Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Katelyn McCaigue is an artist and illustrator we met at WonderCon last week. She describes herself as a “monster and character artist”, and a look at her web site seems to back that up. Recently, she’s been working on a project to illustrate 100 different dragons based on ideas submitted to her by her fans and subscribers. She’s still got a ways to go but she’s intent on finishing! Many of her current monster designs are also available as prints.
image c. 2019 by Katelyn McCaigue
Another new project we found out about thanks to Animation World Network: “Jessy and Nessy is a 40 x 11’ mixed-media preschool series about Jessy, an innately curious little girl and her best friend, Nessy, a five-and-a-half-thousand year old sea monster, with a penchant for pickles… At the heart of the show is Jessy; an inquisitive, fun loving, spectacle wearing six-year-old, who happens to see the world a little differently through her magical glasses, or as Jessy calls them — her ‘Inspectacles’. They allow Jessy to see and talk to all types of animated characters, including Nessy, who lives in a fountain in Cara Park opposite Jessy’s apartment building. Together this unlikely duo explore life’s curiosities like why birds fly south, why things don’t fall up instead of down and even why some people snore? Jessy and Nessy reveal how all these seemingly everyday curiosities have fantastical answers — leading the home viewer to explore their own curiosities and to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.” Look for the new show later this year on Amazon Prime Video.
image c. 2019 JAM Media
Here we go again! We got this from Complex.com: “Scooby-Doo will make its return to the big screen with an animated movie set to star Gina Rodriguez, Tracy Morgan, and Will Forte, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film — directed by Tony Cervone, the producer behind the television series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated — is currently untitled. Forte is set to play the titular dane’s best friend Shaggy, Rodriguez will voice Velma, and Morgan will be non-Mystery Gang member Captain Caveman [!]. Frank Welker, who’s worked with the franchise since 1972-73’s The New Scooby-Doo Movies, will play the role of Scooby-Doo. For this case, the gang will reportedly team up with other Hanna-Barbera universe heroes to save the world from the corrupt plans of Dick Dastardly, the main villain of fellow Hanna-Barbera classic, Wacky Races [!!]. The project, which is set to hit theaters May 2020, will be the first time Scooby Doo takes the silver screen since the 2004 live-action film, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.” Sounds like they’re getting much more ambitious with their universe now! We found other talk on-line about this this movie project that gave it the title of S.C.O.O.B. Guess we’ll find out next year!
image c. 2019 Hanna Barbera
And more dark stuff from the Long Beach Comic Expo. Remember when we talked about the graphic novel Wretched Things? Well it turns out that the publisher, Source Point Press, has another creepy anthropomorphic title in their crop: Rottentail. “This deranged graphic novel comes straight from the minds and hands of David C. Hayes, Kevin Moyers, Kurt Belcher, and Henrik Horvath. Geeky fertility researcher Peter Cotton is bitten by a mutant rabbit and changes into the half-man/half-bunny Rottentail. What’s a boy to do? Why, take a hippity, hoppity trip home of course! Peter begins a bloody killing spree of revenge that culminates in his childhood hometown of Easter Falls.” Ready for this? Rottentail has even been made into a film!
image c. 2019 Source Point Press
The artist known as AshG is an active-duty member of the U.S. Navy, often deployed on ships at sea. But somehow she still finds the time and energy to create Monster’s Garden, a full-color on-line comic. It tells the story of Kilo Monster, a championship fighter (and reptile) who is thrown out of his homeland. Now he lives his life for the protection of his friends (human and otherwise) and the peace of his home garden. The official web site includes a link to AshG’s Society6 store of art prints and other items.
image c. 2019 by AshG
Tiger vs. Nightmare is a new full-color graphic novel for young readers, created by Emily Tetri and published by First Second. “Tiger is a very lucky kid: She has a monster living under her bed. Every night, Tiger and Monster play games until it’s time for lights out. Of course, Monster would never try to scare Tiger—that’s not what best friends do. But Monster needs to scare someone…it’s a monster, after all. So while Tiger sleeps, Monster scares all of her nightmares away. Thanks to her friend, Tiger has nothing but good dreams. But waiting in the darkness is a nightmare so big and mean that Monster can’t fight it alone. Only teamwork and a lot of bravery can chase this nightmare away.” The book is available now in hardcover from Macmillan, and they’ve got a preview up as well.
image c. 2019 First Second
And speaking of Mike Norton (which we were a couple days ago), he’s back as illustrator and collaborating once again with Rafer Roberts on Grumble, a new full-color comic series from Albatross Funnybooks. “When the forces of good and evil are hunting you down, the only logical thing to do is disguise yourself as a dog and go on the run! Eddie is a low-rent hustler who got magically turned into a pug during a con gone wrong. Tala is the part-demon daughter of one of Eddie’s many ex-girlfriends. When Tala finds herself the target of powerful inter-dimensional forces, she goes to Eddie for help–setting off a chain reaction of chaos and destruction that could threaten the very fabric of existence. Can Eddie and Tala put aside their differences long enough to survive the magical mayhem and madness that they started, or will they kill each other first? (It’s probably the second one!)” CBR has a preview with sample pages too.
image c. 2018 Albatross Funnybooks
And speaking of compilations… IDW has a big one for fans of Spyro the Dragon and the Skylanders crew in the new Skylanders Omnibus. “A collection of Skylanders adventures tying into some of their most popular games! From the world of Skylanders Trap Team! Discover the history of the Trap Masters and Kaos’ plot for Traptanium that ties right into the video game. Marvel as your favorite characters face grueling tests, outrageous challenges, and the vilest of villains to gain Champion status! Plus, one of Spyro’s most malevolent and powerful enemies makes his Skylanders debut! And nothing Spyro, Hex, Cynder, or the rest of the Skylanders can do will prepare them for the evil that is about the be unleashed—the return of the first purple dragon, Malefor!” At nearly 300 pages, it just hit the shelves too!
image c. 2019 IDW Publishing
A classic folk tale comes to us in the form of a new full-color graphic novel series courtesy of Image Comics. “The sibling writer/artist duo of Cat Seaton and Kit Seaton (AFAR) team up for Norroway, Book 1: The Black Bull of Norroway, the first in an original graphic novel series based on the Scottish tale of the same name. Sibylla had always craved adventure, but she never guessed it would show up at her door in the form of a giant, magical bull. Who knew a prophecy could be so literal?” The first book is available in trade paperback.
image c. 2018 Image Comics
