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Science Fiction

Planetary Personalities

All around Furry Weekend Atlanta we found these interesting business cards — each with a character (usually an anthropomorphic) and the name of a planet. So we came home, followed the links… and found our way to Solar House, a science-fiction webtoon written and illustrated by Vanadium Valor. What if the planets, moons, and so forth in our solar system were each a person, with their own foibles and personalities? “It’s like if astronomy and furry art kissed! Follow the lives of the planets (and other objects) as they try to navigate their long company policies and even longer histories!” Each comic comes with some extra science facts to give a background in reality to the current story-line.

image c. 2024 by Vanadium Valor

Not-Planet of the Apes

Here’s a science fiction limited-series comic that came to us from CEX last year: Josif 1957. “You know about Laika, the Cosmonaut dog sent into orbit on Sputnik 2. But no one knows about Josif, the first gorilla in space! Born on Josif Stalin’s birthday and subjected to terrible genetic experiments, Josif soon grew far too powerful. The leadership of the Soviet Union did all they could to stop him. But not everything went as planned!” It’s written by Davide Barzi, and illustrated by a talented young Italian artist, Fabiano Ambu.

image c. 2024 CEX Publishing

Not Like Us… but Like Us

Cartoonist and illustrator Jed McGowan has created their first graphic novel, My Life Among Humans. “A nameless alien data compiler comes to Earth to study humans, setting up shop on the outskirts of a small desert community in North America. Working under forced labor, it must watch humans in complete secrecy while sending regular reports to its manager back home. Using spore-like technology to read the minds of his hosts, the alien quickly takes a special interest in Will, one of his early subjects. That interest proves to be a problem when the alien is accidentally revealed to Will’s family and it takes desperate measures to save its own life.” Check it out now from Oni Press.

image c. 2024 Oni Press

The Probe Found Something

We’ll let the folks at Image Comics describe their 5-issue mini-series Voyagis for themselves: “What if one of the Voyager probes was found by aliens on an uninhabitable planet laid waste by a wandering black hole? Their resources dwindling and under the thumb of a relentless tyrant, alien hero Sen’s discovery of the probe leads to adventure – and possible salvation – for her and her people.” It’s always fun to find science fiction adventures that don’t focus on human characters. This is written and illustrated by the artist Sumeyye Kesgin.

image c. 2024 Image Comics

Solve the Mystery. Save the World

Cashmere Sky is an on-line anthropomorphic science fiction comic created by Jared Hudson and edited by Aaron Schweiser. After we found them at Midwest FurFest, we got this from their web site: “Cashmere Sky is a retrofuture character-driven action/drama following two brothers, Arlo and Enzo, who both endure the hardships of coping with loss, finding courage, leadership, and acceptance. It is described as a retro-future world with ‘solarpunk’ tones bringing together an exciting brew of airships, electricity, science, and a race of anthro cat-like people. Our heroes journey will take them from places like a science classroom to terrifying high speed train chases and airship battles.” Check out their list of people they consider their influences too!

image c. 2023 cashmeresky.com

Finding His Own Kind. Maybe.

Back from MidWest FurFest, and of course we have a lot to talk about! One person we met was Daniel Becker, an author with a brand-new self-published anthropomorphic science fiction series to his credit. The first book in Daniel’s American Feral series is called Imprint. “Waking up drugged, confused, and blindfolded, a human teenager named Ghent Sparrow is kidnapped by Primes: Half-animal half-human hybrids created by the military. They suspect Ghent of being a Prime himself. Brought to the Prime capital Kingdom, Ghent is offered a chance to represent humanity as the first human soldier in the Prime army. Knowing there may be no world for him back in the United States as a hybrid, Ghent accepts the offer and is initiated into the Prime Liberation Force. He must battle the rigorous training from his wolf commander, being threatened by Evolutionaries (who seek to exterminate humanity), and learn his place in society as the bottom of the food chain… which makes him question his humanity in a world of beasts.” Book two in the series, Identity, is also available.

image c. 2023 by Daniel Becker

On the Throne in the Palace of the Kingdom of the…

20th Century Studios just dropped the first trailer for The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the “new arc” of ape science fiction movies. (For what looks to be an interesting film, they sure saddled it with a clunky-sounding title. Come on, people! What’s wrong with Kingdom of the Apes?) The official synopsis goes like this: “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.” It’s directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner), who meanwhile is now getting to work on an adaptation of The Mouse Guard! Kingdom is set to be released in theaters on Memorial Day (May 24th) in 2024.

image c. 2023 20th Century Studios

Him and All His Furry… Friends?

Lots of people have been talking about the new anime-style TV series that just recently started streaming on Netflix. “Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is an original animated series mixing alternative Ubisoft characters from beloved franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Rayman, and Far Cry in a highly-referenced homage to the early 90s.” The story? “Set in the year 1992, the country formerly known as the USA is now called Eden, a technocracy ruled by propaganda and corruption. Super-soldier Dolph Laserhawk has just been betrayed by the love of his life, his boyfriend Alex Taylor, and locked up in Eden’s off-the-grid maximum security prison, Supermaxx. Dolph is forced to lead a team of rebel outcasts on risky undercover missions under the order of the prison’s shadowy Warden.” What that description fails to convey is that there are lots and lots of anthropomorphic characters throughout the series, mostly bad folks but a few good-ish ones. Check out the trailer over at Animation World Network.

image c. 2023 Netflix

Your Mentor is Evil. But Soft.

We talked before about author John Scalzi’s recent book The Kaiju Preservation Society. Well the prolific author is back with another interesting take on science fiction tropes with Starter Villain. “Inheriting your mysterious uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might imagine. Sure, there are the things you’d expect. The undersea volcano lairs. The minions. The plots to take over the world. The international networks of rivals who want you dead. Much harder to get used to… are the the sentient, language-using, computer-savvy cats. And the fact that in the overall organization, they’re management.” The book just hit the shelves this week, from Tor, in hardcover.

image c. 2023 Tor Books