In a sequel to a pair of stories I wrote many years back (good god, I'm old now), we're now seeing things play out in reverse. Childrens' animation on Canadian television is now on life support or effectively dead, thanks to a slew of channels from Corus Entertainment and WildBrain Studios (representing the vast majority) getting the plug pulled as of September 1, as reported by Montréal broadcaster Steven Faguy's blog.

Contributor this month... is dronon. What happen? August have much stuff in real life. Many visit from old friends!

Carole Curtis, co-founder of furry publishing house Shanda Fantasy Arts and writer of the comic series Katmandu, has passed away at the age of 71.

Carole was a prominent figure in the furry fandom since the 1990s, when she and her husband James Michael 'Mike' Curtis - an accomplished comic writer and artist in his own right – released the slice-of-life comic Shanda the Panda in 1992. Shanda would provide the namesake for the publishing company Shanda Fantasy Arts (initially an imprint of Vision Comics), which they founded in 1996 after Shanda the Panda and various other furry comics were dropped by Antarctic Press. SFA would go on to publish a number of prominent furry comics and anthologies, including Steve Gallacci's Albedo Anthropomorphics, Shawntae Howard's Extinctioners, the late Mary Hanson-Roberts' Here Comes a Candle, and many more over its 22 years of operation.

The Bad Guys 2, directed by Pierre Perifel, is the latest theatrical release from DreamWorks Animation, and is the sequel to 2022's The Bad Guys, which has gone on to become very popular with furries. The titular "Bad Guys" are a gang of "scary" animal ex-thieves featuring Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron), Miss Tarantula a.k.a. "Webs" (voiced by Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos), plus Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz), the current fox governor of the state of California and also secretly an ex-thief known as the "Crimson Paw", who, unlike the Bad Guys, was never caught. Having given up their lives of crime last movie, this movie begins with the Bad Guys living the trials and tribulations of ex-cons.

The movie is already available for digital purchase, despite the movie only being out a little over two weeks. However, DreamWorks Animation has been playing Moneyball recently, spending about half as much as most of the other major studios on their theatrical releases, so they've already made back most of their money domestically, and are in the black (more or less) counting international grosses. It's not a big hit, but it is a "base" hit, and that's what DreamWorks is aiming for. DreamWorks Animation has never gotten past the billion mark (Shrek 2, way back in 2004, was the closest), and the company seems to have accepted this fact. If anything, when they make a "big swing" anymore, it's an Oscar play rather than box office, like last year's The Wild Robot, which ultimately did not win (once again, Shrek is DreamWorks's only Best Animated Feature, despite being the second most nominated studio in the category).

But the point of bringing up this "inside baseball" bit about box office is that this has already been earmarked as a DreamWorks franchise. Ironically, they were bumped by The Wild Robot in the studio's logo sequence this year, but that seems to be more about DreamWorks wanting to avoid having them appear in front of their own movie than lack of confidence. I'm very confident there will be a The Bad Guys 3, and am looking forward to it, because both movies have been a lot of fun.