Ape Entertainment is taking the unusual step of releasing all three issues of a three-issue mini-series at once, this coming January. The item in question is the new full-color comic mini-series Hairy Things, written by Jay Carvajal and illustrated by Marc Borstel. In the days of the Wild West, four companions stumble across a remote town hidden deep in the Colorado Rockies… a town that is under attack by a tribe of tall, furry sasquatch! What they don’t know is, the sasquatch are the least of their concerns — because the town is populated by hungry cannibals! This is not your grandparents’ western people…
Comic Book News
Dark Horse brings back Blacksad!
This is from The Beat at PublishersWeekly.com:
“One of the most excellent comics announcements to come out of you-know-what [I think that means San Diego Comic Con — ye Ed-Otter ]was the news that Dark Horse will be reprinting all three volumes of Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido in a deluxe oversized volume. The first two Blacksad books were published here by iBooks a while back, but with iBooks having gone into bankruptcy, these became highly sought after. Getting the full series reprinted was in limbo, but now Dark Horse has ridden in to fix that right up. Blacksad is best described as hardboiled detective tales with an anthropomorphic cast, but with a darker side and social criticism mixed in. The real star is Guarnido’s art, which is some of the best stuff out there (the series has won over a dozen European awards). He worked extensively on several Disney films, and his art has the best qualities of that brand: Indelible character designs, flawless storytelling and the attention to mood and place that is the hallmark of the great European comics. The series is hugely popular in France and Spain, and we can’t wait to read the whole thing in English.” This is especially good news since Blacksad Volume 3 was never published in English before iBooks went belly-up. No word yet on if Dark Horse will also be reprinting the Blacksad Sketchbook.
Blacksad, and a cat lady with lipstick...
How Did We Miss This?
An older item, which we recently stumbled across: DC Goes Ape is a full-color trade paperback collection released in 2008 by — who else? — DC Comics. It features nearly a dozen excerpts from DC Comics over the decades involving monkey and ape characters in the worlds of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and more. Simian heroes, simian villains, and they’re not even all Gorilla Grond! With writers ranging from Otto Binder to Elliot S! Maggin and E. Nelson Bridwell (and more), and art by the likes of Carmine Infantino, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell — and more. With a great front cover by Art Adams, too. Like we said, this is older now, so take a look around for it.
More Celebrations for the Turtles’ 25th
More items keep turning up in celebration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th anniversary. First up, Mirage Studios present a special re-release of the original TMNT first issue by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, now rendered in full color by long-time Mirage Studios colorist Steve Lavigne.
And then, there’s this… Turtles Forever is a new direct-to-DVD animated feature film, directed by Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine and produced by 4Kids Entertainment. It features a novel concept: What if the ‘new’, gritty, 2000’s animated Turtles (from the 2D animated series, not the 3D theatrical feature) met up with the more cartoony, silly 1980’s animated Turtles (from the original 2D animated TV series, not the live action feature films — stay with us here!). That’s what happens here, thanks to a handy dimensional rift. Not only that, but various other characters from both series show up in the tangle. (Two Aprils! Two Caseys! One each Rocksteady and Bebop!) Turtles Forever was originally scheduled to be released in late October, but as of this writing contractual disputes between Mirage and 4Kids have forced the release to be postponed. Keep your eyes on InFurNation to find out when they work things out. Or, you could follow the film’s story and updates here.
More News From Boom! Studios
First up: It seems that the fans’ reaction to the various Farscape mini-series (plural!) put out by Boom! has been so positive that now it’s going to be an on-going full-color series. What’s more, it’s a series written by the original creator of Farscape, Rockne S. O’Bannon. With art by Keith DeCandido and Will Sliney.
For something completely different, Boom! lets us return to Radiator Springs. The World of Cars: Radiator Springs is a new full-color trade paperback written by Alan J. Porter and illustrated by Magic Eye Studios. It takes place after the events of the Pixar movie. When he returns to Radiator Springs for good, racer Lightning McQueen realizes that everyone knows his story, but he doesn’t know anyone else’s! Tune in while he learns why his fellow anthropomorphic cars came to this little town — and why they stayed.
Disney Goes Boom!
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.
The Return of Far West
How do you take Far West even farther? How do you make Bad Mojo even badder? You do it in full color, that’s how! Far West, of course, is the creation of writer and comic artist Richard Moore — creator of Boneyard and The Pound. It tells the story of Meg, an elven bounty hunter, and her tireless friend Phil, a talking bear, as they ply their trade in a magical Old West unlike any you’ve seen before. Bad Mojo was a popular black & white two-issue Far West miniseries, and now Antarctic Press is re-releasing it in full color as Badder Mojo, a single 48-page graphic novel. In this story, Meg and Phil must split up to track their quarry through the Deadlands, a region of bad magics and perpetual twilight. But then when they discover that a malevolent trickster spirit named Kodiki is after the both of them, it becomes less about the quarry and more about survival!
The Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular
Also known as “The Return of every-one’s favorite heroic chupacabra”. The Perhapanauts comic book series, you may recall, told the story of an elite investigative team, human and non-human (including said chupacabra and a sasquatch) battling against supernatural forces trying to invade our world. Now Todd Dezago (writer), Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall, Fred Hembeck (artists), and of course Image Comics brings us this new full-color one-shot Perhapanauts special the Halloween Spooktacular. Featuring three chilling and thrilling tales and no less than four full-color interior poster-pages.
Return to The Pound!
Antarctic Press presents the return of writer/artist Richard Moore’s The Pound, now graduated from a black & white one-shot to a full-color one-shot! Here’s the press release: “The fur flies in FULL COLOR for Antarctic’s latest release by fan favorite Richard Moore! Chimeras: Genetically-engineered creatures, part human, part animal; faster, stronger and deadlier than both. Kat and Caleb are ‘chims’ scraping out a living in the prison-city known as The Pound, where survival of the fittest is the only law. Created for combat in off-world environments, they are now thieves — the best in the city. There’s no score they won’t take down. But being the best means making enemies, and Kat and Caleb have more than their share. When one of the biggest, Darius Blackeye, hires them to hijack a shipment of high-tech arms, the pair has to wonder what he wants more — the weapons, or to eliminate the competition?” The Pound comes to comic book stores at the end of September.
