Creative Commons license icon

humans

Fantasy vs. Horror

There’s something so perfectly fannish about a comic book series called Unicorn Vampire Hunter. It’s written by Caleb Palmquist and illustrated by Daryl Toh. “A young woman named Jezebel moves to a magical marsh to live with her uncle, Seamus the Wizard and his puppies that never grow old. One day, Jezebel wanders into the dark forest and almost falls victim to a vampire. Luckily, her life is saved by a unicorn, who gores the vampire with his horn, killing it. Jezebel and her uncle welcome the unicorn into their family, but things are about to get dicey…” Find out how in this new series from Scout Comics.


image c. 2024 Scout Comics

The Tough Streets of Tokyo

A different take, but no less important, can be found in A Story of Seven Lives by Shirakawa Gin. “Nanao used to be a house cat, but after tragedy struck, he was abandoned on the rough streets of Tokyo. Now, alongside his best friend and fellow stray Machi, Nanao has to fight every day just to get by. Aside from foraging for food and finding somewhere to sleep, Nanao and Machi must remain vigilant about all sorts of dangers, including humans who want stray cats gone. When a woman named Yoshino starts feeding the neighborhood cats, Nanao reluctantly bonds with her. But the woman has emotional scars and a past entwined with Nanao’s. Can Nanao help her heal, and perhaps heal himself in the process? The entire three-volume series will be released in English in one oversized omnibus edition.” Which is available now from Seven Seas.


image c. 2024 Seven Seas Entertainment

Make Him Huff and Puff

More interesting manga from Seven Seas, this one with a notable yaoi bent: Why Don’t You Eat Me, My Dear Wolf? by Ao Koishikawa. [What a title!] “Taro is sent to the forest alone. He’s a sacrifice for the monstrous wolf, Uru. Upon seeing him, Uru declares Taro too small and too thin. The wolf feeds him, clothes him, and cares for him. Time passes and Taro finds himself wanting to be devoured by this giant wolf who gives him nothing but affection.” Poor thing.


image c. 2024 Seven Seas Entertainment

It’s a Dream Job

One of those projects that’s not really furry per se, but it sure seems to have a lot of non-human characters in it! Hotel REM is a new full-color all-ages graphic novel, written by Zack Keller, with art by Gabriele Bagnoli and Valerio Alloro. “Rembrandt Somner is the happy-go-lucky new owner of Hotel REM, a place for all the fantastic people and creatures in our dreams to hang out when we wake up. Channeling his endless enthusiasm, Rem attempts to balance his unwieldy coworkers and wild guests in order to run a successful business that makes his parents proud. However, a demanding celebrity guest threatens to be the rude awakening that ruins everything!” The preview is up over at Dark Horse Comics.


image c. 2024 Dark Horse Comics

Little Fox Went Out…

An interesting fantasy graphic novel series we somehow missed before: Fox and Willow, written by Alison Pang and illustrated by Irma Ahmed. “When Jessa, the miller’s daughter, offers simple comforts to Willow and Gideon in return for a bit of work, the runaway princess and her fox spirit companion are more than willing to take Jessa up on it. After all, being on the road has its dangers, and the respite while they search for answers to Gideon’s cursed collar is more than welcome. But when the discovery of a murdered royal and a forsaken ghost comes to light, the two travelers realize they’ve stumbled into something far more sinister.” Volume 1, Came A Harper, and Volume 2, To The Sea, are both still available in hardcover from CEX Publishing.


image c. 2024 CEX Publishing

This Would Be… Bad…?

And now for something altogether different… Night of the Living Cat, a new black & white manga created by Hawkman and Mecha-Roots. “A virus spreads across the world, transforming all humankind into wild, slavering, furry beasts: Cats, to be precise. Those few survivors who remain human take refuge in the dark corners of the earth as they fight back against the feline horde. Kunagi, a man with no memory of his past yet a deep knowledge of cats, struggles to hold on with only his wits and a will to survive. Yet the virus transmits merely through cuddles, and Kunagi finds kitties so hard to resist! Is his willpower strong enough to withstand this hair-raising cat-tastrophe?” Find out from Seven Seas.


image c. 2023 Seven Seas Entertainment

Foster’s Not Home, but…

This came to us out of nowhere, but now we’re very, very curious. John Krasinski has written, produced, and directed a new live-action/CGI fantasy film called IF, starring Cailey Fleming. She plays a young girl who discovers that she has the ability to see people’s imaginary friends (known as IFs for short). She also discovers that the mysterious Man Upstairs (played by Ryan Reynolds) has the same ability. Now a group of IFs are begging these two special humans to help them find new kids to be with now that their own have grown up and abandoned them. As you can see from the trailer, there’s a lot of anthropomorphic interest here. It’s scheduled to be released next May.

VR to the Next Level

We just learned about Shangri-La Frontier, a black & white manga written by Katarina and illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji. “Second-year high school student Rakuro Hizutome loves nothing more than finding so-called ‘trash games’ and beating the crap out of them. When he decides to change things up by playing a new, ‘god-tier’ VR game known as Shangri-La Frontier (a.k.a. SLF), he does what he does best: Min-maxes, skips the prologue, and jumps straight into action! Clad in nothing but shorts and a bird mask, Rakuro (player name: Sunraku) launches into the world of SLF. Things are going well at first as he takes down a goblin, a bunny, and even a python. But then Sunraku comes up against a huge, hard-hitting wolf known as Lycagon the Nightslayer. Will Sunraku’s years of ‘trash game’ experience be enough, or is he about to suffer a rude awakening just a few hours into his SLF adventure?” The series is available now from Kodansha International. What’s more, there’s already an anime adaptation series available on Crunchyroll — and YouTube has a preview.

Review: 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'

Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

transformersriseofthebeasts.jpgThe Transformers movies are hardly thought of as either particularly furry movies, or particularly good movies in general. Because of the latter, nobody has really argued the former, despite the fact that the Transformers are definitely anthropomorphic robots. If, as some furries argue, anthropomorphism by itself is of interest to furries, the near complete lack of said interest in this franchise from furries would seem to contradict that hypothesis.

But, as far as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is concerned, some of the robots turn into animals instead of cars, as is traditional in the series. So, Acadamy Award winner Michelle Yeoh voices Airazor, a giant hawk robot, for instance. So that’s kind of neat.

Transformers: Rise of the Beast is the seventh film in the Transformers series of movies, and the second prequel movie not directed by Michael Bay, this one being directed by Steven Caple Jr. I have seen the first two of Bay’s movies, but tapped out after that.

I didn’t feel like I was missing much need to know information.

Wild, Wild Planet

Recently made a visit to the L.A. Times Festival of Books in Los Angeles (of course), and as usual came across some interesting furry items we want to tell you about. First up is the Red’s Planet series of graphic novels by Eddie Pittman — a Disney animator who worked on films like Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo & Stitch, as well as TV series like Phineas and Ferb. Here’s the run down: “Meet Red, a quirky, headstrong 10-year-old who longs to live in her own perfect paradise far away from her annoying foster family. But when a UFO mistakenly kidnaps her, Red finds herself farther away than she could have possibly imagined—across the galaxy and aboard an enormous spaceship owned by the Aquilari, an ancient creature with a taste for rare and unusual treasures. Before Red can be discovered as a stowaway, the great ship crashes on a small deserted planet, leaving her marooned with a menagerie of misfit aliens. With her newfound friend, a small gray alien named Tawee, Red must find a way to survive the hostile castaways, evade the ravenous wildlife, and contend with Goose, the planet’s grumpy, felinoid custodian. Surely this can’t be the paradise she’s been hoping for.” Three hardcover books are out so far from Amulet.

Aaron "HunterFox" Zemen arrested for kidnapping after found with 13 year old from Utah in Nebraska

Your rating: None Average: 2 (1 vote)

Grand Island, Nebraska law enforcement report that 26 year old Aaron Zemen, who also has the alias of Tadashi Kojima and fandom name of HunterFox, was found and arrested for kidnapping a thirteen year old from the state of Utah. The juvenile was found in the car with Zemen at the a gas station.

Officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at 3320 Langenheder Street (Git N Split). Upon arrival, officers made contact with Tadashi Kojima and a juvenile male sitting inside a white Toyota Avalon. GIEC advised officers the juvenile male was reported as an abducted child from Utah.

At this time, officers advised Tadashi to exit the vehicle. When officers advised Tadashi he was going to be placed under arrest, Tadashi tensed up and started resisting officers placing cuffs on him. Tadashi was placed under arrest for Kidnapping and Resisting Arrest.

- VITAMINR shared police report

Members of the furry community had called out Hunterfox as a suspect in accosting the 13 year old after an Amber alert was made in response to his disappearance. Fortunately, the child was found safe and can be safely returned to his family.

Opinion: The top ten movies of 2020

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (6 votes)

Top Ten Movies of 2020

So, 2020.

Well, that's over, here are ten movies that managed to come out in 2020, an accomplishment in and of itself; so full marks for that!

Oh, by the way, I've been doing this for a decade now.

Missing Tiger?

We were looking for something else, and we came across this completely by accident! Hidden Dragon is a new animated feature film that’s due this year, according to the IMDB page. We don’t know much about it, but the production crew names are mostly Chinese while the voice actor names are mostly western, so it’s an international production. “In a magical undersea world where dragons rule and humans are feared, a naive young dragon forms an uneasy alliance with the sea’s greatest enemy – a human girl.” We don’t know if they’ll successfully get it out this year, but it should be coming soon.


image c. 2020 Magic Hill Animation

Dragons. And They’re French.

First Second brings us a popular fantasy comic from France, collected now in one hardcover graphic novel. Kairos is written and illustrated by Ulysse Malassagne. “Nills and Anaelle are looking forward to their first night in their rustic cabin in the woods. But the couple’s idyllic vacation is suddenly thrown into turmoil when a strange flash of light bursts from the fireplace. A portal appears, and out of it spill dragon-like creatures that are armed to the teeth. They grab Anaelle and flee back through the portal, leaving a distraught Nills with a sudden decision: Stay behind, or leap through after her? He leaps. And that’s when things get really weird.” This new English translation is available now.


image c. 2020 First Second

Foxy Lady!

Sorry, sorry… too obvious. Thanks to some friends on Facebook, we stumbled across an upcoming fantasy film called Hanson and the Beast — from China, no less. Drama Panda has a preview. The story goes like this: “Yuan Shuai (Feng Shaofeng) is a a man who is drowning in debt. In order to pay up, he goes on blind dates with daughters from wealthy families but ends up falling in love with Bai Xian Chu (Crystal Liu), a fox demon who’s come to the human realm to repay a debt. However, relationships between humans and demons are strictly forbidden. Bai Xian Chu is dragged back to the demon world and Yuan Shuai sets out to rescue her.” So who’s Hanson? We don’t know yet. Written and directed by Xiao Yang, Hanson comes to theaters in China right at the end of December, then everywhere else on January 5th. Check out the trailer on YouTube as well.


image c. 2017 CKF Pictures