InFurNation Rotating Header Image

Comic Strips

One Little White Bear

Rupert the Bear first appeared in the British newspaper the Daily Express on November 8th of 1920 in a comic strip called Little Lost Bear, written and illustrated by Mary Tourtel. Since then he has gone on to become a world-wide symbol of childhood through the eyes of the U.K. — much like another well-known little British bear. Well now in celebration of Rupert’s 100th birthday (he looks young for his age!), Great Britain has released a whole new line of Rupert-themed stamps. We stumbled across an article from the BBC (thanks Twitter!) that has a lot more information about Rupert in general and the stamps in particular.

image c. 2020 Royal Mail

Funding A Fuzzy

Creator Charles Brubaker let us know about their current Kickstarter campaign for The Fuzzy Princess Volume 2, the second collection of strips from this popular web comic. “The Fuzzy Princess centers on Katrina, the adventurous feline princess of St. Paws, watched over by Chiro (a batty bat) and Kuma (whose love for haiku is only matched by his love of eating). Now they’ve been stranded in our world! Can Kat’s new human friend Jackson help them survive? Will Jackson be able to survive his new friends? Continuing off from where the first book left off, join Princess Kat on a voyage of self-discovery in this sec, as she explores her new talents such as: Urban exploration! Crimefighting! Attempting to make Christmas dinner! Surviving a surprise visit! Babysitting! Witches! And enduring Kuma’s slam poetry!” What more do you need to know?  The campaign is running now through the beginning of March.

image c. 2020 by Charles Brubaker

And Now: Beagles In SPACE!

Boom! Studios brings us an interesting take on characters from the late Charles M. Schulz. “In Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars, Snoopy, the world-famous astronaut, heads to the stars in his most out-of-this-world adventure yet! What mysteries does the red planet hold? Will he find water? Will he find life? Will he find the time to get in a quick nine holes? Snoopy grabs his golf clubs and blasts off for Mars in this original graphic novel from the world of Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts!” This full-color graphic novel is written by Jason Cooper and illustrated by Robert Pope. Take a look over at their web site to learn more.

image c. 2020 Boom! Studios

Proudly… a dog!

Happy Pride Month! Gab Shiba is a humorous slice-of-life on-line comic (decidedly Adults Only at times, but not always) that we came across at BLFC this year. It’s written by Cross and illustrated in a manga-style by Zurdo. On their web site, they say this: “It’s a furry openly gay webcomic that tells the story of 3 dogs and their friends, being GAB (The Protagonist), a cute shiba inu, lover of hot guys and sweet moments; and his roomies, WANG, a geek Chow Chow who is a programmer; and BAU, a Husky very musky. They live in the big city, where we show their misadventures and weird experiences, where we all can relate.” Interestingly, the comic is mostly dialogue-free, so it’s readable most anywhere in the world. They have tie-in merchandise they’ve been selling at conventions, and their on-line store is set to open soon.

image c. 2019 gabshiba.com

It’s Not Fair Penguins Can’t Fly

An unusual new graphic novel from Fantagraphics Books: Penguins by Nick Thorburn. “Told almost entirely without words, Penguins is one of the most playfully original graphic novels in recent memory… relying on visual expression and the physical movement of his penguin characters, as well as the formal properties of sequential drawings (with penguins routinely moving within and without each page’s panel borders), Penguins is a series of interconnected short strips that, without words or human characters, does more to showcase the breadth of emotion we as humans experience than most prose novels.” It’s available now in hardcover from Amazon.

image c. 2018 Fantagraphics Books

Someday You Will Visit This Web Site

Someday Mouse is a very introspective and optimistic little mammal. At the Someday Mouse web site you will find this: “Someday is the name of a silent, yet adventurous Mouse; self-made, thoughtful, and always at peace in the moment. If Someday dreams it, then Someday will be it. No matter how terrifying the circumstances, Someday Mouse approaches every new experience and creature with unwavering acceptance and genuine curiosity.” You will also find that Someday Mouse is an on-line black & white illustration and thought series written and illustrated by Katherine Brannock. The Adventures of Someday Mouse is also available there as a paperback book.

image c. 2018 by Katherine Brannock

A Blob is Man’s Best Friend

Back from WonderCon 2018, and there is so much to talk about.  Like… The folks at Corgli & Co describe themselves like this: “The unnoteworthy life & non-adventures of a Blob of Corg & Company.” Actually it’s a web comic following the life of a plump corgi with a different sort of outlook on things. There’s also a Corgli Store with art prints and other funny animal objects. Check ’em out.

image c. 2018 Corgli & Co

PLOP!

In the spirit of “How did this sneak up on us?”, it turns out that Condorito now has his own movie — called, appropriately enough, Condorito: The Movie. What, never heard of Condorito? The bird-with-a-beret was created in 1949 by Chilean doctor and political cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger. Since then, the bird has gone on to become practically the Mickey Mouse of Latin America… which is funny, given that he was created to make fun of Walt Disney’s over-sanitized version of Chile in the film Saludos Amigos. The Condorito gag strip (always ending with a lame joke or pun, and lots of characters fainting over backwards with a loud PLOP!) has become so well-known that someone was bound to make an animated movie out of it. And now Pajarraco Films (from Peru!) have brought Condorito to the screen in CGI. (It’s only been released in Spanish with subtitles, so far.) The plot? Condorito would desperately love to date his va-va-voom human girlfriend Yayita, but doing so means he has to get past her disapproving parents. Things get a bit more complicated when invading aliens capture and run off with Yayita’s mama — and who else but Condorito to try and rescue her? Admittedly the critics have not been kind to the film, some complaining that it smooths off the rough edges and adult content of the original strip. Though not very approving either, Lili Loofbourow’s review for The Week has some good background information on the strip. Oh, check out the official trailer too.

image c. 2018 Pajarraco Films

Classic Adventures in Penguin Lust

As you may have heard, a couple years ago Berke Breathed once again fired up his seminal comic strip Bloom County. Well for those among us who remember the first go-round, IDW has brought together a special box set called Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat, 1980-1989. Here’s the press release: “Presenting every Bloom County daily and Sunday strip in chronological order from the first to the last! Bloom County debuted in late 1980 and ran until August 1989. Featuring an exceedingly quirky cast of characters, including the sweetly naive Opus the penguin, the flea-bitten Bill the cat, womanizing attorney Steve Dallas, Milo Bloom, Cutter John, and many others, Bloom County soon became one of the most popular comic strips in history, appearing in over 1200 newspapers. Then, at the peak of its popularity, Berkeley Breathed did something unprecedented… he walked away. Now, more than 25 years later, the complete collection of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip is collected into a deluxe, two-volume box set.” It’s available now at your local comic book store.

image c. 2017 IDW Publishing

Save