Meadowhawk is an on-line black & white comic strip created by Nicole Johnson — aka, the artist Ribnose (check her out at FurAffinity). The comic strip deals with dragons — but dragons of a decidedly modern nature, in a decidedly modern world. “Modern dragons who, if asked to account for dragon lore, would cluelessly click to the same wikis you or I would for a quick refresher. Dragons for whom words like ‘pillage’, ‘slay’ and ‘burninate’ are the names of faraway concepts, found only in musty histories of dubious accuracy. These are dragons who have only been around as long as you or I (so far). They know as much about their Middle Ages forbears as we know about our tribal ancestors. Heck, they barely remember a time before the Internet.” The comic is updated several times a month, and guest artists have been known to stop in and do a strip or two — so to speak. Take a look at Meadowhawk.net for the latest.
Web Sites
Spellsinger: The Movie?
Here’s another one that somehow slipped through the cracks: A group of fans have been working on their own to try and create a movie adaptation of the Spellsinger series of fantasy novels, having secured the rights from writer Alan Dean Foster in 2011. Live action? Animation? Their web site isn’t very clear on that. It also hasn’t been updated since June of 2012, but they do have some interesting development artwork to show. What, you haven’t heard of Spellsinger? Go check it out — and its numerous sequels — right away! It’s one of the most influential furry-themed fantasy series ever created. Trust us.
And with that, we wish you all a happy and safe New Year. Stay Furry!
Your Face as a Furry
How would you like to appear as a red panda character on Skype, Twitch, or other services that use a web cam? That’s the idea behind FaceRig, a new program under development at Holotech Studios which allows anyone with a web cam to appear as an animated character. In addition to the red panda, the current characters available include a leathery demon, an anime girl, and a beefy human soldier — but they have plans to add more characters as the program is developed further. It all works through cutting-edge face-tracking technology that the developers have created. Check out the demo video over on YouTube. Meanwhile the developers have an IndieGoGo campaign started up to help them get the venture capital they need to bring this program out on the market.
New Furry Adventurers
We just caught wind of True-Tail, a new flash animation furry fantasy series in pre-production from the folks at Skynamic Studios. Can’t tell you much about it yet, other than the fact it takes place in Splitpaw, “… a land of magic, adventure, and fantastical creatures… where six unruly mercenaries must learn to work together or succumb to an ancient dark magic”. You can see their first preview video on YouTube, or find out more about them at their Facebook Page. Also, their main True-Tail page has sign-ups for a newsletter to keep up with progress on the production.
A Rat, a Pig, and a Lawyer Walk Into a Space Bar…
Pearls Before Swine is a full-color on-line comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis — who was formerly a lawyer in California. “At its heart, Pearls Before Swine is the comic strip tale of two friends: An arrogant Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn’t know any better. Together, this pair offers caustic commentary on humanity’s quest for the unattainable. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams says that Pearls is ‘one of the few comics that makes me laugh out loud.'” Well there you have it. There have been several paperback book collections of Pearls Before Swine comic strips; the latest one, Rat’s Wars, is coming from Andrews McMeel Publishing this October. Check it out over at Amazon. And check out the comic itself over at GoComics.
Another Animal Rock Band for Kids!
The British power-metal band known as Ascension have started up a side project: A cartoon band dedicated to making some rockin’ tunes for little listeners. Yes, in the tradition of Hevisaurus (look it up!) it’s time for Sharky Sharky, the undersea band! Their stated purpose: “”Kids don’t have much to listen to today, no real live bands to look up to. They have One Direction, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus…all artists who glorify love, fashion and popularity – all things kids shouldn’t have to worry about right now, especially when enjoying music!” You can check out Sharky Sharky’s first four songs on Sound Cloud, or on their Facebook page.
Be Careful Playing with Magick
Lee and Paul are two buddies at a mid-sized university. When the school receives a large collection of ancient artifacts, mysterious and dangerous events begin to happen — events which lead our heroes into entirely new lives and forms as mystical protectors! That’s the premise of Loop & Hoodie, a weekly web comic written by Adron Buske and illustrated by Dan Cassity and Travis Nuckolls. Why mention it here? Well it turns out that Lee — in his form known as “Loop” — transforms into a large anthropomorphic foo-dog. He just looks like a big werewolf — hence his name! Check it out at www.loopandhoodie.com.
The Flim Flam Man
Bill Robinson is an animator and illustrator living in the Bay Area in California. He’s currently a lead artist at Kabam, where he helps to create social massively multi-player online games like Dragons of Atlantis. At his personal web site. FlimFlammery.com, you’ll find other examples of Mr. Robinson’s illustration projects, including several children’s books and fantasy works. Turns out he even illustrated a tie-in book for the animated film HOP.