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Winnie the Pooh

Strangeness from Antarctic Press

Where to even begin, except to say: Dead Pooh. Yes. Here, we’ll let the perpetrators try to explain: “Trash-collecting bear by day, crime-fighting martial artist by night. Dead Pooh protects the citizens of Woodland City from the menace of the Candy King. In the best traditions of parady, Comi-Kazi presents the latest hero to arise to confront the forces of darkness for truth, justice…and a jar of honey!” Sure to raise the hackles and the temperature of Marvel fans and Disney fans alike.  This loony full-color one-shot is written by Al Sharpe, illustrated by Marat Mychaeis and Sean Davis, and scheduled for release from Antarctic Press in March. Oh bother.

image c. 2012 Antarctic Press

Re-Booting Winnie the Pooh

Evidently picking up on the fact that their attempts to take the world of Winnie the Pooh and make it ‘hip and happening’ (hel-loooo My Friends Tigger and Pooh) didn’t quite achieve the heights they had hoped, the Walt Disney Company is going back to the drawing board — literally — with A.A. Milne’s famous franchise. To that end, Disney has announced that a brand-new 2D feature-length animated film, titled simply Winnie the Pooh, is scheduled for release in July of 2011. And Disney is bringing out the big guns for this project: Among the animators working on the film are Mark Henn (“Princess Tiana”) for Pooh, Andreas Deja (“Scar”) for Tigger, Glen Keane (“The Beast”) for Christopher Robin, and Tony Bancroft (“Pumbaa”) for Eeyore. Burny Mattinson, who was actually an animator on the original 1960’s Winnie the Pooh shorts, will serve as the film’s lead story artist. And here’s an amusing note: The songs for the new film were written by Robert Lopez, who wrote the lyrics for Avenue Q.

Stepping into some Big Shoes… with Pooh

David Benedictus produced the audio adaptations of A.A. Milne’s orginal book Winnie-the-Pooh, starring Dame Judi Dench. Now he’s taken on a much bigger task: Continuing the story that Milne brought to a close 80 years ago with The House at Pooh Corner. In that story, Christopher Robin said his final good-byes to Pooh-Bear and all of his friends.  Now, in the first book approved by the trustees of A.A. Milne’s Pooh properties, Mr. Benedictus has written the first new adventures of the original Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, and Eeyore in decades. Return to the  Hundred Acre Wood is profusely illustrated by Mark Burgess, an artist who has illustrated Pooh books before — as well as stories of Paddington Bear. This new book comes to stores this October, in hardcover from Dutton Juvenile (in the U.K. The North American edition is published by Penguin Group).