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September, 2016:

Kitty Kat Maniac

Visiting the Long Beach Comic Con we stumbled across the works of Melissa Douglas, also known as the Kitty Kat Maniac. She majored in digital media at the Otis College of Art and Design, and since then she has worked for animation studios like The Three Legged Legs and Twistory Studios. At her web site (artchamacallit.com) you’ll find many examples of her work — both original stuff, and stuff saluting her favorite cartoons and games. And of course there are also links to her stores where you can find many of her illustrations available not only as prints and stickers, but also on t-shirts, blankets, key chains, and more.

image c. 2016 by Melissa Douglas

image c. 2016 by Melissa Douglas

Creatures of Many Worlds — Through One Girl’s Eyes

According to Bleeding Cool, Image Comics have a new full-color graphic novel for young adults on the shelves called Afar. Here’s what Image says: “Critically-acclaimed, Russ Manning nominated Shutter artist Leila Del Duca teams up as co-creator and writer alongside artist, colorist, and letterer Kit Seaton (The Black Bull of Norroway, Eve of All Saints) for an original graphic novel, Afar. In Afar, Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other worlds, unintentionally possessing the bodies of people light years away. Inotu, her inquisitive brother with a pension for trouble, finds himself on the run after he’s caught eavesdropping on an illegal business deal between small town business tycoons and their cyborg bodyguard. When Boetema accidentally gets someone hurt while in another girl’s body, the siblings are forced to work together to solve the problems they’ve created on their planet and others.” As you can see from the sample images, many of the worlds our young heroes “visit” are quite interesting for furry fans. Check out the Bleeding Cool article to learn more.

image c. 2016 Image Comics

image c. 2016 Image Comics

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Small Dog, Big Dreams

Mauricio Abril is an artist with an interesting background: For years he practiced molecular biology (his major at university), but discovered it just did not fit his soul the way he thought it would. So he took a whole new set of courses in “entertainment design”, and that fit much better — and so he has been working the past few years as a concept artist in the fields of animation, video games, theme park design, and illustration. Recently (with the help of Kickstarter) he completed his first illustrated book for children, called Small Dogs. On his web site he says: “It follows the story of Seth, a Chihuahua who mistakenly believes that he’s just overdue for a growth spurt to be as big as other dogs. It’s only when he discovers what it really means to be a small dog when he decides to prove to everyone, and especially himself, that small dogs are just as important as any other dog.” Yap Yap!

image c. 2016 by Mauricio Abril

image c. 2016 by Mauricio Abril

Yet Another Foul-Mouthed Bear

Sheesh, where have we been? We missed Brickleberry! It’s a series of short comedy cartoons that Comedy Central had available as an app for download. Created by Roger Black and Waco O’Guin (and produced by Comedy Central’s Daniel Tosh), it followed the adventures of a bumbling crew of park rangers at Brickleberry National Park. It was decidedly adult-oriented in its content! Along with the human characters there was Malloy, a talking bear cub (voiced by Daniel Tosh) with a foul mouth and a mean attitude. (Many episodes are still available on YouTube. Warning: NSFW, without a doubt!) The series premiered in 2012, and ran for three seasons, only to be canceled in 2015 — when most of the cast were killed by an invading army of alien cows. But fear not! Now Dynamite Entertainment have brought us Brickleberry: Armoogeddon, a new full-color 4-issue comic miniseries (written by Black and O’Guin, and illustrated by Timothy Hopkins) that continues the story with a new science-fiction twist. Find out more over at ComicBook.com. It’s also on the shelves now.

image c. 2016 Comedy Central

image c. 2016 Comedy Central

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Dem Bones, Dem Bones…

Franky, we think Cartoon Books put this announcement best. We’ll just pass it along to you: “25 years after the first black & white issue of the self-published comic book BONE appeared on comic shop shelves, and over a decade since the concluding chapter comes a new (and completely superfluous!) adventure featuring the Bone cousins! Ride along with the boys and their friend Bartleby the Rat Creature as they brave the dangerous journey across the desert back toward Boneville in their rickety cow cart. Creator Jeff Smith is back for another laugh with Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley! Also included is the complete text of The BONE Companion fully illustrated for the first time! It’s written by award winning comics historian Stephen Weiner. All this plus rare behind the scenes photos & memories, and an afterword by the author thanking the comics community and the readers all add up to make this a truly special commemorative volume of BONE to add to your collection!” As with any work in the Bone universe, there are lots of not-human characters to be seen here. Want to see it for yourself? Find out more over at Comics Alliance.

image c. 2016 Cartoon Books

image c. 2016 Cartoon Books

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Cat and Dog, Happy and Sad

BOOM! Studios snuck two more by us this last summer… First up, the Peanuts: Friends Forever 2016 Special. Here’s what they say: “After five years and 39 issues, four original graphic novels, and a groundbreaking tribute book, we bid farewell to this incarnation of Peanuts comics with an oversized finale. Snoopy’s Daisy Hill Farm is being torn down and Charlie Brown tries to be there for him. It’s a warm goodbye filled with love and heart for all devoted Peanuts readers!” Featuring stories by the late Charles M. Schulz himself, as well as Jason Cooper, with artistic help from Donna Almendrala and Vicki Scott. Also look for the Garfield 2016 Summer Special, a one-shot collection of never-before-seen comic short stories by the likes of Scott Nickel, Mark Evanier, Brittney Williams, Andy Hirsch, Sara Talmadge, and Lissy Marlin.

image c. 2016 BOOM! Studios

image c. 2016 BOOM! Studios

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Ooo, What Do YOU Think?

For as long as KaBOOM! Comics have published the Adventure Time comic tie-in series (and that’s a few years now!) there have been back-up stories from the Land of Ooo in several issues, created by other comic book writers and illustrators. Well now KaBOOM! (an imprint of BOOM! Studios) have made that the main focus of their new full-color Adventure Time Comics series, an anthology featuring three short stories by different creators in each issue. From an article at the A.V. Club: “The first issue of Adventure Time Comics features stories by Gronk’s Katie Cook, Tiny TitansArt Baltazar, and MaakiesTony Millionaire, with a Nick Pitarra cover homage to Action Comics #1 that spotlights how different artistic sensibilities reinterpret these designs… Future contributors to Adventure Time Comics include Jeffrey Brown, Terry Moore, Kelly Thompson, and Box Brown.” It’s on the shelves now.

Image c. 2016 KaBOOM!

Image c. 2016 KaBOOM!

Big Ape Before the Movie

BOOM! Studios have been granted an exclusive right to create a new prequel back-story for King Kong himself, taking place before even the original 1933 movie. “Award-winning publisher BOOM! Studios and DeVito Artworks LLC are excited to announce Kong of Skull Island, an original, limited comic book series… featuring the famous gargantuan ape, King Kong, created by Merian C. Cooper, and grounded in artist/author Joe DeVito’s ground-breaking literary property Skull Island.” This new full-color 6-issue mini-series is available now, and BOOM! has a lot of preview stuff on-line.

image c. 2016 BOOM! Studios

image c. 2016 BOOM! Studios

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Poetry and Purring

A Cat Named Haiku is an ongoing full-color comic series written by Mark Poulton, illustrated by Dexter Weeks, and publish by Arcana Studio. Well now they’ve released the first hardcover collection called A Cat Named Haiku: Totally Pawesome Edition. Here’s what they say: “A Cat Named Haiku tells the story of a mischievous little cat, as he learns valuable lessons on love and friendship told completely in haiku. Collecting A Cat Named Haiku volumes 1 and 2, select haikus from the Furrever Friends Anthology, and the all-new Cthulhu Loves Kittens story.” You heard it here. In case you don’t remember: A “haiku” is a Japanese form of poetry that is always 17 syllables long. Read all about it.

image c. 2016 Arcana Studio

image c. 2016 Arcana Studio