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Mice

Bubbles & Gondola

More from Europe, this time from France. We really don’t know how to summarize this; even the title doesn’t exactly make sense. Probably better to let the publisher describe this new full-color hardcover graphic novel by artist and writer Renaud Dillies. Here’s what NBM Publishing put up on Amazon regarding Bubbles & Gondola: “Poetry, fantasy, and Django Reinhardt are woven into a fairy tale about solitude and awakening the creative spirit in this graphic novel. Charlie is a mouse who enjoys his solitude, staying up late nights indoors to listen to records and play his guitar; he experiences the outside world only through the windows of his house. As Charlie begins to stumble with writer’s block, a bluebird named Mr. Solitude arrives to encourage Charlie to search for inspiration outside of himself and his home. Told with a melancholic and heart-warming lyricism, this tender story combines pithy observations with whimsical illustrations to create a simple yet poignant tale for readers young and old.” The book is scheduled for release on October 1st.

 

image c. 2011 NBM Publishing

Tom & Jerry Live on Stage

In Argentina (of all places!) the brand new stage musical Tom and Jerry Live recently premiered at the Teatro Lola Membrives in Buenos Aires. From there, the producers plan to take the show on tour through Chile and Peru for the rest of 2011. According to them, “Under the direction of Leandro Panetta, Tom, Jerry, Spike and the gang go on stage, recreating classic cartoons with songs, chases, jokes, games and stunts. Tom and Jerry travel from opera to medieval times, then run and chase from the living room into the garden. Actors, dancers, singers and acrobats on stage guide to the public in this magical world where Friendship is always the result of each and every encounter persecution.” Cartoon Brew says that the production is based on specific cartoon shorts, including The Two Mouseketeers, The Cat Above the Mouse Below and the Gene Kelly sequence from Anchors Aweigh.

 

image c. 2011 CartoonBrew.com

The Gruffalo

Another in the “how’d we miss this?” category… The Gruffalo is an award-winning children’s book from the U.K., written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It was first published in 1999 by Macmillan Children’s Books. It tells the tale (via a mother squirrel giving her children a bedtime story) of a mouse walking through the woods.  When he is threatened in turn by a predatory fox, snake, and owl, he scares each of them off by telling them he is on his way to meet his friend the “Gruffalo” — a monstrous creature who is much more dangerous than any of them. He’s making it all up, of course, and he thinks he’s so clever… until he runs into the real Gruffalo. After the book became enormously popular in the U.K. and elsewhere, Magic Light Pictures and Studio Soi made The Gruffalo into a 30-minute CGI film, which was broadcast on U.K. television for Christmas 2009. It featured (among others) the voices of Helena Bonham Carter (as the mother squirrel), John Hurt, and Robbie Coltrane (as the Gruffalo). The BBC has a trailer for the show on-line, and there’s also a making-of video from Magic Light.

image c. 2011 Axel Scheffler

Return of the Rescue Rangers

Once again BOOM! Studios have stepped up to the task of bringing the Disney Afternoon back to life.  Following on the webbed heels of their successful Darkwing Duck comic book series, now comes the full-color return of Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, written by Ian Brill and illustrated by Leonel Castellani. You can see a preview of this new series, as well as the various alternate covers for the first issue, at BOOM! Studio’s web site.

The Mice Templars’ 2nd Sketchbook

Victor Santos has been making a name for himself as the lead artist for the popular Mice Templar comic book series from Image Comics. Now Image presents The Mice Templar Sketchbook II, presenting all new art and characters for the series — in black & white and full color. It also includes a brand new Mice Templar short story written by Bryan Glass and series creator Michael Avon Oeming. It’s on the shelves now.

Furries for a Good Cause

It’s always nice to see funny animal projects supporting charity — there are, of course, a lot of them out there! This particular one from Alterna Comics has the rather lengthy title of The Unlikely Trio: Last Barn on the Left. Their web site describes this one-shot black & white comic (written by Scott and Callie West and illustrated by Scott) like this: “A story of three unlikely friends, Lil’Bit the mouse, Mrs. Butters the cat, and Abby the Collie dog that join together to brave the last barn on the left in their small town. The only problem is that a scary monster is said to lurk in the shadows of the barn! Printed in black and white (so kids can be the colorist!) and featuring fun activities in the back of the book, The Unlikely Trio will be sure to entertain even after you’re done reading!” Best of all, $2.00 from the sale of each book will be donated to the ASPCA. The Alterna Comics page also features a preview of the comic, and a link to The Unlikely Trio’s official web site.

Legends of the Guard… Mice, this time

David Petersen’s award-winning comic and story-book series Mouse Guard gets a new twist, as some of the most creative minds in the world of comic books join him to tell all-new tales in Legends of the Guard, a new 4-issue full-color mini-series (coming this May from Archaia Entertainment). “Inside the June Alley Inn, located in the western mouse city of Barkstone, mice gather to tell tales, each trying to out-do the other. A competition, of sort, begins. The rules: Every story must contain one truth, one lie, and have never been told in that tavern before.” Story-tellers this time around include Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl), Ted Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin), and Alex Sheikman (Robotika). In future issues we’ll see contributions by Katie Cook, Guy Davis, Gene Ha, Sean Rubin, Mark Smylie, and many more.

Geronimo Stilton — The Graphic Novels

Since 2004, Scholastic has been publishing the Geronimo Stilton series of books by Elisabetta Dami for the English-speaking world. Now word has come out that the world-travelling mouse-journalist has become a time traveller as well… and that his new adventures will be released soon as hardcover graphic novels from Paperkutz Publishing. In case you’ve been missing it: Geronimo Stilton is the editor-in-chief of The Rodent’s Gazette, the largest newspaper in New Mouse City. That’s his day-job. But, facing the threat of evil cats from far-off Catatonia, Geronimo and his family have found themselves travelling through many adventures around the globe.  Now comes word that the cats have actually developed time-travel… and they plan to alter the past to destroy Mouselands’s future! Now our heroic editor has no choice but to follow the cats through time, trying to stop their evil schemes! The first book in the series is Geronimo Stilton: The Discovery of America, to be followed soon by The Secret of the Sphynx and The Coliseum Con. Papercutz has an introductory video for the series that can be found here. No big surprise: A Geronimo Stilton animated TV series is in the works in his home county of Italy.

Mice Templar: Destiny

Image Comics bring us a brand new story arc for Michael Avon Oeming’s popular mouse-knight series. Mice Templar: Destiny follows the adventures of the newly-knighted mouse Karic. With the Templar fallen and the natural world in the grip of tyrants and ever-increasing chaos, Karic is desperate to complete his training and save his family from slavery. This new full-color monthly series is brought to us by Michael Avon Oeming, Bryan Glass, and Victor Santos.