The artist known as Keto has a new illustrated story project called Point Nowhere, telling the story of two “country boys”, a bear and a canine. “In 1960’s Georgia, two farm boys, Dale and Feargus, meet at childhood and form a deep bond they don’t quite understand. They face the struggle of their emotions, upbringings, and relationships both together and separately. They learn how to overcome these struggles by finding the courage to be vulnerable and imperfect. But learning these lessons doesn’t come quickly; it can take a lifetime.” Keto’s Patreon page has more information about the project, a request for crowd-funding assistance to see it through, and a preview video as well. [And with that, we’ll see you after San Diego Comic Con!]
Dogs
The Nordguard Expanding
And more from Tempe O’Kun: The author and designer has been hard at work on a new expansion set for the card game based on Nordguard — the award-winning graphic novel created by the artist collective known as Blotch. “Developed directly with Blotch, Nordguard: Tribes of the White Land is an all-new fully-canon expansion for Nordguard: The Card Game. The entire original ThinkTank Games development team came back to work on this set. Includes exclusive new Blotch and Chromamancer art, as well as art from the upcoming Nordguard: Under Dark Skies. This 36-card set will be for sale at Sofawolf Press’s table at Anthrocon and later on their site for $12. With Nordguard: Tribes, we throw players into a new side of the Nordguard setting. Caught between savage strays and strange settlers, the wolf, lynx, and caribou tribes have a thousand-year head start on both. Friend or foe, they’re the unequaled masters of that lethal environment. We brought in an archaeologist specializing in the real-life equivalents of these cultures—advising our artists on everything from the carvings on their Items to the structures on the Locations. If you’re looking to spice up your Nordguard game, don’t miss this expansion.”
When Otter Met Husky
We got this from author Tempe O’Kun regarding the new novel Windfall: “Tempe O’Kun (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/tempo321), author of the award-winning furry fantasy-western Sixes Wild, returns! His new novel centers around Kylie and Max, an otter and a husky, who are best friends grappling with falling in love with each other…and with the fact that the supernatural cable TV show they starred in was actually real. Featuring 22 illustrations from acclaimed furry artist Slate (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/slate), this new M/F furry romance is a mystery you’ll find irresistible. Available at the FurPlanet booth for $15 at Anthrocon and online afterward. Windfall is a sweet love story between a cute otter and a hunky husky. It’s also about alien horrors beyond the imagination. Want to read a book that would blow Lovecraft’s mind? This is your chance.” Check it out and pre-order over at FurPlanet.
Award-Winning Art and Stories
Ursa Major Award winner Rukis recently announced a new set of books coming out from FurPlanet. Following the award-winning novel Off the Beaten Path and its sequel, Lost on Dark Trails, the third book in the trilogy comes out this July. In The Long Road Home, “Shivah’s journey continues, taking her not only across a country she never truly knew, but soon the oceans, as well. She finds herself journeying to a distant land, but even so far from home, she can’t hide from her grief, or the anger eating away at her heart.” Also this July comes a collection of full-color mature-themed art that Rukis and Myenia created for their popular Menagerie series. Check out over at FurPlanet’s web site to find out more.
The Cat Will Be A Knight
Caterwall is a fantasy comic series created, written, and illustrated by Spain Fischer. It’s had a convoluted creation and release history, on line and on paper, but now Sofawolf Press is offering the first of three planned full-color graphic novels. It’s called Caterwall: The Isle of Manx and it’s available in both hard and soft-cover editions starting this July. The story? Pax is a young cat in the peaceable Kingdom of Katia. He’s determined to become a noble, heroic knight like his famous father — but his antics and attitude mostly get him in trouble, and eventually get him banished. But he and his rag-tag band of friends are still determined to help the nearby dog kingdom in their war against the wolves of the north. Find out more over at the Sofawolf Press web site.
Dogs Left Behind
Nobrow Press is known in comic circles for introducing the world to new voices and new art. Among the most recent ones is Vacancy, a new full-color one-shot written and illustrated by Jen Lee. Here’s a summary from The AV Club: “Jen Lee… is best known for her animated web-comic Thunderpaw: In The Ashes Of Fire Mountain. [Vacancy is] a post-apocalyptic tale of two dogs attempting to journey home after a mysterious, fiery cataclysmic event sees them abandoned in a car, Lee uses flickering motion and a tensely evocative gray and orange color palette to create an atmosphere of ominous dread. It’s a stunning work of foreboding beauty as the dogs battle gangs, predators, fires, and themselves, en route to a home which they no longer know exists, with the animated features adding to the sense of unease and restlessnes. Lee makes the most of the web format, incorporating the endless canvas and scroll functions to give real scope to the eerie sense of desolation and devastation.” The article also includes an interview with the creator and four preview pages from the comic.
All This For A Six-Pack…
On the shelves now at your local comic shop (and of course available on-line as well) look for issue #5 of Guardians Team-Up. As in Guardians of the Galaxy, you bet. When Cosmo the psychic space-dog absconds with a six-pack of Rocket Raccoon’s favorite brew, the shortest and loudest Guardian takes off in hot pursuit — and ends up running into the re-united Pet Avengers. Just in time too, as the Pet Avengers find themselves locked in a battle with the newly-formed Pets of Evil Masters and their self-styled leader, Vulture Von Doom! Super-powered animals abound! This issue was written by Andy Lanning and Andy Schmidt, illustrated by Gustavo Duarte and Marcelo Maiolo, with a painted cover by Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado.
A Furry Renaissance
More pet art, of a different creative sort. Jennifer Miller specializes in portraits of various canine, feline, and equine species illustrated in the black & white style of Leonardo Da Vinci — and other early European painters. Each of her creations (on posters, plaques, pillows, and other printed objects) features interesting facts about the illustrated breed in appropriate hand-written script. She has a lot of designs already and she’s constantly putting up more, so go take a look at her web site, Leonardo’s Dogs.
Painted Pets
Laura Seeley is a classical fine artist… one who specializes in animal paintings. What’s more she’s even illustrated several books for children — Originally for various authors, but more recently for works she’s written herself. With galleries on her web site having names like “The Magic Cats”, “The Whimsy Cats”, and “A Cat Never Tells”, you can see where she’s coming from… though she does draw plenty of dogs and even whales, too! According to her web site, Best Friends Art Gallery, she plans on having pictures from her book projects up very soon.