Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is an Ursa Major Award-nominated video game from Japan which (according to its Wikipedia page) is “a spiritual sequel to the Tail Concerto game”, which was also released by Namco Bandai. Now the anime/manga fan site Otaku.com has let us know that the Solatorobo Sketch Book is available for import, and you can order it on their site. It’s expensive (kind of), but it this softcover book features some striking anime-style furry art.
image c. 2012 Namco Bandai
Archie Comics have announced the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog Legacy, Volume 1 trade paperback this coming October. It’s part of a whole series of new Sonic the Hedgehog graphic novels that Archie will be releasing soon in a larger format to try and appeal to older readers. Publisher’s Weekly has the skinny on all of that. Meanwhile, Legacy features over 500 pages of Sonic and the Freedom Fighter’s early adventures, collecting together issues #0 – #3 of the original Sonic mini-series and issues #1 – #16 of the ongoing series.
image c. 2011 Archie Comics
Who knew that the Ursa Major Award-winning video game Epic Mickey was also a comic book? My, it’s everywhere! Well, for those of us who wound up surprised as we are, Disney Press will be releasing the Disney: Epic Mickey graphic novel this October, in both hardcover and softcover editions. It collects all of the full-color Epic Mickey comic adventures, written by the famous comic book author Peter David and illustrated by Fabio Celoni and Paolo Mottura. In it you’ll be introduced to the magical realm of Wasteland and its inhabitants, including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Gus the Gremlin, and the animatronic Donald, Daisy, and Goofy.
image c. 2011 Disney Press
Epic Mickey is a a popular video adventure game, developed by Junction Point Studios in Texas last year. It’s popular with furry fans too, having won the 2010 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Game. Now the developers are putting out a new book dedicated to the art and artists that went into creating this well-known game. Here’s the blurb from Amazon.com: “The Art of Epic Mickey will be a 160-page hardcover landscape coffee table book. It will be written by Epic Mickey co-writer Austin Grossman and will feature a forward by Game Director and New York Times contributor, Warren Spector. The book will journey through the beautifully dark and twisted world known as Cartoon Wasteland touching on the creative process behind developing this once-in-a-lifetime vision. It will include, sketches, concept art, final frames, and stills from the actual game, plus, never-before-used art with quotes from the team that envisioned this epic tale. The physical world of the game is born directly from Disneyland, and accordingly, the book will spotlight the artistic influence that Disneyland, with its iconic qualities and rides, had on the creators of Epic Mickey.” The book is scheduled for release by Disney Editions on September 6th.
image c. 2011 Disney Editions
Furry fans into the World of Warcraft game and its story background might want to check out the new World of Warcraft: Curse of the Worgen comic book mini-series, published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. For those who don’t play the game, according to WOW-Wiki: “Worgen are large, lupine humanoids reminiscent of a werewolf that walks upright, but lopes on all fours to run.” The five-issue comic book, exploring the mysteries of the Worgen and where they came from, was written by Micky Neilson and James Waugh. The full-color art was created by Ludo Lullabi, Tony Washington, and John Polidora. The first issue is on sale now.
Once again the Japanese are proving themselves ahead of the curve a bit… Solatorobo is a new adventure video game created for the Nintendo DS by CyberConnect2. It’s scheduled to be released in Japan on October 28th. The game is basically a sequel to the popular Tail Concerto game series, and it’s already creating a lot of buzz and discussion among on-line gaming fans and furry fans also. No word yet if the creators plan to release the game in English or in North America, but there is at least one YouTube video where you can preview the Japanese version.
The well-known, Ursa-Major Award-winning Ratchet and Clank video game series is now being released as a 6-issue full-color comic book mini-series by the Wildstorm imprint of DC comics. The story takes place in the aftermath of the Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time game. Here’s how the publisher puts it: “With Dr. Nefarious defeated and the universe safe, galactic heroes Ratchet and Clank return to the Solana galaxy for some well-earned rest and relaxation. But when entire planets begin disappearing from the universe without a trace, Galactic President Qwark calls them back into action to solve the mystery. As the rest of the universe erupts in panic, the duo must embark on an epic adventure that will pit them against their most capable adversary to date: a Markazian planet thief named Artemis Zogg!” The series is written by T.J. Fixman (an employee at Ratchet and Clank’s home base, Insomniac Games) and illustrated by Adam Archer. Look for it stores this September.
image c. 2010 Wildstorm
Have you heard about Sands of Destruction? It’s a current video game and anime series that have become very popular in Japan in both formats. The game came first: World Destruction — Guided Wills (the original Japanese title) was developed by Imageepoch for the Nintendo DS and published by Sega. Later the anime series adaptation (World Destruction: The Six People That Will Destroy the World) was created by Production I.G. The plot of both is the same: The world has been taken over by various races of animal-people known collectively as “Ferals”, and humans have been reduced to slave labor. A group known as the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front has decided that the only way to fix the world is to destroy it completely. Kyrie Illunis is a young man with mysterious destructive powers — and a teddy-bear-like feral for a friend and advisor. The former brings him to the attention of Morte Ashera, the young woman in charge of the WDC/WAF. Attentions both professional and romantic, that is. And then various ferals and humans get involved, and things become much more complicated for everyone, of course. Funimation will be releasing the complete 13-episode anime series on DVD this January.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank you for following us through our first year on-line. We’ll keep making your Internet interesting! — Rod O’Riley, your ed-otter
