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Dino Girls and Grumpy Bears

Recently at a local children’s book store we stumbled across the works of artist and author Ryan T. Higgins. His two most famous series of illustrated books, Mother Bruce and Penelope Rex, are decidedly furry and very, very silly. Which you can probably tell from the title of the first Penelope book, We Don’t Eat Our Classmates. The follow up to that is We Don’t Lose Our Class Goldfish, and check out this opening: “Penelope Rex was seven feet tall and covered in scales. Other than that, she was just like every other kid.” And so it goes, as you can imagine. Check out Mr. Higgins’ web site to see more of what he’s been bringing the world — and what awards he’s been given for it so far.

image c. 2023 Disney Books

Journey ’round the Horn

It’s MIP-COM time again, and that means all sorts of interesting animated TV series showing up and showing off — from all around the world. In this case, it’s a new series out of Lithuania called Stomp! Stomp! Rhinos! Here’s an article from Animation Magazine: “A new animated series about a family of rhinos is ready to teach children how to control their emotions… The series centers on the Rhino family (mom, dad and their three kids who live in a cozy home with their pet tortoise, Bobo) as they navigate life’s little challenges and learn how to manage emotions such as anger, frustration, jealousy, loneliness, etc.” Originally intended as a CGI show, the producers eventually decided that a 2D approach would get their message across better. See? It still works!

image c. 2023 Oak9

Original Art and Original Creatures

More cool people we met at Lightbox this year! Amber Aki Huang is a character designer employed at Dreamworks Animation. According to her web site, “Aki mainly works in Character Design and Visual Development for Pre-Development and Production for feature film and TV. However, Aki has also been known to design for toys.” To that latter end, she has her own brand, Deercat & Friends. It features both art and plushies of two of her original species, the deercat and the snoo, plus more general (often furry!) artwork for sale.

image c. 2023 by Amber Aki Huang

On the Throne in the Palace of the Kingdom of the…

20th Century Studios just dropped the first trailer for The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the “new arc” of ape science fiction movies. (For what looks to be an interesting film, they sure saddled it with a clunky-sounding title. Come on, people! What’s wrong with Kingdom of the Apes?) The official synopsis goes like this: “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.” It’s directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner), who meanwhile is now getting to work on an adaptation of The Mouse Guard! Kingdom is set to be released in theaters on Memorial Day (May 24th) in 2024.

image c. 2023 20th Century Studios

All The Pretty Little Furry Things

Karen Alleluia is a book illustrator and character designer. She says this at her web site: “I am a Filipina-American freelance illustrator who creates charming art that inspires learning and shares messages of positivity. I began my career by having fun with my two chihuahuas, Bandit and Fatboy, and after a year of drawing their funny and relatable adventures, my obsession for storytelling inevitably grew beyond my home setting.” To that end she has created an extensive collection of pins, stickers, charms, plushies, and other original crafts featuring a variety of cute funny animals. Spend some time there.

image c. 2023 by Karen Alleluia

Art Is Not Dead

Another artist we met at Lightbox Expo was Megan Brain — yes that’s her name. Her specialty is an unusual one: Cut and folded paper sculptures. Sounds simple enough, but wait until you see what she does with it! She has been creating amazing and unique works for customers big and small for a while now. And more recently she’s been recreating some of her paper works as collectible pins too.

image c. 2023 by Megan Brain

All the Pretty Animals

This weekend we made a quick stop by the Lightbox Expo, an annual animation industry trade-show in Pasadena, California. Lots and lots of artists showing off their talents there, and lots of animation studios looking for help. Among the former was an artist all the way from France named Julie Mellan. Her specialty is traditional “funny animals” drawn in a very sweet style and colored in traditional inks and watercolors. (She even created the cover for the book The Last Rabbit by Shelley Moore Thomas, which we’ve reviewed here before.) You can see a lot of Ms. Mellan’s work at her web site — or, you can pick up her book Instants — The Art of Julie Mellan, and hold the art in your own two paws!

image c. 2023 by Julie Mellan

The Soldier of Night Returns

If a spooky monster story-line worked once, why not bring it back again? Especially just in time for Halloween! We’ll let Marvel Comics explain this one — they’re better at it than we are. “In the early 90s, Steve Rogers transformed into Capwolf in writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Rik Levins’ unforgettable ‘Man and Wolf’ story arc. [Captain America #402-408. Comic Book Resources has a review — ye ed-otter] Now over 30 years later, Capwolf is back in his own limited series, Capwolf & the Howling Commandos! Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Magno, this four-issue limited series will tell an all-new story where Steve becomes a terrifying werewolf during an early World War II mission. Luckily, his fiercest allies are by his side: Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos! After years of combat, this elite squad of soldiers thought they’ve seen it all but this might be their wildest adventure yet as the series captures the spirit of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s classic wartime storytelling with a modern mystical twist!” The first issue just hit the stands. Start a howl!

image c. 2023 Marvel Comics

Finally Starting to Get Crabby

So to speak… We’ve been hearing about the new CGI film Under The Boardwalk for a while, but mostly about its release getting delayed again and again. (Seems to be a trend these days.) Now thanks to Cartoon Brew we found out it’s actually coming out — in a rather rushed manner, with almost no advertising. The movie will be coming to Paramount+ streaming in a few days, and today it begins a limited run in theaters… while also today, Paramount released the very first trailer to the Internet. ““When timid Jersey crab Armen meets bold tourist sea crab Ramona, it causes shell-shocking tension in the community. But when the duo are swept away by a storm, they embark on an epic journey to find home. Their courage unites their families, paving the way for great summers to come, Under the Boardwalk.” Director David Soren is known for animated films like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and Turbo.

image c. 2023 Paramount Pictures