We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Anthropomorphics means anthropomorphic anything. To that end, witness this… Monster Motors. “The once-quiet town of Transylvania, Kentucky is under attack from Cadillacula, an evil vampire-car that sucks the gas out of other vehicles! The more victims he claims, the more powerful he gets. Genius mechanic Vic Frankenstein has a solution: Build a monster to fight a monster. Vic and his android assistant iGOR (interactive Garage Operations Robot) assemble a giant truck from the pieces of the town’s fallen vehicles. Frankenride is born, and the battle between good and evil hits the road!” You heard it here, folks. The Monster Motors full-color one-shot from IDW (written by Brian Lynch and illustrated by Nick Roche) comes to comic shops later this month. Check it out at Previews World.
Monsters
Art Discovered at WonderCon
Betsy Bauer is a fine artist and character designer. In addition to various gallery shows, she worked at Sony Pictures Animation creating characters for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and her own short film proposal, Bookworm. She has a very active web site (showing her finished works and also several steps along the way), as well as displaying her works on Deviant Art. Spend some time looking things over (many different kinds of things!) in her portfolio.
Monstery Goodness
Daniel and Dawna Davis, known collectively as Steam Crow, refer to themselves as “a husband and wife team based in Phoenix, Arizona, who make friendly monster-inspired art, prints, books, and other oddities”. With a weird sense of humor and an extreme graphic-arts style to boot. Their books include Caught Creatures, a book of “monster haiku”. You can find that and much more at the Steam Crow web site, as well as a blog updating the latest of what they’re working on — and what’s the next convention or festival they’ll be appearing at.
The Vampire Is The Nice One
It’s the far future, and one of the most popular viewing experiences out there is a deadly reality show called The Last Res0rt, where criminals from various worlds and species try to kill each other. Into this mix comes Jigsaw, a furry, who’s also a violinist — and a vampire. Or so she just discovered. She honestly wishes that she’d known that before she volunteered to be on the show! All of this comes from the mind of graphic artist Rachel Keslensky, and it’s all available for viewing at the Last Res0rt comic strip web-site. As well as in several paperback book collections Rachel has put together from previous material — books which also include extra new art work, of course. The web site also includes a handy new reader’s guide for those who need to catch up with the story and the characters.
Werewolves in the Big Easy
We can’t put this any better than they do at Dark Horse: “Cassian Steele is the boss of the werewolf mafia in the Big Easy, and he’s got a problem. The old witch Verona knows his secret and has gone into hiding. Cassian wants her dead. So he sends out the word: An open contract. The first monster to dust Verona gets a big payday. What no one realizes is that Barnabus Black, a demon desperately trying to regain his halo, is her protection.” Kiss Me, Satan! is a new full-color miniseries written by Victor Gischler (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike—A Dark Place) and illustrated by Juan Ferreyra (Colder). Find out a lot more at Comic Book Resources. Then look for the premier this September.
Be Careful Playing with Magick
Lee and Paul are two buddies at a mid-sized university. When the school receives a large collection of ancient artifacts, mysterious and dangerous events begin to happen — events which lead our heroes into entirely new lives and forms as mystical protectors! That’s the premise of Loop & Hoodie, a weekly web comic written by Adron Buske and illustrated by Dan Cassity and Travis Nuckolls. Why mention it here? Well it turns out that Lee — in his form known as “Loop” — transforms into a large anthropomorphic foo-dog. He just looks like a big werewolf — hence his name! Check it out at www.loopandhoodie.com.
The Flim Flam Man
Bill Robinson is an animator and illustrator living in the Bay Area in California. He’s currently a lead artist at Kabam, where he helps to create social massively multi-player online games like Dragons of Atlantis. At his personal web site. FlimFlammery.com, you’ll find other examples of Mr. Robinson’s illustration projects, including several children’s books and fantasy works. Turns out he even illustrated a tie-in book for the animated film HOP.
Ponies of Evil!
After working for years in the gaming industry (as an illustrator on such games as Legend of the Five Rings and World of Darkness), the artist Heather V. Kreiter has created her own line of rather scary-looking pony-themed merchandise under the moniker of My Little Demon. Featuring ponies with such names as Satana, Wretched Rainbow, and Velvet Decay, these mouse pads, blankets, aprons, and other products will keep you up at night with a weird combination of cuteness and chills. Check out her sales page at Cafe press to find out just how many products in how many designs she offers!