In-Fur-Nation

New from Image Comics this July: “Man of Action Studios — creators of the international hit Ben 10 — return with an all-new big book for little readers! Livingston is a peaceful fruit bat whose life changes when he is bitten by a vampire and transformed into a vampire bat!  As Batula — an avenging creature of the night — Livingston develops a taste for adventure and a need to prove that no matter what he looks like on the outside, he’s still the same bat on the inside. A full-color story book by Frankie Stein creators Steven Seagle [writing] and Marco Cinello [art]!” Visit Image Comics’ preview page to find out more about Batula (and see some interior art).

image c. 2012 Image Comics

Hey there, we’re back among the living. Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter has been down with a very, very nasty sinus infection for no less than two weeks, and is only just now getting back to his feet. So it’s time to play some major catch-up with In-Fur-Nation, yes?

The winners of the Ursa Major Awards were recently announced at a Saturday afternoon ceremony at CaliFur in Irvine, California. The June 2nd show was emcee’d by CaliFur’s own Gary Whalen. Greenreaper was on hand to accept Flayrah’s award for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine. The full list of winners for 2011 looks like this:

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture: Kung Fu Panda 2 (Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson)

Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series or Short Work: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Produced by Studio DHX)

Best Anthropomorphic Novel: Isolation Play, by Kyell Gold

Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction: “How to Get Through the Day”, by Kyell Gold

Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work: Nordguard, Book One, by Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet

Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story: Furthia High, by QuetzaDrake

Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip: Housepets!, by Rick Griffin

Best Anthropomorphic Magazine: Flayrah

Best Anthropomorphic Website: Equestria Daily

Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration: Blotch, for the cover of Nordguard, Book One

Best Anthropomorphic Game: Pokemon: Black and White

In addition, the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), which administers the Ursa Major Awards, announced a new “ALAA’s Choice” award for a nominee which the committee felt deserved special mention for its merit. This year that award went to the graphic story Red Lantern by Rukis and Alectorfencer.

The Ursa Major Awards are the “People’s Choice Awards” for anthropomorphic fandom, nominated and awarded every year by votes from regular fans like you. Want to get involved?  Make suggestions? Visit www.ursamajorawards.org to find out more. And start thinking about what to nominate for 2012!

image c. 2012 ALAA

Look, we just can’t make up some of this stuff, folks.  Here, this is from Image Comics: “Still kicking yourself for not ordering and/or passing by Chew #1, now that you see what it’s going for on eBay? Here’s your chance to get sweet, sweet, revenge, with an all-new Chew #1, a one-shot spinning off Chew‘s most popular supporting character, and comics’ most beloved homicidal cybernetic kung-fu rooster. Concentrated mayhem. Feathers, rage and hate! Plus: an all-star pin-up gallery from some of the most staggeringly talented artists in the industry!” The main artist for the Chew: Secret Agent Poyo full-color one-shot is Rob Guillory, and the writing is by John Layman. And the chicken is coming our way July 11th. BleedingCool.com has a background article, including interviews with the creators, if you want to try and figure this thing out.

image c. 2012 Image Comics

Here’s a phrase we haven’t heard for a while: Battle Beasts. A would-be toy tie-in / collectibles phenomenon / comic book series from the 1980′s, it never took off in the way that similar ideas did about that time. But now IDW have announced plans to bring forth a special 4-issue full-color Battle Beasts mini-series — with a wait-and-see attitude as to if it goes beyond that. “It’s just another average day for Bliss, an ignored linguist at the Department of Defense. However, when Bliss unlocks the secret translation of an ancient scroll, terror rains from the sky… in the form of the BATTLE BEASTS! Unstoppable creatures armed to the teeth, the Battle Beasts are determined to make Earth their own personal war zone. Nothing can stop their merciless carnage. Nothing except perhaps a gentle word from the one woman who can understand them—Bliss!” The new series is written by Bobby Curnow, with art by Valerio Schiti and Dan Brereton. The new series of comics and toys first hit during the recent C2E2 con in Chicago. Check out Comic Book Resources to find out more.

image c. 2012 IDW Publishing

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is an Ursa Major Award-nominated video game from Japan which (according to its Wikipedia page) is “a spiritual sequel to the Tail Concerto game”, which was also released by Namco Bandai. Now the anime/manga fan site Otaku.com has let us know that the Solatorobo Sketch Book is available for import, and you can order it on their site. It’s expensive (kind of), but it this softcover book features some striking anime-style furry art.

image c. 2012 Namco Bandai

As if there weren’t already enough anticipation for the upcoming (When? WHEN??) Mists of Pandaria expansion pack for World of Warcraft, now Blizzard Entertainment and DC Comics have joined forces to bring us the World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria graphic novel in hardcover. It’s written by Micky Neilson, illustrated by Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, and set to go on sale September 5th. According to the WOW-Pedia, the graphic novel is “set before the Shattering and will give a look at Pandaria before the mists protecting the island were clear.” Check out the preview at BlizzPlanet.com too, which includes some interior pages from the book.

image c. 2012 Blizzard Entertainment

There’s just no getting around the Kung Fu Panda.  (Of course not! He takes up too much room!). First off Ape Entertainment’s’ Kizoic imprint is releasing the popular Kung Fu Panda comic-book miniseries from last year as a collected trade paperback called Kung Fu Panda: Kung Fu Fighting. And then this July, Po and the Furious Five (and Master Shifu, of course!) return in a brand-new full-color monthly series, Kung Fu Panda: Tales of the Dragon Warrior (written by Quinn Johnson and illustrated by Massimo Asaro). Find out more about all of these at Things From Another World.

image c. 2012 Ape Entertainment

Unico is a well-known and well-loved anime and manga character created by the late great Osamu Tezuka in 1976. A baby unicorn with the magical ability to make people happy, he draws the wrath of jealous gods who think only they should have such powers. Tezuka was unsuccessful in turning his popular manga into a TV series, but Unico did find his way into a pair of feature films in the early 1980′s.  In The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (from 1981, directed by Toshio Hirata), the West Wind is charged with carrying Unico away to a far-off land when the gods banish him — but she takes pity on him and sets him free.  Now Unico and his friends are on the run, with the angry gods in hot pursuit! Then in 1883 came Unico in the Island of Magic (directed by Moribi Murano) where Unico and his friends join the fight against an evil wizard who plans to turn all living things into his zombie slaves. Both feature films (dubbed into English) were popular VHS tapes in the late 80′s but have long since gone out of print. Now comes the word that Discotek Media are releasing both Unico films on DVD this month, each with both the English and original Japanese soundtracks. You can find out more about all of this (including several Unico fan sites) by checking out Unico on Wikipedia.

image c. 2012 Tezuka Productions

Jiu Jiu is a new (at least on our shores) black & white manga “teenage action romance” by Touya Tobina. Here’s the run-down: “Born into a family of ‘Hunters’, Takamichi’s destiny is to pursue and slay demons. When her twin brother is killed, she is saved from despair by a pair of Jiu Jiu — shape-shifting familiars — in the form of two wolf pups named Snow and Night. Now Takamichi is in high school and an active Hunter. Snow and Night can’t wait to attend school in their human form to ‘protect’ her. But are they ready to go off leash…?” Viz Media will release Volume 1 in digest manga format this June.

image c. 2012 Viz Media

Sorry, sorry… sometimes you take the easy way out. This movie is actually for people who like birds! It’s called Zambezia, and according to an article at Cartoon Brew, it’s set to premier later this year in Africa — with a possible appearance in North America sometime in 2013. Zambezia is the first CGI feature film to come out of South Africa, produced by Triggerfish Animation. It tells the story of Kai (voiced by Jeremy Suarez), a young African falcon who sets off in hopes of finding a fabled City of Birds. No big shock, he finds it: But at first he has trouble fitting in, and then the entire city finds itself threatened by egg-hungry reptiles! Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonard Nimoy, and Abigail Breslin are among the voices you’ll hear as well. Check out the trailer on YouTube, or the official Zambezia page from Triggerfish, and keep your ear to the sky in 2013.

image c. 2012 Triggerfish Animation

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours!

Suddenly there is much ado about Hero Petz, written by Dale Mettam and illustrated by Juan Fleites. First off, a quick recap from the original series: “Even as the evil Itachi Clan of ninja weasels tightens its grasp on Peludo City, six heroes — okay, five heroes and a crazy Monkey — stand ready to defend the innocent and fight for justice. El Conejito the Rabbit; Wonder Squirrel; Steel Shell the Turtle; Sensei Penguin-San; Kapitan Brüllaffe the Monkey; and Golden Hamster are the Hero Petz! Together, they take it upon themselves to keep watch over the city and protect the innocent!” First off, this June Stan Lee’s Kids Universe is re-releasing the original 80-page graphic novel (from 1821 Comics) in trade paperback. Also, there’s a video trailer for a new Hero Petz video game — as well as several fan reviews — up on YouTube.

image c. 2012 by Juan Fleites

Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter was taking a work-related trip to Nashville, TN for a few days. Now it’s time to get caught up…

The literary world (heck, the world in general) was saddened recently by the death of Maurice Sendak on May 8th at the age of 83. By far he was best known as the writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, which revolutionized what a “children’s book” could be — and gave us all some cool monsters to befriend — when it was first published in 1963. But that is far from Mr. Sendak’s only legacy to Furry Fandom. Prior to Wild Things he was the illustrator of the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik. (Nelvana used his Little Bear designs when they created the animated Little Bear TV series and feature film in the late 1990′s.) In the 1980′s Mr. Sendak was often hired to be a production, costume, and art designer for East Coast opera productions, including the 1981 production of The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek — possibly the most anthropomorphic opera ever, and certainly the most anthropomorphic thing on stage before Cats came along. Most recently, Maurice Sendak had his works translated for the big and little screen: Where the Wild Things Are was adapted into a feature film by Spike Jonze in 2009, and that same year Sendak’s short story Higglety Pigglety Pop was adapted into a short film (starring the voice of Meryl Streep) using  a combination of live-action and puppetry. If you want to find out more about Mr. Sendak’s wide body of work, check out his Wikipedia page. But be warned: There are Wild Things there.

image c. 2009 Warner Brothers Pictures

Don’t look now, but My Little Pony has invaded the world of cool urban art. Actually, they did a long time ago, but with the phenomenal success of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, people’s awareness of ponies as fine art has grown by leaps and bounds. So folks are expecting quite a turn-out for this month’s My Little Pony Project  in Los Angeles, California. Headquartered at the Toy Art Gallery (7571 Melrose Avenue), My Little Pony Project 2012 features 2D and 3D high art from a variety of artists, all dedicated to their interpretations of My Little Pony — the current show and previous incarnations. This year, the gallery is hooking up with several local retail stores in the Melrose high fashion district (including Munky King, Japan L.A., and Joyrich) to display pony art and pony materials. Two of the sponsors of the month-long event (which started today and ends May 26th) include t-shirt maker We Love Fine and DVD maker Shout Factory. Juxtapoz Magazine has a good write-up on their site explaining it all.

image c. 2012 Toy Art Gallery

Dreamworks Animation have announced the release of a new video game for the iPad and iPhone called Dragons: Tap Dragon Drop (get it?).  Players take on the role of Hiccup and Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon movie series. As a terrible storm approaches the village of Berk, the vikings hurry to move their sheep to safety. But the sheep are scattered all over the island! Hiccup needs to train his dragon Toothless to herd (and in many cases, air-lift) the sheep away from danger while losing as few of them as possible. Dreamworks has a YouTube video preview of the game up now.

image c. 2012 Dreamworks Animation

No, not the semi-cat Teen Titan, this is Pantha from Harris Comics — home to the famed Vampirella. Now Dynamite Entertainment has revived Pantha in a brand-new full-color comic book series written by Brandon Jerwa with art by Pow Rodix. Pantha is a shape-shifting cat-woman, an embodiment of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. “She stalks the night, driving the forces of Chaos from the shadows and hunting them down like prey! Much more than a feral shapeshifter, Pantha is also an avatar for the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet – and she’s going to learn that history can repeat in a violent, terrifying way! Featuring the  return of several heroes and villains from the pages of Pantha and Vampirella, ‘Dangerous Game’ will be an important cornerstone for the future of  Dynamite’s epic Vampirella universe!” That’s the official word from the publisher. Look for it this June.

image c. 2012 Dynamite Entertainment

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation have announced several new films they’ll be completing and releasing over the next couple of years.  First up is a feature film called The Good Dinosaur, written and directed by Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo, Up — he was also the voice of Dug the dog in the latter movie). This new film (set for release in May of 2014) explores what might have happened if dinosaurs never went extinct. Would they wind up being our pets? Or would we wind up being theirs? Also in the pipe are a film based on the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, and an untitled film (set for release in 2015) about the inner workings of the human brain.

There’s an interesting new hardcover graphic novel coming this June from Archaia Entertainment, written and illustrated by Shane-Michael Vidaurri, with the unusual title of Iron: Or, The War After. See what you think of this description: “It is the aftermath of a long war, in a world of constant winter. An intelligence spy from the Resistance—the rabbit, Hardin—steals secret information from a military base of the Regime. His actions set off a chain of events that reverberates through the ranks of both sides, touching everyone from Pavel the crow to Giles the goat, from the highest-ranking officials to the smallest orphaned child. When the snow finally settles, who will be the true patriot.”  Find out more (and see a multi-page teaser) at Archaia’s preview page.

image c. 2012 Archaia Entertainment

The art collective (or pair at least) known as Blotch have a new item connected with their successful comic book/graphic novel series Nordguard. Now it’s the Nordguard Card Game, coming this summer from Sofawolf Press. The game itself was developed by Tempe O’Kun and Nic Wald, and play-testing was directed over the last year by Jeremia Heupel of ThinkTank Games. And the game itself? “You and your friends play as an anthropomorphized sled dog rescue team, overcoming cannibalistic strays and a landscape as capricious as it is lethal. Only your wits and your gear stand between you and certain disaster. Quick-reference instructions provide the rules in minutes, while a scalable difficulty curve provides a challenge for everyone from pups to even the most veteran sled dogs. A randomized map ensures no two missions will ever be the same. Based on the award-winning graphic novel Nordguard: Across Thin Ice, this slim set comes packed with over 120 illustrations by the artists Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet [aka Blotch]. Custom-etched dice and a stamped metal play token fit neatly with the cards in a rugged belt pouch, emblazoned with the Nordguard logo, so you can have the game ready at hand no matter where your adventures take you.” Keep up with the latest on the game at the official web site, www.nordguard.com/about/cardgame.

image c. 2012 Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet

Sweet Pickles is a classic educational children’s book series by Ruth Lerner Perle, Jacquelyn Reinach, and Richard Hefter which was published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston from 1977 through the mid-1990′s. Each of the 40 full-color books portrayed the adventures of the inhabitants of the town of Sweet Pickles: 26 anthropomorphic animals (one for each letter of the alphabet) who get into various “pickles” because of their all-too-human flaws… and who must learn important life lessons to get out of them. The Wikipedia entry for Sweet Pickles details each of the characters such as Accusing Alligator, Moody Moose, and Temper Tantrum Turtle. After having been out of print for the longest time, the entire series is now returning on-line in a brand-new on-line series. But not just the books: Now the original stories are presented as digitally-enhanced e-books with professional sound-effects, narration, and character voices by award-winning voice actors. For a limited time the first e-book in this new series, Very Worried Walrus, is available as a free download at the Apple iBookstore. You can find out more about the return of Sweet Pickles at www.sweetpickles.com/fob.html, and also check them out on Facebook.

image c. 2012 Sweet Pickles

It’s time for the world — or at least Furry Fandom — to re-discover the works of Frank Cho. Or at very least his seminal work in comics, Liberty Meadows. This well-known comic strip started life as an outgrowth of University Squared, a comic strip that Frank worked on during his college days. Liberty Meadows tells the story of a terribly beautiful human named Brandy, who works as a psychiatrist at the Liberty Meadows animal sanctuary. But it also tells the story of Brandy’s decidedly anthropomorphic animal friends: Like Ralph the miniature bear; Dean the lecherous pig; Leslie the hypochondriac frog; and Truman the very, very nice duck. The strip was syndicated for newspapers from 1997 to 2001, when constant censorship by his editors convinced Mr. Cho to switch to a comic book format — which was self-published at first, then later came out of Image Comics. During that time as a newspaper strip however, Liberty Meadows produced several full-color Sunday strips. And now those strips have finally been collected in the Liberty Meadows Sunday Collection, coming this June in hardcover from, yes, Image. You can find out more about Liberty Meadows — and read the current, un-censored strip — at Frank Cho’s official web site.

image c. 2012 Frank Cho