Jerry Beck’s Animation Scoop has an interesting article about a pair of independent animation projects in the works — both of which just happen to be very furry. First up is Ghost of a Tale, a new video game designed by Lionel “Seith” Gallat. Lionel has worked as a supervising animator at Dreamworks on movies like The Prince Of Egypt, The Road to Eldorado, Spirit, Sinbad, SharkTale, and others. More recently he’s been a director for Illumination on films like Despicable Me and The Lorax. Ghost of a Tale follows the adventures of a medieval mouse battling rat zombies on a mysterious island. In a very different vein is Dogonauts by Shel and Justin Rasch. “Mortal enemies, a Dogonaut Pilot and a Space Flea, shoot each other down only to awake, marooned side by side on an alien desert planet.” Justin is a stop-motion animator known for films like Paranorman. He and his wife Shel completed Dogonauts in their garage, all the while both of them working full-time jobs. Both of these projects are seeking crowdfunding help to move from their current levels of production up to the next, and hopefully get them out into the world. The Scoop article features trailers as well as the official pitches for each of these projects. Check ‘em out.

Recently released on DVD in North America, A Monster in Paris (trailer) is a CGI-animated kids' film that originally came out in France in October 2011 as Un monstre à Paris.

Taking place during the Parisian flood of 1910, the two main characters are Emile, a shy film projectionist and amateur cinematographer, and his friend Raoul, a tinkerer who likes to invent gadgets and operates a delivery service out of the back of his truck. During a late-night delivery to an absent scientist's laboratory, Raoul plays with chemicals, unaware that his tampering accidentally creates a giant flea with a beautiful singing voice.

The "monster" is quickly targeted by Maynot, the Commissioner of police, who becomes obsessed with capturing and killing it as part of his campaign to become mayor. He's also taken an interest in a cabaret singer named Lucille, who disguises and hides the flea after recognizing its musical talents.

Raoul is an old friend/enemy of Lucille's, and soon he and Emile are in on her secret, trying to find a way to protect the flea from the Commissioner.

Can a district manager capture inspiration sparked by a train ride – with assistance from a four-figure piece of consumer hardware? [Coyoty]

See more: Background on the creation of the Rabbit, Toad and Bird

We think it best to let the publisher, Shambhala, explain this one themselves: “The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts is a classic collection of martial arts parables, written by Issai Chozanshi, an 18th-century samurai. The stories, which feature demons, insects, birds, cats, and numerous other creatures, may seem whimsical, but they contain essential teachings that offer insight into the fundamental principles of the martial arts. This manga version, based on Chozanshi’s text, brings these tales alive in a captivating and immediately accessible way.” It’s translated by Sean Michael Wilson, illustrated in full color by Michiru Morikawa, and coming this March in paperback from Shambhala. Amazon has more information.

image c. 2013 Shambhala

It’s been announced since August 3, but it just occurred to me that it hasn’t been announced on Flayrah yet. This coming Sunday, October 21, from 8:00 p.m. (EST) in the evening until 5:00 a.m. the next morning, Turner Classic Movies will feature “Rare Animation” including three features and eighteen shorts, hosted by TCM’s Robert Osborne and the Cartoon Brew’s Jerry Beck.

The three features will be the Fleischer Studios’ Gulliver Travels (1939) at 8:00 pm., Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941) at 9:30 p.m., and Lotte Reiniger’s independent silent The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) at 1:15 a.m. the next morning. It is Mr. Bug Goes to Town, a.k.a. Hoppity Goes to Town, that makes this of interest to Furry fans.

Doctor Doom! The Red Skull! The Mirror Master! We have been menaced for decades by such flamboyantly costumed comic book supervillains as Galactor! The Green Goblin! Black Adam! The Yellow Claw! But not until now, with the publication of Alter-Ego #112, August 2012, have we known how narrowly we have missed one of the most bizarre costumed villains of all: an overweight wooly-bear caterpillar named The Fat Furry!

Or … have we? Bwhahahaha!

The Cartoon Brew has the first teaser/trailer for 20th-Century Fox’s & Blue Sky’s CGI-animated Epic, which features talking mice, birds, slugs and bugs.

The Brew's readers make a lot of comparisons to FernGully. Opens May 2013.

M.C.A. Hogarth is raising money on Kickstarter for a print edition of her military science fiction serial Spots the Space Marine, featuring the bug-like alien Samuel-Colt and a host of human characters. The book will accompany the existing e-book and serial editions.

The work features alien culture and psychology as well as lots of explosions, cliffhangers, and gun-fights: no straight human vs. bug action here. More like bug-and-human vs. bug.

Money raised is to go towards "cover art, layout; all the things that make a physical book great." Backer reward options include the book or e-book, the author's original notes, and art of floating bug aliens. The project now stands at $625 of its $1500 goal, with 25 backers.

Rebellion/2000AD, the folks who brought you Judge Dredd, now bring you Kingdom: Call of the Wild, a new full-color trade paperback written by Dan Abnett and illustrated by Richard Elson. “Earth, the far-future. With the planet now overrun by gigantic alien insects, mankind is all but extinct. Genetically engineered dog soldier, Gene the Hackman, now protects one of the last remaining human beings, a young girl named Leezee Sower, and the two of them have traveled to the land of Auxtralia, straight into the territory of a new pack!” Look for it this March, or find out more at The Book Depository.

image c. 2012 Rebellion/2000AD

Passion can take you a long way, as Québec-based entomologist Georges Brossard explains in a BBC interview:

I'm the bug man – a real bug man. I love bugs. I sleep with them, I dream about them. I eat them. I love bugs.

The Montréal Insectarium – founded in 1990 by a 250,000-insect donation from Brossard – attracts over 350,000 visitors each year, and offers annual insect tastings.

Science is constantly looking to the natural world for clues on how to built the better machine. The flight of the butterfly is paving the way for tiny aerial machines . The erratic looking flight of the butterfly, on closer examination, is a total mastery of the air, where the insect can use 6 different sorts motions of the wings to stay aloft, changing as needed from wingflap to wingflap. It was compared to the way a horse can change gait effortlessly.
The beautiful brittle star isn't where most people would look to for superior eyesight, but they are literally covered with perfect lenses, allowing for a total wrap around view. The lenses are much better than what we can make, thanks to the perfect use of chalk-like calcite crystals in its skeleton.

ABC News has posted an AP article about an Iowa State University study which found catnip oil up to ten times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than the most common ingredient in repellent sprays. The story also briefly mentions and earlier study which showed catnip repelled cockroaches. Note from Gene: no wonder mosquitoes almost never bit me back when I lived in mosquito country.