No, it’s not a big budget re-make of Night of the Lepus. You wish. No, in 2013 the well-known card game Killer Bunnies (created by Jeff Bellinger and published by Playroom Entertainment) marked its 10th anniversary. In celebration, Playroom have recently released a new game, Killer Bunnies: Heroes vs. Villains. Here’s there description: “Drawing and playing cards from a shared deck, players may choose to be a defender of goodness, courageousness and virtue by playing the Hero Super Bunnies or a generator of chaos, evilness and deceit by playing the Villain Super Bunnies. Whoever they are, the players use their bunnies’ powers to build cities, attack opponents, and protect themselves. The first player who has a predetermined number of bunnies in the Bunny Circle and cities in the City Circle wins!” Playroom’s Killer Bunnies web site has more, including sample artwork from the game.
Werewolves in the Big Easy
We can’t put this any better than they do at Dark Horse: “Cassian Steele is the boss of the werewolf mafia in the Big Easy, and he’s got a problem. The old witch Verona knows his secret and has gone into hiding. Cassian wants her dead. So he sends out the word: An open contract. The first monster to dust Verona gets a big payday. What no one realizes is that Barnabus Black, a demon desperately trying to regain his halo, is her protection.” Kiss Me, Satan! is a new full-color miniseries written by Victor Gischler (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike—A Dark Place) and illustrated by Juan Ferreyra (Colder). Find out a lot more at Comic Book Resources. Then look for the premier this September.
Two Adventurous Mice
More from the MIPTV convention, as reported by Animation Magazine: “Global entertainment company DQ Entertainment and Foothill Europe Limited have announced an agreement to develop, co-produce and distribute CG-animated buddy comedy Raz & Benny… The stereoscopic-3D CGI show is created by U.K.-based director Simon Hodgkiss of Rockkiss DME and follows two mice whose ambitions are bigger than their brains, but whose good luck is as endless as their friendship. With their eccentric pal Lilly, dare-devil Raz and cautious Benny are always off on one adventure or another–whether posing as international spies, scuba-diving submarine rescuers or jungle explorers.” Vimeo has a preview video that includes an animatic of Foothill’s development work.
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.
Ponies of Evil!
After working for years in the gaming industry (as an illustrator on such games as Legend of the Five Rings and World of Darkness), the artist Heather V. Kreiter has created her own line of rather scary-looking pony-themed merchandise under the moniker of My Little Demon. Featuring ponies with such names as Satana, Wretched Rainbow, and Velvet Decay, these mouse pads, blankets, aprons, and other products will keep you up at night with a weird combination of cuteness and chills. Check out her sales page at Cafe press to find out just how many products in how many designs she offers!
New Disney Animals… with Clothes!
Still working our way through San Diego Comic Con discoveries, but now we have this BIG news from Disney’s D23 Expo to talk about. During the opening day presentation on upcoming animated movies (including Disney’s Frozen and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur), Disney made an announcement about a new animated film called Zootopia, which is scheduled for release in 2016. Check out this summary from Slash Film: “Tangled director Byron Howard will direct the film from a script by Jared Bush. They’ve been working for the last year and a half on the project, spurred in in part by a love of the Disney Robin Hood feature. Howard wanted to do a film with animals in clothing. They hope to continue ‘Disney’s amazing legacy of animal-based animated films’… We’ve seen movies featuring animals in the natural world, and in the human world, but we’ve never seen animals in a modern world designed by animals. What would animals do differently than humans would? So the filmmakers talked to experts, from anthropologists to safari guides to imagineers as they began to design an animal civilization which is ‘distinctly animal’.” Are you excited yet? We are! Here’s the plot: “In the animal city of Zootopia, a fast-talking fox who’s trying to make it big goes on the run when he’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Zootopia’s top cop, a self-righteous rabbit, is hot on his tail, but when both become targets of a conspiracy, they’re forced to team up and discover even natural enemies can become best friends.” Check out the rest at Slash Film. And see you in 2016!
Dragons Help You Learn
Jump Start is a creative company best known for designing and developing games that help to teach young children the basics of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Since 1991 they’ve released several lines of teaching games under the banners of Jump Start and Math Blaster. More recently though, Jump Start has hitched up with Dreamworks Animation to create a new line of teaching software and on-line games based on the Madagascar series of animated movies. Yes, kids even learn from the penguins! The first release is called Madagascar Preschool Surf n Slide. Even more recently, there’s a new line of on-line games based on How to Train Your Dragon called School of Dragons. Check it all out at the Jump Start web site.
Paint Your Face, I’m Sure!
Debi Winger is another artist and illustrator who was showing her works at San Diego Comic Con this year. She specializes in funny animal art and Latin American-style illustrations, which she has available on a series of prints from various media. Interestingly, she also travels to various events employing her talents as a face-painter. Check out her Facebook page, Debi’s Doodles, to see some of her latest works — on paper and on people!