The popular Flight comic book anthology series now has a companion, Flight Explorer, coming this March from Villard Press. Like its big brother, this new full-color collection is edited by Kazu Kibuishi, and features stories loosely based around a theme of flight. Explorer is designed to help young readers get into the swing of reading for themselves — while at the same time entertaining older readers who might be helping them through it. As you can see from the cover, this first volume features several anthropomorphic characters, some of whom have been covered in InFurNation before. The stories include Kean Soo’s Jellaby, Johane Matte’s Egyptian cat, and Jake Parker’s Missile Mouse, among others. Flight Explorer Volume 1 is available for ordering on Amazon, with a special discount offer for libraries.
Comic Book News
Invasion of the Super-Pets
Capstone Publishing is starting 2012 off in a big way with their DC Super-Pets series of full-color graphic novels, which start to hit the shelves this month. Here’s part of their promo advertisement: “The DC Super-Pets series features the crime-fighting adventures of the pets of favorite super heroes from beloved DC Comics: Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern. These intrepid Super-Pets—Krypto the Super-Dog, Ace the Bat-Hound, Streaky the Super-Cat, Beppo the Super-Monkey, Jumpa the Super-Kangaroo, and their friends—save the day and foil the evil plans of the universe’s most dastardly super villains. The books have been specially designed for children just learning to read independently. Included in the endpapers are illustrations of all the Super-Pets in the series (both heroes and villains), jokes, and a guide to the meaning and pronunciation for each book’s most challenging words.” Look at this series and you’ll realize you never knew there were so many super pets! Each of these 56-page trade paperbacks features the art of Eisner Award-winning DC Comics artist Art Baltazar, with scripts by Scott Sonneborn, Sarah Stephens, Jane B. Mason, John Sazaklis, and Donald Lemke. Capstone also has an interactive web site for the entire series.
Adventure Time: The Comic
If you haven’t gotten the word yet, Adventure Time with Finn and Jake is one of the most popular animated TV series out there — not only on Cartoon Network, but on TV in general and the Internet all over the place. Now Boom Studios’ KABOOM imprint is presenting the brand new Adventure Time full-color comic book series, premiering this February. Join the adventure as Finn the human, Jake the Dog (with amazing powers of transformation), and Princess Bubblegum explore the amazing Land of Ooo. The premier issue was written by North Ryan, with illustrations by Shelli Paroline and Branden Lamb. Check out the Boom! Studios ordering page for more information on the series.
An Ape Classic Returns
From 1974 to 1977, Marvel Comics (through their Curtis Magazine imprint) published a black & white tie-in comic for the Planet of the Apes movie and TV series. It featured not only adaptations of the five original movies, but also new adventures as well as background stories on the creation of the films. [Full disclosure: Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter grabbed every issue he could get a hold of!] Many of the stories were written by Moonknight co-creator Doug Moench (as well as Gerry Conway) and illustrated by Ghost Rider co-creator Mike Ploog (as well as Mike Esposito and George Tuska). Now, BOOM! Studios have secured the rights to re-publish those 1970’s classics under the title Terror on the Planet of the Apes, coming this February.
Sonic Turns 20 in a Big Way
As part of SEGA Games’ big 20th anniversary celebration for Sonic the Hedgehog, Archie Comics have released Sonic Genesis, written by Ian Flynn. This “story reboot” collection of all-new Sonic adventures is illustrated by various artists, including the return of fan favorites Tracy Yardley and Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante. After running in the Sonic comic book series this summer and fall (starting with issue #226, below), Archie will release Genesis as a hardcover graphic novel this coming April. You can pre-order this foil-covered new collection at the Barnes & Noble web site.
Comics Against Cancer
What do you do when you find out you’ve been struck by a rare form of bone cancer? Well, if you’re a woman like Kaylin Andres, you go on the warpath — inside your own body, microscopically, hunting down Nazi cancer cells and alien infections with high-caliber weaponry! At least, that’s the subject of Terminally Illin’, Kaylin’s brand new black & white comic book series illustrated by Jon Solo. Of course, the smart girl who’s heading off to battle inner demons (literally!) is also going to bring along a ferocious and well-armed battle-cat like Iceman. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the new comic will finally hit the shelves this January from Last Gasp. Why survive when you can thrive… and kick butt! Make sure to check out the Terminally Illin’ Facebook page too.
Beware the Moon over Cypress
A return to a more traditional werewolf story, with a few nasty twists and lots of gore thrown in of course. Ferals is a new full-color horror comic written by David Lapham (famous for his horror comic The Crossed) and illustrated by Gabriel Andrade. It’s due this January from Avatar Press. *Sigh* Always the bad guys… BleedingCool.com has a nice write-up of the new series.
Honey Badger Don’t Give A…
Have you caught wind of the YouTube phenomenon known alternately as “Honey Badger don’t care” or (more profanely) as “Honey Badger don’t give a sh*t“? (Warning — the video has crude language to say the least!) It sprung up after the Guinness Book of World Records named the honey badger (also known as a ratel) as The Most Fearless Animal On Earth. Well now, besides spawning a popular line of t-shirts, the meme is inspiring comic books! Fred Perry (Gold Digger) and Joe Wight (Planet of the Living Dead) have teamed up to bring us the Honey Badger Adventures 1-shot, coming in black & white this January from Antarctic Press. “Honey badgers are just crazy. Now, see the honey badger in action! The most fearless critter on Earth will face off against…EVERYTHING! Birds, snakes, small childrenz, velociraptors, whatever! It’ll fight anybody and anything and just smack the hell out of it. You should read this comic, ’cause it’s badass, just like the honey badger.” You have been warned.
He is Monkey!
One of the most popular and well-known furries in history (no, really, we mean it!) is Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King of Chinese legend. His story, Journey to the West, has been covered in movies, TV, plays, and of course comic books many times. And now here we go again with the latter, in Monkey King Volume 1: Birth of the Stone Monkey, a new full-color graphic novel from JR Comics. “Cited as one of China’s greatest novels, Monkey King follows the adventures of Sun Wu Kong, born from a stone on Spring Mountain and given the title of Handsome Monkey King, who seeks to learn the secret of eternal life. Under the tutelage of Master Puti, Sun Wu Kong becomes incredibly powerful, but his hubris grows until he has run afoul of the gods, who dispatch an army to subdue the Monkey King.” Here’s a write-up from Sci Fi Genre. Monkey King is coming to stores at the end of November.








