Well this sort of came out of nowhere… A brand new CGI show featuring Jim Davis’ inescapable cat Garfield was made in France in 2008. Then, in 2009, episodes of The Garfield Show began airing in North America on Cartoon Network, with all-around voice actor Frank Welker voicing Garfield in place of the late Lorenzo Music. One of the main writers and voice directors for the series is Mark Evanier, who was also lead writer for the original 2D series Garfield and Friends in the 1980’s. Now it seems that Papercutz (home of the Geronimo Stilton series) is creating a series of hardcover full-color comic collections based on The Garfield Show. The collections are titled Garfield & Co., and they come to stores this May.
Books and Trade Paperbacks
Drawing Fantastic Furries
Christopher Hart is a name well-known among those learning to draw: He’s put out several books of how to draw cartoon characters and characters for animation in the past. But now, he’s trying something pretty new. His new book is called Drawing Fantastic Furries: The Ultimate Guide to Drawing Anthropomorphic Characters. That’s a pretty big claim, whot? Well here’s how the publishers describe it on Amazon: “What Is A Furry? A furry is an anthropomorphic being—an animal with human characteristics. Furries have fascinated artists going back thousands of years and as seen in the influx of animal/human characters into popular culture, interest today is at an all time high. And now for the first time all in one volume, you’ll be able to take the next step to the outer limits of your imagination with the ultimate guide to drawing your own furries—Christopher Hart’s Drawing Fantastic Furries. After a basic lesson in the fundamentals of comparative human and animal anatomies, you’ll learn how to draw an entire menagerie of furry species, ranging from the adorable and charming super-cute furries to the seductive and super-popular glamorous furries to the warriors, wizards, vampires, and demons of the furry occult and fantasy realms.” The book is available this week in paperback from Watson-Guptill. The cover certainly grabs attention!
image c. 2011 Christopher Hart
Oh My!
Hermes Press have announced they are now the new publishers of Mike Bullock and Michael Metcalf’s well-known (and well-loved) comic book series Lions, Tigers, and Bears. The long-awaited full-color Volume 3 graphic novel is available now in softcover. This is from their press release: “Mike Bullock’s internationally acclaimed, best selling title has a new home with Hermes Press! The long awaited Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Volume 3 arrives in stores March, 2011. ‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears is a remarkable title, with memorable characters, an enchanting concept, and beautiful artwork,’ observed Hermes Press’ Publisher, Dan Herman. ‘We’re really excited about releasing all new adventures of Joey, Courtney, Ares, Venus, Pallo and Minerva as a graphic novel.'” For those who haven’t found it yet, Lions, Tigers, and Bears is the story of a group of kids who discover that their stuffed animal toys have the ability to come to life — as rather large animals — to protect the children in their care from an invasion of other-worldly demons.
When Karl Barks did Barney Bear
Some rare and seldom-seen comic book work by Uncle Scrooge creator and artist Carl Barks is coming our way this June, thanks to IDW Publishing. It’s a new hardcover collection called Barks’ Bear Book. Here’s the publisher’s description from Amazon: “Carl Barks tops the list of greatest comic book artists of many devoted fans around the world. He has often been called ‘The Good Duck Artist’ by avid readers of all ages of his Disney Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics. Those Duck stories have been reprinted and loved again and again by millions. But, while the Duck oeuvre is easily obtainable, only a few elite fans have gotten rare glimpses of yet another fabulous, alternate universe that Barks created around the classic animation characters Barney Bear and Benny Burro. Hidden in rare, Golden Age comics only Scrooge McDuck could afford are wonderful, full-color fantasy and fun stories as only Barks can write and draw ’em! Collected for the first time in a deluxe, hardcover, full-color tome are all of these masterpieces, meticulously restored. The Barks’ Bear Book is edited and designed by Eisner-Award-winning comics historian Craig Yoe, with a fascinating introduction and special cover is by Barks-devotee Jeff Smith, the best-selling graphic novelist of the Bone comics series.”
image c. 2011 IDW Publishing
Kittens and Existential Angst
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.” If that sounds vaguely familiar, it should: It’s roughly the beginning of Franz Kafka’s best-known work, The Metamorphosis. Only this time around, it’s not giant bugs that take center stage, it’s giant kittens: The Meowmorphosis is a brand-new spoof novel coming soon from the pseudonym known as Coleridge Cook. Here’s the publisher’s notes from Amazon.com: “Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and discovers that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills to pay? And how can Gregor be so selfish as to devote all his attention to a scrap of ribbon? As his new feline identity threatens to eat away at his personality, Gregor desperately tries to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal by accomplishing the one thing he never could as a man: He must flee his parents’ house.” The Meowmorphosis comes to bookshelves this May, in paperback from Quirk Books.
Big Simians Save the World
Missing Linx is a brand new softcover full-color graphic novel coming from Viper Comics this April. It’s written by Dale Martin and illustrated by Courtney Huddleston. Here’s their description: “Dr. Erasmus Q Bedfellow is bent on releasing the creatures of the Fantasy Realm into our dimension, using the creatures of nightmares to rule the world. Only one thing stands in his way: An unlikely group of heroes – the result of Bedfellow’s last attempt to breach the border between realities. They are Big Foot, Sasquatch, Skunk Ape, and the Yeti.” Viper Comic’s web site has a preview of the graphic novel, as well as a link to a comic book “trailer” for the project on YouTube.
The Isle of 100,000 Graves
The European artist known only as Jason is known for is stark graphic style and his rather eccentric stories, often told without dialogue — works like Werewolves of Montpellier and Meow, Baby! Now, Jason has returned with a new hardcover, full-color graphic novel for Fantagraphics Books, and he’s enlisted the services of award-winning French writer Fabien Vehlmann. The Isle of 100,000 Graves comes to stores this April. In it, we meet a little girl searching for her father, who encounters blood-thirsty pirates… and an island where young executioners go to learn their deadly art! Of course there’s an entry for the book at Amazon.
image c. 2011 Fantagraphics Books
Amity Blamity
Now how could you miss a title like that? What is it? A new black & white graphic novel written and illustrated by Mike White, coming this May from Slave Labor Graphics. Here’s the publisher’s press release: “Meet Gretchen & Chester. Gretchen is a shy 4 year old girl and Chester is a talking potbellied pig. They live with Gretchen’s Grandma and listless Uncle Downey in rural America. Mistaking their afternoon activity of playing ‘office’ for entrepreneurial gusto, Downey recruits the duo to assist in his deluded aspirations of running ‘moonshine’. Unbeknownst to the outlandish family and their activities, strange forest critters begin to lurk in the woods nearby, disrupting their quirky daily life and sending them on an adventure to save their degenerate Uncle from a strange genetic mutation!” You read it here folks. Amity Blamity, in softcover this May. Yep.
A Farewell to Redwall
News has come out that Brian Jacques, creator and writer of the wildly-popular Redwall series of anthropomorphic fantasy novels, died on February 5th. He was 71. First published in 1986 (initially by Beaver Books), the Redwall series tells the tale of Redwall Abbey, a medieval monastery run by mice, which also includes a host of other species common to England and much of Europe (such as rabbits, otters, squirrels, and badgers). The main story arc follows the adventures of a young mouse named Matthias, who discovers that he is in fact the descendant of a great mouse hero known as Martin the Warrior. This knowledge comes in handy when Matthias learns he must help defend Redwall against all manner of “evil” creatures, such as rats, ferrets, foxes, and so on. (Species tend to be either “good” or “bad” in the Redwall universe, with little or no individual exceptions). From that first book, the series has gone on to achieve international acclaim and awards, with a new book coming out almost every year. Brian Jacques was famous for his background as a member of the working class in Liverpool, England. Among his many jobs was driving a milk delivery truck, and one of his stops included a boarding school for blind students. It was during his visits there that Mr. Jacques began to tell the stories that would become the Redwall series — making the details especially vivid to entertain his young, blind listeners. The Rogue Crew, which will be the last Redwall book written and published by Brian Jacques, will be on the shelves this May.
