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December, 2013:

Friendship is in The Cards

The first My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic collectible card game officially sanctioned by Hasbro is being released very soon by Enterplay. The Two-Player Starter Set is available now for ordering, and it’ll be shipping in January. “Build your decks around one of the Mane characters and build a separate problem deck.  Race to solve (yours and your opponent’s) problems to earn points.  First person to 15 points wins.” According to the publicity we’ve read, that makes it sound a lot simpler to master than it actually is!  (Kind of like… friendship.) Check out the Enterplay site for more information.

image c. 2013 Enterplay

Werewolves in the Big City

How did we miss this one? [Or did we? We lose track!] “Remember the werewolves of classic stories and films, those bloodthirsty monsters that transformed under the full moon, reminding us of the terrible nature that lives within all of us? Today’s werewolves are much more suave – and even sexy – and they’ve moved from British moors to New York City lofts, shaved, and got jobs. But as the tales of these writers will show you, they remain no less wild and passionate, and they still tug at the part of our being where a wild animal used to be. Running With the Pack includes stories from Carrie Vaughn, Laura Anne Gilman, and C.E. Murphy [and more…] and they will convince you that despite their gentrification, werewolves remain as fascinating and terrifying as ever.” Running With the Pack is edited by Ekaterina Sedia, and available in trade paperback. Check out the detailed review at Prime Books, the publisher.

image c. 2013 Prime Books

 

Their Friendship is a Little Rusty

“Richly endearing and full of surprises, Robot Dreams follows an ill-fated friendship between a dog and robot. After a Labor Day jaunt to the beach leaves Robot rusty and immobilized in the sand, Dog, unsure what to do, abandons him. As the seasons pass, Dog tries to replace his friend, making and losing a series of new ones, from a melting snowman to epicurean anteaters. Meanwhile, Robot passes his time daydreaming, escaping to better places…Through interwoven journeys, the two characters long to recover from their day at the beach.” Thanks to :01 First Second, this classic full-color graphic novel by Sara Varon is in print once again. It’s available in softcover on Amazon and elsewhere.

image c. 2013 :01 First Second

Cat of the Living Dead

This probably would have made more sense back around Halloween, but… Pick your own horror adventure: On four paws! “Inspired by the gamebook fad of the 80’s, You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! is the much-anticipated sequel to the first book in the Pick-a-Plot series, You Are a Cat! Lavishly illustrated from the first-person feline floor purrspective, the furightening and appawling You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! is a horror tail that will stalk you, surround you and eat you alive.” This very strange black & white paperback graphic novel — where you choose on each page which horrible experience you have next — is available now on Amazon. It’s written and illustrated by Sherwin Tija, and published by Conundrum Press.

image c. 2013 Conundrum Press

A Dandy in Space!

Lots of fandom folks (anime, furry, science fiction and otherwise) got excited this fall with the news that the team behind Cowboy BeBop had created a new, openly-silly science fiction anime called Space Dandy.  The teaser trailer started making the rounds on YouTube. Well now comes even better news: Thanks to the efforts of Funimation, Space Dandy will be the first ever anime to premier in Japan and dubbed on American TV, simultaneously. It’ll be part of Adult Swim’s Toonami collection. Here’s what the producers say: “Space Dandy is a dandy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come – first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety of aliens.” According to the folks at Cartoon Brew, “Anime auteur Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) heads up the direction of Space Dandy which is produced by Japanese animation studio Bones and written by Keiko Nobumoto (Wolf’s Rain, Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus), Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eureka 7, Ergo Proxy) and Kimiko Ueno (Crayon Shin-chan).” Check out the new trailer on YouTube now!

image c. 2013 Bones

The World Has Turned To Gold

Check out the plot summary for Ryan North’s new comic book series The Midas Flesh: “Fatima and her space crew have decided to return to Earth—a planet completely sectioned off, abandoned, and covered in gold—to find out exactly what happened to this once thriving planet and see if they can use that knowledge against the evil empire that’s tracking them down. As luck would have it, they just landed the most powerful weapon in the universe: Some ancient dead guy’s body.” Why should we care? Well, one of Fatima’s “space crew” appears to be a talking dinosaur with horn-rim glasses. That, and the fact that Ryan North is one of the creative minds behind the Adventure Time comic book series. He talks about this new full-color series at Comic Book Resources. The Midas Flesh is illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, and the first issue is coming later this month from Boom! Studios.

image c. 2013 Boom! Studios

Mans’ Best Friend, After Man

When humans’ time is through, what will our companion animals do? Well, one version of events might be what we see in Garth Ennis’ new full-color 6-issue mini-series, Rover Red Charlie. “When a worldwide epidemic suddenly rids the Earth of all humans, what happens to man’s best friend?  Garth Ennis – the master wordsmith of Preacher and Crossed – delivers a story like no other, as a band of canines set out to survive on their own for the first time. This is the story of three best friends at the end of the World.   Charlie was a helper dog and he was good at getting his feeders safely around.  Now he and his pals Rover and Red must escape the failing New York City and find their way in this new order.  Ennis applies his incredible talent for creating rich and complex characters to a whole new species, with this shockingly original tale that is fully painted by Michael Dipascale. ” It’s due this month from Avatar Press. Check out the interview with Michael Dipascale over at Bleeding Cool.

image c. 2013 Avatar Press