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Up Against The Spikey One!

Coming this August, Archie Comics presents the 2nd Volume of collected Sonic the Hedgehog stories, this time titled Best of Sonic the Hedgehog: Villains. ” This deluxe new installment to the smash-hit ‘Best of Sonic’ series celebrates twenty years of comics, specials and mini-series with the baddest baddies the Sonic comics have to offer! Heroes are only as good as their villains, and Sonic’s world hosts some of the most fearsome and loathsome characters you love to hate! Root for the bad guy (just this once) in this Best of Villains collection featuring DR. EGGMAN, IXIS NAUGUS, the BABYLON ROUGES and many more in a must-have for any Sonic fan! Plus all-new cover art from Ben Bates with acclaimed painter Dave Devries, and insights from the Sonic creative team!” You heard ’em. Check out this full-color hardcover collection at Amazon.

Image c. 2013 Archie Comics

Adventures in Ugly

After their first appearance in 2001 at San Diego Comic Con and other conventions, the fuzzy little “Ugly Dolls” have become a pop toy phenomenon of their own. Now Viz Media have announced the very first Ugly Dolls series of full-color graphic novels for young readers, starting with Ugly Doll: Goin’ Places this July. From the official press release on Comic Book Resources: “VIZ Media’s Ugly Doll graphic novel series will transport readers to a diverse universe where ‘ugly’ just means unique and different, and celebrating who you are inside and out is the new beautiful. Join Wage™, Babo™, OX™, Ice-Bat™ and their Uglydoll pals as they express themselves through laughs, tears, love and adventure!”

image c. 2013 Viz Media

A Furry Play Needs Funding

Hello again! Back from CaliFur in Southern California. And speaking of that…

We’ve mentioned before about Fursona Non Grata, the new furry-themed play written by Jeff Goode (creator of American Dragon: Jake Long and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues). In case you need a recap: A young woman has been raised by furry fans. One day, she brings home her fiancee’ to meet the family… As it turns out, Jeff and the Sky Pilot Theater Company staged a readers’ theater version of Fursona Non Grata at CaliFur this year — to laughter, thunderous applause, and a standing ovation. The producers of Fursona announced that for the actual on-stage production of the play (scheduled for next year) they are looking to have some actual high-quality fur-suits constructed… and that costs money. So, they have started up an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds. Check it out here to find out more about what they need. And keep your eyes on InFurNation to find out when the play will premier!

image c. 2013 Jeff Goode

Prehistoric Pals with Pluck

Playing in theaters now (in front of several movies) is the trailer for Walking With Dinosaurs: The Movie, produced by BBC Earth (of course) and coming to theaters this December. Interestingly, the producers are taking a somewhat anthropomorphic angle for this 3D CGI film: It’s actually narrated by the dinosaurs themselves as they go about their daily lives. In this story, we meet a young frill-head dinosaur, who is something of a runt in his herd — but who will grow up to be a great leader who will guide them through a dangerous world. The film is directed by Barry Cook (Mulan, Arthur Christmas) and Neil Nightingale (Enchanted Kingdom). Check out the trailer at Animation Scoop.

image c. 2013 BBC Earth

A Boy and His Snake… or Vice Versa

Suddenly everyone is talking about Sanjay and Craig, a new animated TV series on Nickelodeon. It stars the voice of Chris Hardwick (comedian, bowler, and head honcho of The Nerdist Channel on YouTube) as Craig, the best friend of a young suburban boy named Sanjay. Craig, it turns out, just happens to be a talking snake. The Nerdist web site has more details, and you can check out the glowing review at Gerry Beck’s Animation Scoop, also. The series is up and running on Nickelodeon now.

image c. 2013 Nickelodeon

A Little Sympathy for Trolls

Jay P. Fosgitt is a commercial and comic-book artist — among other projects he was the illustrator of Old McMonster’s Haunted Farm (written by Brent Erwin), which we made note of here previously. Now one of Jay’s latest projects (as writer and illustrator) is a full-color comic called Bodie Troll. “Jay’s creator-owned, all-ages comic set in the mythic village of Hagadorn and featuring a grumpy little troll named Bodie. While he aspires to be big and scary, he’s actually cute and cuddly, which confounds his attempts every time.” It’s available now from Red 5 Comics. Check out Jay’s web site to find out more about this and other projects, as well as his commission rates. Yes he does.

image c. 2013 Jay P. Fosgitt

Save the Snakes! Save the World!

Serusis is the title of a new 5-issue full-color comic mini-series coming late in June from Big Dog Ink. “Planet Serusis is under the control of the Reliton army and its ruthless leader, Snogard. In an attempt to save their world, two Serusisans kidnap a group of humans in the hopes that they will be able to access the secrets of the creators of Serusis itself. Four humans versus the Reliton army? Good luck with that.” The Serusisans, by the way, resemble large snakes with terrific hairdo’s. The Relitons are big reptiles too, with four limbs and lots of attitude. This all-ages series is written by Tom Hutchison (Critter) and illustrated by Owen Gieni (Avengelyne). Things From Another World has more.

image c. 2013 Big Dog Ink

Crowdfunding for Furries

Furstarter is a brand new blog created by Corbeau Fundhound. It describes itself as “A weekly look at furry and fur-friendly crowdfunded projects”. Here’s his announcement: “Howdy howdy – I’m working on a blog focused on upcoming furry and fur-friendly kickstarter projects. Just now beginning week 2, so no promises on longevity of this, but I’ve been working on other blog projects for several years now without totally blowing my deliverables. I’m still tweaking the look and feel of the place, it should be a little more visitor-friendly once some of the art commissions I’ve got in place come through, but since by definition the information is time-sensitive I wanted to get content up and running!” Check it out at http://www.furstarter.com.

Animals Think, Animals Write

It’s a new hardcover book called Animals with Sharpies, created by two of the founding members of the world-renowned collective The Royal Art Lodge. Again, we’re going to defer to their description, since we really can’t top it: “Animals with Sharpies is a collection of paintings with hand-lettered texts. In each painting, Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber have depicted an animal holding a Sharpie, ostensibly writing a message. These messages are varied in nature: Political and religious tracts, confessions, recipes, arithmetic problems, and more. Above all, these paintings are funny, but they are also startlingly poignant and jarring for the humanness of the suffering and longing depicted in these animals’ simple words.” Check it out at Amazon. It’s coming to shelves this June.

image c. 2013 Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber