The Duck Dodgers TV series — based, as if you didn’t know, on the Chuck Jones-directed cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century — ran on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005. [My, was it really that long ago?  Sheesh... Ye ed-otter] Besides the obvious cast of Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as The Eager Young Space Cadet, and Marvin the Martian as the terrible Commander X-2, the show featured a host of Warner Brothers characters in bit roles — not to mention new characters like the dreaded Martian Queen. The regular voice cast included well-known voice actors like Joe Alaskey, Bob Bergen, Richard McGonagle, and John O’Hurley, as well as Michael Dorn (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Tia Carrere (as the Martian Queen). Now Warner Brothers Home Video have (finally!) released the first 13 episodes on DVD in a collection entitled Duck Dodgers – Season 1: Dark Side of the Duck. It’s available now in stores and on-line everywhere.

image c. 2013 Warner Brothers Animation

Lagrange is one of Phil Geusz’s slighter pieces. The novella appeared in the Sofawolf Press magazine Anthrolations #8, November 2006, and was reprinted in the online Furry magazine Anthro #25, September-October 2009. Now here it is as a separate booklet from Legion Publishing in hardcover, trade paperback, or Kindle editions, your choice.

It may also be the only high-tech astronautical erotic comedy-drama that you ever encounter. Don’t miss it.

Legion Printing, January 2012, hardcover $5.99+$5 s&h (91 pages), trade paperback $3.99+$5 s&h, Kindle $2.99.

And speaking of animal “companions”, try this far-out adventure for size: “From the outer reaches of space, the Space Hustlers kidnap, blow-up, extort, or just give well-deserved noogies to those who stand in their way! Joined by a Confucius alien kung-fu monkey and a semi-conscious robot, street knowledge clashes with ancient philosophy as the Space Hustlers accomplish any mision, just so long as they don’t kill each other first!” Steve Owen, writer and illustrator, presents the Space Hustlers graphic novel in trade paperback. It’s coming this November in black & white from Hey Drude Productions. Check it out at Westfield Comics too.

image c. 2012 Hey Drude

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rei Vegan earlier this year, starting back in March. Due to a busy schedule, the interview wasn't completed until April. Final exams got in the way of editing, so some topics brought up will be out of date. Thank you for your understanding.

My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously. Also, this interview is pretty long. Might want to grab something to eat.

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Rei Vegan, thank you so much for joining me tonight!

Rei Vegan: Good evening Don, the pleasure's all mine.

Isiah Jacobs: So let's see here, you're obviously very well known for your web comic, DSV Nautica [NSFW], one of my personal favorites, I hate to admit, but you've actually been doing this whole furry thing for quite a while now. According to what the younger generation would call you, you're a "gray muzzle." You'll be turning 32 next week, is that correct?

Rei Vegan: This is indeed correct. I'm kind of fond of the term "gray muzzle" myself; it makes me imagine myself on the porch yelling obscenities at kids on my lawn or some such.

Isiah Jacobs: What, like yelling at them to stop their furpile?

Rei Vegan: -and listening to that dot matrix printer noise they call Dub Step. *chuckles*

So, your humble ed-otter returns from the 2012 edition of Further Confusion in Northern California, with lots of stuff to report. Including such items as…

Space Shuttle Endeavour may be getting a stowaway – a hand puppet of Krtek, a mole created by Czech cartoonist Zdeněk Miler in 1956. [Spottacus]

Krtek is to travel with Andrew Feustel on the ship's final mission, planned for 19 29 April.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040726mimas.html

Ok... maybe it is.

I wonder if Lucasfilm arranged this picture to coincide with their announcement last saturday of the next movie's title "Revenge of the Sith". Or maybe it's actually a really, really expensive, but super-secret location shoot? [grins]

Sure, occasionally we have an eclipse that only happens once every decade, or comets we won't see for 70 years, but how about the best ever view of Mars in 60,000 years? For the true, once in a thousand lifetimes, event, just look up on Aug. 28, 2003, for the brightest show. Or any night for the next month, as the red planet is currently brighter than Jupiter.

Scientists have just found the oldest planet in the known universe, and likely anywhere else for that matter -- 12.7 BILLION years old, quite literally almost as old as the universe itself. It's a Jupiter-size monster, and the folks who found it are both excited and very startled by their find. This may change a lot of thinking as to just how long life has been around, as the discoverers claim this proves it may well have had an Earth-like companion originally. You can read more here.

Three months after the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, investigators have discovered that one of the on-board experiments - containing live worms - survived.

The worms, known as C. elegans, are nematodes about the size of a pencil tip. They were stored in canisters mid-deck aboard the shuttle and had remained unopened until this week. With a life cycle of only about eight days, the worms are several generations removed from their ancestors placed aboard the shuttle in January.

A glowing fireball fell from the sky, and there were numerous UFO reports. But was it an unlucky cat instead? Find out at Ananova.

NASA scientists are soon to announce that new data gleaned from the the Microwave Anisotropy Probe shows that the Universe should expand forever at an ever increasing rate. Tracing the 'echo of the Big Bang', the first release of data should also help answer other questions about the Universe, such as its infancy and the 'dark matter' that seems to fill much of it.

Gregory Benford, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California as well as a renowed SF author, comments on the future of the space shuttle, and NASA itself.

The Good Morning Silicon Valley newsletter (by John Paczkowski this morning mentioned two articles mentioning a mysterious glowing purple object that appears in an image taken by an amateur astronomer in the SF Bay Area, seven minutes before the shuttle disintegrated. The image is thought to NASA to coincide with the moment sensors first detected heat buildup in the shuttle's wheel wells, which soon led to massive system failure.

The budget is often a time to push forward new initiatives, but rarely is it the place for the discussion on the growing possiblity of real 'space aliens'. In a brief passage entitled "Where Are The Real Space Aliens?", points out the growing evidence of the possibility of extraterestrial life as part of the budget for NASA. For four paragraphs, it's produced a lot of buzz.