As we noted early this year, Boom! Studios have landed themselves some plum tie-in comic titles recently, especially those from the Disney, Pixar, and Muppet lines. Now comes the word that Boom! will be handling the titles that Gemstone made famous over the decades: Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. Perhaps one of the biggest things (literally!) to come out of this is The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Volume 1. This 112-page full-color hardcover collection brings together Scrooge stories written and illustrated by comics legend Don Rosa. See how Scrooge McDuck earned his infamous “Number One Dime” and began to build his vast fortune! Keep up with these and many more titles at the Boom! Studios web site.
Books and Trade Paperbacks
Bunny Suits and Giant Talking Ducks
Dee sees giant talking ducks, and Bunny Boy is called that because he’s worn the same Halloween costume for years. Now they’ve become teenagers, and they think it’s time to change the world’s view of them. But then the giant talking ducks become real, and monstrous, and Bunny Boy meets up with talking, winged cats… It’s all part of the strange, strange world of Weird Fishes, an on-line comic written and drawn by Jamaica Dyer. Now Slave Labor Graphics has released the first Weird Fishes collection of black and white strips as a softcover graphic novel. You can find out more about the book and the comic strip at the Weird Fishes web site.
Geronimo Stilton — The Graphic Novels
Since 2004, Scholastic has been publishing the Geronimo Stilton series of books by Elisabetta Dami for the English-speaking world. Now word has come out that the world-travelling mouse-journalist has become a time traveller as well… and that his new adventures will be released soon as hardcover graphic novels from Paperkutz Publishing. In case you’ve been missing it: Geronimo Stilton is the editor-in-chief of The Rodent’s Gazette, the largest newspaper in New Mouse City. That’s his day-job. But, facing the threat of evil cats from far-off Catatonia, Geronimo and his family have found themselves travelling through many adventures around the globe. Now comes word that the cats have actually developed time-travel… and they plan to alter the past to destroy Mouselands’s future! Now our heroic editor has no choice but to follow the cats through time, trying to stop their evil schemes! The first book in the series is Geronimo Stilton: The Discovery of America, to be followed soon by The Secret of the Sphynx and The Coliseum Con. Papercutz has an introductory video for the series that can be found here. No big surprise: A Geronimo Stilton animated TV series is in the works in his home county of Italy.
Return to Bloom County
Opus the penguin. Bill the cat. What more need be said? Bloom County, written and illustrated by Berke Breathed, was the visual soundtrack to the lives of many furry and comic book fans throughout the 1980’s. And many of the characters, situations, and sayings that Mr. Breathed, well, “breathed” into life are still iconic to this very day. Now IDW Publishing has collected the entire 1980 – 1989 run of the original comic in Bloom County: The Complete Library. Volume One (the first of five — itself nearly 300 pages long!) contains reprints from 1980 through 1982. All of the comics found in these volumes will be reprints from either the original printer proofs, or Berke Breathed’s original artwork.
The original first collection cover, c. Berke Breathed
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).
Animals for Healing
Chris Ayers was busy working as a concept artist in Hollywood when, in 2005, he was diagnosed with leukemia. One year later, after a period of intense treatment and therapy, Chris embarked on a personal project: To draw one animal each day, for a year, and in the process to come to terms with his illness, his recovery, and his healing. Now the result of his hard work and diligence is available as The Daily Zoo, a full-color hardcover book from Design Studio Press. It features the 365 drawings from Chris’ project, as well as his reflections on the animals presented (some realistic, some anthropomorphic, some silly, some not…) and how they reflect on his condition, his thoughts, and his life. The book also features an introduction by director and producer J.J. Abrams. You can find out more about the project and the book at Chris’ web site, www.chrisayersdesign.com.
Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes
Blam! Ventures is now the official license-holder for the Planet of the Apes series property. So what are they doing with it? A series of over-sized illustrated novels, based in the universe of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie. First up is Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, set to hit stores in the spring of 2010. It’s written by Andrew Gaska, Christian Berntsen, and Erik Matthews, with a cover by Steranko and full-color interior illustrations by a variety of comics industry artists. Conspiracy follows the adventures of John Landon, one of three survivors of the doomed Project Liberty spaceship… who now finds himself stranded on a planet where apes rule and primative humans are turned slaves or worse. When two scientific chimps named Dr. Milo and Dr. Galen take sympathy on him, John dares to have hope… but other apes have much more ruthless, horrible plans for him! Want to find out more, including other new adventures in the works? Visit Blam! Ventures’ Planet of the Apes web site.
The Genesis of Oblivion Saga
This came to us from Brian M. Stalians of Imagined Interprises, Inc.:
For those of you who like your furries mad as hell, meet Klain, a member of a lion race known as the Kithians. Klain was born a slave and forced to endure the bloodthirsty sporting event known as The Games. Follow along as he copes with the stress of being freed by a mysterious race and tries to fit into the world of Humans. One of four plot lines in Farmers and Mercenaries (published by Imagined Interprises, Inc.), this is the first novel of the six-part Genesis of Oblivion Saga by Maxwell Alexander Drake. This fantasy saga has been getting great reviews; you will lose yourself in this story. Read the first four chapters and find out for yourself at the official saga website, www.genesisofoblivion.com.
Klain
Arigato, Tezuka Sensei
This October, Abrams Comic Arts will release a new hardcover book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. The press release at amazon.com says it best: “Osamu Tezuka has often been called ‘the god of manga’ and ‘the Walt Disney of Japan,’ but he was far more than that. Tezuka was Walt Disney, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Tim Burton, and Carl Sagan all rolled into one incredibly prolific creator, changing the face of Japanese culture forever. Best known for Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, Tezuka was instrumental in developing Japanese animation and modern manga comics. The Art of Osamu Tezuka is the first authorized biography celebrating his work and life and featuring over 300 images—many of which have never been seen outside of Japan. With text by respected manga expert Helen McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga pays tribute to the work of an artist, writer, animator, doctor, entrepreneur, and traveler whose curious mind spawned dozens of animated films, and over 170,000 pages of comics art in one astonishingly creative lifetime. The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga also includes an exclusive 45-minute DVD documentary covering Tezuka’s prolific career, from his early manga characters to his later animation work.”
