is an extensive gallery of other TMNT images, also scanned directly from the original art.” Look for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Artisan Edition, hitting the shelves this May.

image c. 2017 IDW Publishing

Animal Jam Comes To Comics

So how’d we go and let this phenomenon pass us by? Animal Jam is an on-line MMORPG gaming environment, launched in 2010 by the National Geographic Society. It was designed to use a fantasy setting to teach young children about zoology, natural history, and ecology. According to Wikipedia, “Animal Jam takes place in a fictional area known as Jamaa, containing various biomes and cartoon player-created animals. Players can create an animal with an anonymous 3-part name, such as ‘Crashing Magicshark’, dress it up with virtual clothing, and control it in the gameplay environment. The original six virtual animals that could be created were the panda, rabbit, tiger, wolf, koala, and monkey. Many more animals have been added following the six, letting players have the possibility of seeing one of their favorite animals in the game.” Now, after years on line, Dynamite Entertainment have announced the premier of the first Animal Jam comic book series, coming later in 2017. There’s an article about it over at News-a-rama. The first appearance of the new comic will be part of Dynamite’s contribution to this year’s Free Comic Book Day in May.

image c. 2017 National Geographic

Hero Hadrasaur

And the winner for the longest comic book title we’ve found recently goes to… Space Parasaurolophus, a full-color science fiction comic written, illustrated, and self-published by Leonardo Pertuzzatti. That very hadrasaur was captured by an alien race called the Lev’rram and given both sentience and an arsenal of fancy gadgets. All of which our hero uses to try and defend the Earth from the Werthams: A much more evil alien race, who wiped out the dinosaurs and now have their eyes set on humanity. Visit the creator’s web site to find out more.

image c. 2017 by Leo

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Thunder… THUNDER…!

Another recent black & white discovery is the first issue of The Thunder Frog, from the folks at (wait for it) Thunder Frog Studios. More specifically that would be writer Woody Arnold and illustrator Tayson Martindale. “Theo had his life all planned out. Everything made sense. He would grow up, get married, raise a family, inherit the family farm and grow old watching his grandchildren enjoy a good life. And then he found the most powerful weapon in history… A peaceful day in the country is shattered when a battle erupts in the back-fields of a farm. What happens next will change the world forever.” Of course you can read all about it at the Thunder Frog Comics web site.

image c. 2017 Thunder Frog Studios

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Good Cops, Bad Puns

Interesting discovery from the Long Beach Comic Expo: Doc Yeti Fuk’son — Yeti Detective. Yes that’s the title! It’s a black & white on-line comic that’s now available as a traditional comic too. “Doc Yeti Fuk’son, yeti detective, has the goddamn world at his feet. He’s taking down punks, cleaning up the streets, and making killer puns. The only thing hotter than his career is his wife. Or… it was. Two years later, Doc lives alone, punlessly powering through MacGyver, tapioca, and brown liquor. But his sister JD Yeti Fuk’son is on the case! She brings him a murder both gruesome and topical to drag Doc back into action. Something for him to take… personally.” Doc Yeti is written by Allison Solano and illustrated by Sean Morgan. The official web site will tell you all about it.

image c. 2017 by Sean Morgan

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Lanterns of the Forbidden Zone

Is there no end to the mash-ups? (Probably not.) After last year’s well-received Planet of the Apes and Tarzan crossover comic, BOOM! Studios is at it again — teaming up with DC Comics this time to bring us… Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern. Yes. (Pretty straight-forward title, huh?) In this new full-color 6-issue miniseries, Cornelius the chimpanzee scientist investigates a disturbance in the Forbidden Zone… and discovers an ancient ring of power. Then, the rest of the Green Lantern Corps catches solar wind of it… According to the publishers, “BOOM! Studios, DC, and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products are excited to bring together two celebrated pop culture properties in a historic comics crossover event when the talking simians of the Planet of the Apes meet the Emerald Crusaders of the Green Lantern Corps. Written by Robbie Thompson (Silk) and Justin Jordan (Green Lantern), and illustrated by Barnaby Bagenda (The Omega Men), Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern debuts February 1st as a 6-issue monthly limited series.” So it’s there for you now! Blastr.com has more.

image c. 2017 BOOM! Studios

Just a Little Frog… Well, Mostly.

How did we miss this one? Alternative Comics bring us the collected Fancy Froglin: Uncensored, an on-line comic by James Kochalka (American Elf). Here’s what they say: “James Kochalka’s complete Fancy Froglin — the lovable story of a very dirty little frog who only sometimes wears pants. Fancy Froglin is an ineffably cute happy little frog… He’s highly sexual yet purely innocent. And he loves bunnies. Most important, he’s really funny.” Do we need to mention here that this comic is decidedly for adults? Their web site has more.

image c. 2017 Alternative Comics

The Detective Sticks His Neck Out

Boy, IDW Comics are jumping in with both feet (or is it all four?) with a new full-color comic called Animal Noir. “Anthropomorphic animals like you’ve never seen them before. It’s Chinatown meets Animal Farm, and just like the George Orwell classic, Lunacek and Juren’s animals are an allegory for today’s world. Private Investigator (and giraffe), Immanuel Diamond – Manny to his friends – has been asked by his uncle – an influential judge — to track down a prey fantasy movie. Adult films in this world are staged hunts where one animal eats another, and the judge’s wife starred in one that has been hidden (until now). Giraffe detectives, hippo mob members, prey-obsessed lions, street fighting elephants, and oppressed zebras are just part of this wild animal kingdom.” Should we mention that several critics noticed that Zootopia reminded them of Chinatown too? Nah, probably not. Created by Nejc Juren and Izar Lunacek, Animal Noir #1 is due on the comic book shelves this coming March.

image c. 2017 IDW Comics