InFurNation

Ape Entertainment is presenting Kizoic, a new line of full-color young reader comic book titles coming this year. And, luckily, several of those titles have notably furry themes. Two of those titles come direct from Dreamworks Animation: Shrek Forever After — The Prequel, coming this April, and The Penguins of Madagascar, shipping in June. Shrek, of course, is based on the upcoming fourth Shrek feature film. In this new comic by Scott Shaw and Drew Rausch, the villainous Rumpelstiltskin tries time and again to get the best of Shrek, Donkey, Puss-in-Boots, and their friends. Meanwhile, keep your eyes out for Scratch 9, featuring the adventures of a little who can access all 8 of his past and future lives — including the one where he was a saber-toothed tiger!

Mark McKenna’s strange (but nice) little monkey Banana Tail returns in Banana Tail’s Colorful Adventure, a new full-color hardcover book for young readers (coming in April from Image Comics).  Banana Tail, if you didn’t know, is a young monkey who is made fun of for his bright and shiny yellow tail. So, he spends his days hanging around with other unusual young animals in the jungle, including a checkerboard zebra and a rhino who changes colors with her mood. Mark McKenna, if you didn’t know, is a comic book artist who’s worked for both DC and Marvel for decades. Now he brings back his popular children’s book character in a new 3D CGI format with the help of Steve Akehurst and the artists at The Fourth Armada.

The animation team that brought us Happy Feet (which, we’re told, did rather well…) returns this fall with The Legend of the Guardians. This CGI film, directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) is based on the first three books of the 15-book series The Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky. The subject is owls. Specifically a starry-eyed young owl named Soren (Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe). Soren is obsessed with stories about the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole, armored owls who protect the weak and innocent against evil. Soren dreams of meeting them, and even of possibly becoming one. And he may well have to, when he discovers that an evil queen owl (Helen Mirren of The Queen (!)) is kidnapping young owls and brain-washing them for her own personal army. The film comes to theaters this September, but you can follow the film’s development and see a trailer at the Internet Movie Database.

Soren and family. Image c. 2010, Animal Logic

It’s been 25 years since Peter S. Beagle’s beloved fantasy The Last Unicorn was made into a successful and iconic 2D animated film by Rankin-Bass. Now, IDW Publishing presents a brand new Last Unicorn six-part comic book mini-series coming out this April. It’s been adapted by Peter B. Gillis and illustrated in full color Renae De Liz and Ray Dillion. In case you don’t know it: A beautiful unicorn finds that her kind have disappeared, and that she might very well be the last. In her quest to find her kindred, she is captured by a freakish carnival… where she learns of a terrible monster known as the Red Bull, who has be scouring the land, capturing unicorns…

The March brings us another art book that furry fans might well consider checking out. A Sketchy Past: The Art of Peter De Seve takes a look at the New York-based illustrator best known for having designed all of the characters from Blue Sky’s Ice Age series of CGI films. He has also designed characters for films as diverse as Robots, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt, Mulan, and A Bug’s Life, all of which are represented here in full-color recreations. This hardcover book from Editions Akileos features an introduction by Blue Sky director Chris Wedge and editorial text by cartoonbrew.com’s own Amid Amidi. Check out this new book on Amazon.

In the spirit of Roadside Romeo — but with a completely different cast and crew! It’s Koochie Koochie Hota Hai, a new CGI animated film coming this summer from India’s Prana Productions. It’s a loose remake of the 1998 live-action film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year. This new cartoon feature follows the lives of three  high school dogs — one guy, two girls — in a love triangle, and throws in the added plot element of a time travel machine. In a sly wink to the original film, lead actors Shahrukh Khan and Kajol play the lead voices in this new version, along with several well-known comedy and action stars in other roles. You can check out the trailer on YouTube.

New for very young readers, from Lerner Publishing Group: Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye is a full-color trade paperback series for kids, created by Colleen Venable and Stephanie Yue. Sasspants the guinea pig P.I. attempts to solve the mystery of the missing sandwich with the help of her sidekick, Hamisher the hamster, and a menagerie of pet-store suspects. Each book in this series is peppered with clues, and features a collection of animal facts at the end. Then there’s Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox, a new series (also in full color) by Brittie Luciani and Eve Tharlet. In Volume 1: The Meeting, Mrs. Fox and her daughter Ginger are chased out of their home by a vicious hunter’s dog. They end up seeking shelter in the home of Mr. Badger, his two squabbling sons, and his toddler daughter. It’s a series about making friends and getting along in families of different backgrounds. Both new series are coming this March.

Three new titles of varying furry-fan interest are coming the March from Antarctic Press. First up: He’s a chip off the old… well, you’ll find out. Chip is a brand-new full-color miniseries by Boneyard and Far West creator Richard Moore. Chip is a young gargoyle on a farm in upstate New York, who’s determined to convince his elders that he can be a big, scary defender of the night like them. Trouble is, Chip is only 4 inches tall! On the non-fiction side of things there’s the new  instructional trade paperback, How to Draw Magic and Fantasy by Fred Perry, Ben Dunn, and David Hutchinson — three names you should know if you follow Antarctic Press or furry comics in general. And finally, there’s Twilit, a new black & white comic book series by Robby Bevard and J.L. Anderson. Hmmm, we’ll let the publishers describe it: “When the vampires on campus would rather bake in their weed than drink blood, life is pretty mellow. Well, except for the occasional scraps with the werewolves, but as long as they vacuum up afterward, the vamps are cool with it. What’s worse is the furry fan down the hall who’s convinced he’s a werewolf, but isn’t.” You read it here folks.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event where comic book publishers present your local comic book dealer with full-color mini-comics to give away for free — Now how cool is that? It takes place on the first Saturday in May, which in this case is May 1st. Inevitably, you can find some cool anthropomorphic titles in among the freebees for the day if you look. This time around, Ape Entertainment Shrek and the Penguins of Madagascar, featuring four stories which preview two of their upcoming comic book titles (guess what they are!). Archai Entertainment also combines two titles, in their case Mouse Guard and Fraggle Rock (!). Archie Comics presents a special free edition of Sonic the Hedgehog, while Top Shelf Productions has a special introduction to Owly and Friends (his friends being Johnny Boo and Korgi). There’s lots more to be found on Free Comic Book Day, but of course supplies are going to be limited! If you want to find out more about the event, check out www.freecomicbookday.com.

Once again, the folks at Boom! Kids take things in a whole new direction…  Donald Duck and Friends Volume 1: Double Duck is a new trade paperback (also available in hardcover) that collects the recent issues of this comic book series… featuring everyone’s favorite cranky duck as a top-flight secret agent, out to save the world from a madman bent on melting the world’s polar ice caps! The story is by Fausto Vitaliano and Marco Bosco, with various folks contributing the full-color art. The books are scheduled to come out in early May.

c. 2010, Boom! Studios. Not the final art... but oooo!

17 Cats is a new web site with one mission: To connect artists with buyers. Here’s how they describe it: “In a nutshell, this site is simply a place for artists to organize and manage commissions. We also provide a place for people to come and see who is available for commissions. What kind of artwork? Anything. Paintings, Sculptures, Woodwork, Sketches, Cartoons, Comics, Manga, Knitting… If you are an artist and create custom works, you are welcome here. Join cost: Free. Yup.” We always like to hear that. More than 100 artists are listed as “open for commissions” on the site, and of course eager art-buyers can use it to discover new artists and new works.

The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA) presented the 37th annual Annie Awards  on Saturday, February 6th. The presentation was held at UCLA’s Royce Hall, and none other than William Shatner was the host.

As many had been expecting, Disney/Pixar’s Up took the honors for Best Animated Feature Film, as well as a Best Director win for co-director Pete Docter. But what was notable about the evening was that, unlike last year’s Kung Fu Panda sweep, no one film or TV show ran away with a multitude of awards. By sheer numbers, three items emerged victorious for winning three awards each: Coraline (Best Feature Character Design, Best Feature Production Design, Best Feature Music), Prep & Landing (Best TV Character Design, Best TV Production Design, Best TV Production), and The Princess and the Frog (Best Effects Animation, Best Feature Character Animation (Eric Goldberg for Lou the Alligator), and Best Feature Voice Acting (Jen Cody for Charlotte). The Penguins of Madagscar won two awards, Best TV Directing and Best TV Production for Children. Another 10 items won a single award each, including one for Fantastic Mr. Fox (for Best Writing in a Feature). In other words, the awards were spread around quite a bit!

Besides the regular awards, the evening also included several special awards and honors. Bruce Timm, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Tim Burton each received the Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement in Animation. The June Foray Award for “Benevolent Impact” on Animation went to long-time animator and union activist Tom Sito. William T. Reeves of Pixar won the Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement (he practically invented particle systems animation), while Martin Meunier and Brian McLean were given Special Achievement Awards for creating a new fabrication process used in making the film Coraline. Also, moving tributes were held for the late Roy E. Disney and Wayne Allwine (the voice of Mickey Mouse). A complete listing of the Awards and pictures from the ceremony will be up soon at the Annie Awards web site.

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb (in hardcover, from Eos) begins the new Rain Wilds Chronicles — set in the same world as Hobb’s Realm of the Elderling series. In this new book, humans celebrate as dragons are once again born in the city of Cassarick. But something is wrong… This is from the Publisher’s Weekly: “Here be dragons—but debilitated, deformed, damaged dragons, hatched too soon, sick and starving, into a world that has mostly forgotten them. The first of Hobb’s Rain Wild Chronicles, an absorbing extension of her Liveship and Tawny Man trilogies, introduces 15 young dragons who struggle to survive with the grudging help of mutant Rain Wilders. Eventually driven out by the Traders Council, the hatchlings decide to seek Kelsingra, their ancient home. Caught up by the dragons’ plight and longing to escape unhappy families and the stifling Rain Wild culture, self-taught dragon scholar Alise Kincannon and teenage tree-dwelling mutant Thymara volunteer to accompany them on the quest, with the help of magnetic liveship captain Leftrin and a host of colorful characters. Hobb’s meticulously realized fantasy tale is a welcome addition to contemporary dragon lore.” It’s on the shelves now.

IDW Publishing presents a return to the focal point of Cynosure: Grim Jack’s own multi-world famous Munden’s Bar. Grim Jack was a popular dark science-fiction adventure comic of the 80’s and 90’s, and many anthropomorphic creatures (to say nothing of other alien beasties) met up with Grim Jack and his crew at Munden’s Bar. Now we have a brand-new full-color trade paperback featuring all new never-before-printed stories of this multi-dimensional hangout by the likes of Skip Williamson, Jon Ostrander, William Messner-Loebs, Marc Hempel, Joe Staton, Hilary Barta, Mark Wheatley and more. Munden’s Bar: Grand Re-Opening will be on shelves this February.

Jerry Robinson is a living legend in the world of comics, having created The Joker and having been involved in the comics industry for more than 70 years now (!). In 1974 Jerry was the author and editor of a book which has since become a world-famous study: The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. Now that historic book has been updated and re-released in trade paperback form by Dark Horse Comics. The press release describes it as “…a comprehensive history of the truly American art form! The Comics is a fully reworked and updated edition of the 1974 classic that chronicles the origins and evolution of comic strips, from prior to The Yellow Kid through today, and highlights the game-changing contributions of such creative luminaries as Milton Caniff, Walt Kelly, Hal Foster, and Winsor McCay, among countless others. A fascinating resource of enduring excellence for fans of the art form, historians, and casual readers alike, this edition has been extensively revisited by Robinson and tells the stories behind the newsprint page.” Needless to say, many furry comic strips are covered in this extensive history, including Bloom County, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Pogo, Garfield, and many many more. This new edition goes on sale this April.

A new and futuristic take on an ancient tradition: The ship’s cat.

Since the early days of travel by sea, ship’s cats have been a vital part of any crew, working to keep the ship free of vermin and to acting as “morale boosters”. Now, in Catalyst by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, a pure-bred line of these “barque cats” have been bred to follow humans into space as vital members of any starship’s crew, seeking out air leaks and other environmental hazards in the tight and inaccessible parts of a ship. Now though,  deadly livestock plague is racing between planets, and humans may be forced to destroy all exposed animals — including the barque cats. Yet as humans argue and fight over the fate of these animals, a new discovery is made: Some of the newest barque kittens are demonstrating signs of higher intelligence… and something very much like telepathy. The book is available now in hardcover from Del Ray.

They saved the world in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, but what have they been doing since then? Now Marvel Comics answers that question with the new Tails of the Pet Avengers full-color comic book series, coming to a comic store near you this February. The premier issue features a never-before-seen story of Zabu the sabertooth from the Savage Land, plus a new prequel-story of Frog Thor. Each of thse super-powered animals we be getting their own solo stories in the coming months, as well as joining their fellow animals for more Pet Avengers daring-do. The first issue has quite a diverse roster of talent working on it, including writers Chris Eliopoulos, Scott Gray, Colleen Coover, and Joe Caramagna, with art by Ig Guara, Gurihiru, and more. The cover art (below) is by Humberto Ramos.

Cover Art by Humberto Ramos. c.2010 Marvel Comics

Art Clokey, creator of the world-famous claymation character Gumby, has passed away this last week after a long battle with infection. He was 88.

Mr. Clokey (born Arthur Farrington in Detroit, before he was given up for adoption at age 11) and his wife Ruth created an avant-garde claymation short film, Gumbasia, in the early 1950’s. Clokey said he took the term from “gumbo”, a common rural term for sticky mud that is heavy with clay. Soon after that film had a successful run on the film festival circuit, Art created the green character Gumby, with an asymmetrical head based on a photo of his own father’s sculpted hair. Soon Art was animated short Gumby films and packaging them together as TV shows. Along the way he created characters like Gumby’s “pony pal” Pokey, their friends Prickle (a cranky dinosaur/dragon) and Goo (an optimistic shape-shifting whatsit), and the villainous blockheads. Later on in the 1960’s, Clokey was hired by the Lutheran Church Council to create a TV series called Davy and Goliath, in which a young boy and his talking dog studied the Bible and learned about Christian values.

Art Clokey is survived, of course, by his creations — who have since become cultural icons in past few decades. Gumby himself has more than 100,000 fans on Facebook.

We don’t remember it doing that all-fire well at the box office, but evidently it pleased someone: Cats and Dogs (from 2001) has inspired a big-screen sequel, Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, coming to theaters (in 3D) at the end of July. In spite of it not appearing until this summer, a full-fledged trailer is available for viewing on YouTube and elsewhere. From what we can tell the cast, crew, and characters appear to all be different from the first film. This time around the secretly high-tech cats and dogs put aside their warring ways in order to battle with a rogue cat spy — voiced by Bette Midler no less! — who has evil plans of her own. Hmm, could it be that the basic idea of the first film (dogs as heroes and cats as villains) so turned off “cat people” that it wound up limiting the film’s audience — and box office? We’ll find out if this new take on things performs any differently this summer.

Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges, creators of Draw Furries, are currently working on a new graphic novel, The Last of the Polar Bears. According to Jared, “It’s one part fable, one part coming-of-age adventure epic. The story takes place in the near future, told through the perspective of a mother polar bear and her two cubs as they struggle to survive in a rapidly changing world. Work on this project started back in March 2009, almost immediately after we finished up Draw Furries. It’s only now (almost a year later) that we are at the point where we can share our story with the public. While the developmental work is finished, the long grueling task of drawing the comic is just beginning. Around the first of the year, Lindsay started roughing out the first chapter of the tale. And although the finished book is still a long way off, we want to start getting the word out about this new story. As part of our efforts, we put together a promotional postcard featuring Lindsay’s art of the polar bear family. Here’s the link to sign up for one! Just enter an address on the form and hit the send button to received the card in the mail. I have a stack of 500 of these postcards and I want to give every one of them out to people, so please participate!” Meanwhile, we at In-Fur-Nation will keep you informed when we hear word of a release date for the new graphic novel.