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Books and Trade Paperbacks

Support Your Local Griffin!

“On an alternate Earth, a griffin officer searches for his missing daughter, and uncovers a secret so terrible it could end his world.” That’s the author’s basic description of Griffin Ranger, a new fantasy novel project by writer and artist Roz Gibson (creator of Jack Salem). She further goes on to describe it this way: “Griffins, parrots, anthro wolves and little raccoon/lemur creatures! Lots of action and fighting! A bird-of-paradise griffin who hates getting his feathers mussed, but they end up very mussed by the end of the book!” There’s a Kickstarter campaign now to finance completing and publishing the project. The book will feature illustrations by Roz Gibson and a cover by Wolf-Nymph.

image c. 2014 by Roz Gibson

image c. 2014 by Roz Gibson

Monsters Make All The Best Stuff

From the Booklist write-up on Amazon, here’s a quick introduction to The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston: “Elliot is overjoyed the morning his uncle, professor Archie Von Doppler, invites him to tour the supersecret invention lab at DENKi-3000, a company famous for its unusual, logic-defying products. But the secrets are more super than Elliot had hoped. The professor’s lab is staffed entirely by fantastical creatures—a French-speaking, bird-size fairy-bat; a giant dreadlocked salamander; and a librarian with three dragon heads atop octopus legs; etc.—whose otherworldly technology gives DENKi-3000’s inventions their astonishing appeal.” But all is not well, of course, and Elliot soon finds himself charged with protecting his new monster friends and their invention lab from an evil corporate takeover. It’s all in this new illustrated book published by Razorbill. It even has its own web site, complete with monster animation.

image c. 2014 Razorbill

image c. 2014 Razorbill

Don’t Let the Dead Bugs Bite!

We couldn’t do any better than the actual title here. “Did you enjoy stepping on bugs as a child? Have you ever lit one on fire with a magnifying glass? What if all those bugs could come back from the dead? Don’t Let the Dead Bugs Bite! is the tale of a community struggling to rid itself of troublesome bugs that have come back to haunt their once peaceful town. This exciting story will capture children’s imaginations and may make them think twice before stepping on that next bug.” This new full-color book was written and illustrated by Stephen Zmina. As you can see from the official web site, there’s quite a roster of well-known celebrities who’ve read and endorsed the book! Be sure to check out the horror-movie-style book trailer too.

image c. 2014 by Stephen Zmina

image c. 2014 by Stephen Zmina

Like Punnies in the Spring

Well okay, the middle of summer, but hey… Llyn Hunter is an Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, also known for her humorous illustrations and poetry. Many of those have been collected over the years in her Little Book series (like A Little Book of Monsters, reviewed here previously) put out by her own Bobcat Publishing. Her latest work is called Punnies — a collection of pun illustrations (cat fish, duck tape, cow bell…) each accompanied by a verse. She’s started up a Kickstarter campaign to help her fund publishing the book in a large-size coffee table format. The campaign is up from now until the end of September. Also make sure to visit her home page to see samples of the many other projects that she’s worked on over the years.

image c. 2014 by Llyn Hunter

image c. 2014 by Llyn Hunter

The Evolution of The Mouse

Needless to say there have been many, many books over the years (official and otherwise) showing you how to draw your favorite characters from Disney Animation. This latest book from the famous Walter Foster art how-to series takes a little different tack: How the look of Mickey Mouse and some of the most well-known Disney characters has evolved over time since they were first created. “A collection of vintage artwork from the Disney archives reveals early designs, sketches, and poses of Mickey Mouse as well as other classic characters such as Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck. Learn to Draw Mickey Mouse & Friends Through the Decades creates the opportunity for an artistic celebration of the world’s most beloved mouse, by bringing together a collection of step-by-step projects and inspirational illustrations for rendering these timeless characters as they originally appeared. Featuring 128 pages of art instruction material, this title makes a covetable collector’s item for any loyal Disney enthusiast or aspiring artists interested in learning to draw in classic cartoon style.” Learn to Draw Mickey Mouse & Friends Through the Decades (whew, long title!) is coming next year to Amazon and other sellers.

image c. 2014 Walter Foster Publishing

image c. 2014 Walter Foster Publishing

Just Give Him Your Socks And Everything’s Fine

Ndbag is a boogeyman, but not the scary people-eating kind. No, he’d much rather eat one of your dirty socks — usually the left one. Ndbag the Boogeyman lives in the closet clothes hamper of a little girl named Mylene. He’s made friends with her favorite plushie: A panda named Pandaman. They get along so well that Ndbag created his very own panda costume which he calls Pandabag. The little blue boogeyman is also “frenemies” with ZK, a fluffy dryer goblin who much prefers clean socks and munching on lint. Are you getting all of this? It all comes from the mind of Austrian artist E.F. Gludovacz, and you can find out more in the first Ndbag the Boogeyman book as well as the regularly-updated web comic… all at the official web site.

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

Help Start a New Fantasy Graphic Novel

The artist known as Alector Fencer has begun a new full-color graphic novel series called Myre (pronounced ME-reh). And she’s actively seeking some crowd-funding help to bring it into being. In the artist’s own words, “Since the beginning of this year I have been working tirelessly on writing and drawing out the story and the characters, resulting in a big collection of stories, scripts and tons of paintings/sketches and drawings. Over the past years I have collected many paintings of characters of the storyline, including Myre and her dragon mount Varug. Despite all the planning, there were many things coming in between and dragging me away from this very big and heartfelt dream of mine. The dream of sharing a world with you which had been captured in my head for so long.” To find out more about the story and the world it takes place in, visit Alector Fencer’s Indiegogo campaign page. In addition to a lot of the usual swag for helping out, some contributors will be treated to a special audio play created by the famous 2 the Ranting Gryphon, set in the Myre universe.

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

A Science Fiction Classic, Illustrated

If you’re not familiar with Larry Niven, you should be. For one thing he was Guest of Honor at Further Confusion once — largely for his creation of the brutal tiger-like aliens known as the Kzin. In 1970 his novel Ringworld received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. Now, many years later, Tor Books is creating a series of black & white manga-style graphic novel adaptations of the book. “Two-hundred-year-old human Louis Wu is recruited by a two-headed alien named Nessus to join him, a felinoid warrior alien named Speaker-to-Animals, and the infinitely lucky human Teela Brown to explore an alien artifact. They find a Ringworld, a ribbon millions of miles long built around a distant sun. The civilization has fallen into savagery, though, and after crashing into the Ringworld, Louis must come up with a clever plan to get back to known space, hundreds of light years away.” Adapted by Robert Mandell (script) and Sean Lam (illustration), Part 1 is available now in paperback at Amazon.

[And with that, we’ll see you after Comic Con!]

image c. 2014 by Rory McLeish

image c. 2014 by Rory McLeish

Beasts Invade the Rain Forest

It might seem like an age ago, but earlier this year the animated sensation of the moment was Rio 2. Now that we’ve moved on to the summer, Paperkutz have announced a new tie-in graphic novel, carrying on after the events of that film. “While recording bird calls, Linda loses her new digital recorder, but when Blu finds it, it’s full of strange and horrifying growls! Is some sort of new predator on the loose in the sanctuary? Before the gang can solve the mystery themselves, monster-hunters and reality shows invade, turning their quiet jungle home into pandemonium. ” Rio 2: The Creature from Blu’s Lagoon is written by Arie Kaplan and illustrated by James Silvani. The full-color trade paperback is available for pre-ordering; otherwise look for it in stores this fall.

image c. 2014 Paperkutz

image c. 2014 Paperkutz