Boom! Studios, which have had several Planet of the Apes tie-in titles over the years, now turn their sights toward this summer’s hit movie — with a new full-color comic book miniseries titled, appropriately enough, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. “Bridging the 10-year gap between the Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes films, fans will bear witness to the fall of humanity and the rise of Caesar’s civilization. While the apes of the world have yet to advance as a species, Caesar must find a way to unify in them to one cause. On the other side of the country, Malcolm must venture into the decaying Americas with his family to find a cure for the plague slowly killing his wife, Rita. World powers will shift as civilizations collapse and rise.” Written by Michael Moreci (Curse, Hoax Hunters) and illustrated by Dan McDaid (Mind the Gap), issue #1 of the the new Dawn is available now.
Comic Book News
Animal Empires Collide
Tooth & Claw is a new severely-anthropomorphic full-color comic book series from Image Comics, coming our way this November. Check out the preview pages over at Image’s web site. “Tooth & Claw, the exciting new series from bestselling writer Kurt Busiek (Marvels, Astro City), artist Benjamin Dewey (I Was the Cat, Tragedy Series), Eisner-winning colorist Jordie Bellaire (The Manhattan Projects, Pretty Deadly), and letterer John Roshell of Comicraft that was announced at Image Expo in July, will launch on November 5. The highly anticipated fantasy epic can best be described as Conan meets Kamandi with a Game of Thrones-style storytelling experience. In Tooth & Claw, a secret conclave of wizards brings a legendary champion forward through time from the forgotten past to save the world—with disastrous consequences. Featuring swords, sorcery, beast-wizards, gods, sprawling animal empires, golems of radioactive decay, crystalline badlands, con women, ancient armories, young love, mystery, blood and death and treachery and destiny… Tooth & Claw is the sprawling, world-building fantasy series readers have been waiting for.” It should be noted that this new comic is being marketed as aiming for mature readers — meaning it will not scrimp on the violence or the nudity. And this is from Image!
She’s a Superhero. Dad’s an Ape.
Sometimes things are described in a very straightforward manner: “The Adventures of Aero-Girl. It’s the story of a young jet-pack wearing sidekick who must not only deal with the death of her father & mentor, but also that his powers (and her destiny) have been transferred to a silverback gorilla.” It’s also a new self-published 4-issue comic book miniseries, written by DeWayne Feenstra and illustrated in full color by Axur Eneas and Juan Pablo Riebeling. After a successful Kickstarter campaign this summer the first issue is available now, so check it out over at Fan Girls Are We.
Get Down Again!
With interest in Howard the Duck rising again after his *Spoiler Alert!* momentary cameo in a recent hit movie from Marvel, they’ve decided that this October the time is right to re-release the Howard the Duck Omnibus — which has been out of print for more than six years. A massive hardcover (more than 800 pages) written entirely by Howard’s creator Stever Gerber — with artistic contributions from the likes of Val Mayerik, Frank Brunner, Gene Colan, Carmine Infantino, and John Buscema. This classic collection of the foul-mouthed foul “trapped in a world he never made” brings together stories from Adventures into Fear #19, Man-Thing #1, Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 – 5, Howard the Duck #1 – 33, Marvel Treasury Edition #12, and Marvel Team-Up #96. Read all about it at The Nerdist.
No, They’re Not Scary At All…
Here it is, straight from Previews: “From the bestselling video games, leading cartoon on Nickelodeon, hot toys from McFarlane Toys, now bursting into comics: playful, clueless, curious, mischievous, and completely unpredictable, the Rabbids find fun everywhere and with everything, creating havoc wherever they go! In their first graphic novel, the Rabbids invade museums, horse races, and even play golf on the moon with a series of non-stop gags that showcase their charmingly surreal stupidity out amongst the rest of the world. ” Watch out! They’re coming next week from Papercutz. Rabbids Volume 1: Bwaaaaaaah! was written by Thitaume with artwork by Romain Pujol.
The Monsters of Rock?
Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s the late Jim Henson and his associate Jerry Juhl wrote many interesting screenplays for development as projects for The Muppets, and many of them were never produced. Among the latter was a story called The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow, which went like this: “Turkey Hollow is a picturesque town where hundreds of years ago, unbeknownst to the citizens, a meteorite landed nearby a small brook on the outskirts of town. One Thanksgiving, while young Timmy Henderson practices his guitar, he’s accompanied by strange, unearthly, musical sounds. That meteorite wasn’t a rock at all but an egg holding seven furry, goofy monsters, each with a unique musical sound. After the initial shock, Timmy befriends the lovable creatures following him all around Turkey Hollow. Not everyone takes a liking to the visitors though and it’s up to Timmy to protect his new friends and save Thanksgiving!” Now Archaia Comics have partnered once again with illustrator Roger Langridge (Snarked, The Muppet Show) to bring these Musical Monsters to life in a brand new full-color graphic novel coming in hardcover this October. What’s more, according to an article in USA Today, Lisa Henson (Jim’s daughter and CEO of Henson Company) has confirmed that the original script is being developed into a holiday TV special — possibly for release as early as this Thanksgiving!
He Vants to Eat Bananas!
Some of you may remember Banana Tail, an illustrated children’s book created by animator Mark McKenna. It told the story of Banana Tail, a poor young brown monkey born with a shiny yellow tail. He feels like an outcast among his troupe, until he finds two equally unusual friends: Reena the pink rhinoceros and Tic Tac the checkerboard zebra. Well now Mark McKenna, Jim Calafiore, and several artistic friends bring us The Boonanna Tail Halloween Special, a one-shot full-color comic with Banana Tail and his friends celebrating the season in high style. Find out more about it at Bleeding Cool. Of course it comes out in October, with several variant covers available.
Spyro And His Cohorts Come To Comics
Celebrating the release of the new game Skylanders Trap Team, IDW have brought Spyro the Dragon and his friends to comic books for the first time ever. Skylanders #1 will premier this October. It’s written by Ron Marz and David A. Rodriguez, with full-color art by Mike Bowden, David Baldeon, and others. At the same time IDW will release Skylanders: The Kaos Trap, which will collect the first three issues of the comic together with the special issue #0 that was only available at San Diego Comic Con — all in a single hardcover collection. Take a look at the IDW web site for more.
Daddy is Purring
Sometimes, you just gotta let the thing speak for itself: “Miri and Luey have a dilemma. Their dad’s been turned into a cat and their closet is a garden full of goblins. There is only one thing for them to do — grab their friend Phil the frog and dive headfirst into a wild, woolly and wacky adventure.” Cat Dad, King of the Goblins was written and illustrated by Canadian artist Britt Wilson. This full-color short graphic novel is available now from Koyama Press. Check out the preview over at Publishers Weekly.








