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Marmaduke Strikes!

Happy Easter (yes belated) and welcome to spring, everyone!

The march of CGI-enhanced talking animals continues. This time it’s Marmaduke, that famously over-sized Great Dane from the long-running newspaper strip by Brad Anderson, comes to the big screen this coming June. But this time, Marmaduke talks — with the voice of Owen Wilson, no less. Also in the voice cast are George Lopez (playing a cat this time — fickle!), Fergie (as a collie who catches Marmaduke’s eye), Kiefer Sutherland (as a purebred rottweiler who gives our mutt-ish hero grief), Ron Perlman, Emma Stone, Tom Wilson, and Damon Wayans Jr. Quite a cast. The film was directed by Tom Dey, and is being released by 20th Century Fox. You can check out the trailer on YouTube and elsewhere on the net.

Godzilla Returns in 2012

This will either excite you are make you groan: Legendary Pictures has finally sealed a deal with Toho Company to create a brand-new American Godzilla feature film, schedule for release in 2012. No word yet on a director, writer, human star, or monstrous co-stars for this new film. Some may recall the last time (shudder) that Godzilla emerged from American movie studios under the command of director Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day) and writer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate). At the time the fan response world wide was… less than enthusiastic (and less than pretty). This time around, the folks at Legendary are swearing that they are all Godzilla geeks and that they “get” the appeal of The Big G and his movies. We shall certainly see. You can check out the official Legendary Pictures press release at Rotten Tomatoes.

Captain Long Ears

New from Amaze Ink and Slave Labor Graphics: 8-year-old Michael has lost his father in a terrible accident. Though his mother is consumed by her grief, Michael insists on keeping a birthday tradition: Putting on his rabbit/spaceman costume and going to the local theme park as Captain Long Ears. If his mother won’t go, then Michael will simply go there with his imaginary friend, a purple gorilla named Jam. Trouble ensues, however, when Captain Long Ears and Jam take it upon themselves to rescue the theme park’s prize elephant… whether it wants to be rescued or not. This new black & white graphic novel was written and illustrated by Diana Thung. Look for it in May.

Legends of the Guard… Mice, this time

David Petersen’s award-winning comic and story-book series Mouse Guard gets a new twist, as some of the most creative minds in the world of comic books join him to tell all-new tales in Legends of the Guard, a new 4-issue full-color mini-series (coming this May from Archaia Entertainment). “Inside the June Alley Inn, located in the western mouse city of Barkstone, mice gather to tell tales, each trying to out-do the other. A competition, of sort, begins. The rules: Every story must contain one truth, one lie, and have never been told in that tavern before.” Story-tellers this time around include Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl), Ted Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin), and Alex Sheikman (Robotika). In future issues we’ll see contributions by Katie Cook, Guy Davis, Gene Ha, Sean Rubin, Mark Smylie, and many more.

Training Dragons

Anticipations are running high for Dreamworks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon, which hits movie screens this Friday, March 26th. As of this writing the film has a 100% “fresh” / 0% “rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes.com — likely to go down as more reviews come in, of course, but still one heck of a high to be starting from. Many critics have noted the flying sequences in this 3D CGI film to be especially exciting. If you’ve not heard, the story follows the adventures of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), a young viking in a land constantly at war with various species of fire-breathing dragon. When Hiccup’s new invention — a sort of bolo-catapult — injures a young dragon, the human is surprised to find himself befriending the beast (he names it “Toothless”).  In the process, Hiccup finds out far more about dragons and his own people than he ever expected. Of course, getting humans together with unusual non-human friends is nothing new for directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders: They’re the team that gave us Disney’s Lilo and Stitch.

Surprise Furry Extras

Folks running out to pick up the new DVD/Blue Ray of Spike Jonze’s live-action Where the Wild Things Are will find an interesting extra included: A brand-new short (24 minute) film based on Higglety Pigglety Pop, another book by Maurice Sendak. Using a combination of live action, puppetry, stop-motion animation and more, the film tells the story of Jennie, a fluffy white terrier dog (voiced by Meryl Streep).  When she finds that she is bored and thinks “There must be more to life”, Jennie sets out to become leading lady of the World Mother Goose Theater. Unfortunately, she’s informed that the leading lady has to have experience. And Jennie has no idea what “experience” even is, let alone where to find it! Setting out on a quest for it, Jennie winds up as a nurse-maid for a very strange baby who refuses to eat. And nurse-maids who fail to convince the baby to eat are fed to the ravenous lion living in the basement! Only Maurice Sendak comes up with plots like this, folks… The production company for Higglety Pigglety Pop also created the Oscar-Nominated short film Madame Tutli-Putli. Clips from the former and the latter are up on YouTube.

When Everyone (Literally) Was Doing Funny Animals!

How’s this for a long title: The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics. Whew! Here’s the publisher’s notes: “The first collection of its kind, this huge, luxurious volume lovingly collects the brilliant kids’ comics that such luminaries as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Walt Kelly, Dr. Seuss, Syd Hoff, Jules Feiffer, George Carlson, John Stanley, Dan deCarlo, Sheldon Mayer, Carl Barks, and myriad other brilliant geniuses created during the heyday of kids comics in the 1940s, ’50s, and beyond. Astute comic book fans and their eager kids alike will love the funny and beautiful full-color stories of slap-stick superheroes, fantastic fairy tales, and awesome anthropomorphic animals.” We definitely want to check out the awesome anthropomorphic  animals! Especially with a group like that creating them! This new hardcover full-color collection was edited by Craig Yoe, and it features an introduction by children’s author Mo Willems. It’s coming out from Idea & Design Works at the end of April.

The Stuff of Legend

Love that title! Here’s part of the description from the publisher, Del Rey: “When a child is taken by the fearsome Boogeyman, his loyal toys (including The General, Max the bear, Percy the pig, and others) must rally to stage a daring rescue operation.” This trade paperback graphic novel was written by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith, and illustrated in black & white by Charles Paul Wilson III. It comes to stores this April.

Stuff of Legend cover, c. Del Rey Publishing

Stuff of Legend cover, c. Del Rey Publishing

Coming Soon from Archaia

Archaia Entertainment (not to be confused with Arcana Studio, which we were talking about recently) is bringing out two limited-edition comic books of interest in the near future.  Fraggle Rock #1 is the first of a four-issue full-color miniseries based on the original Jim Henson TV series (of course). Not adaptations of the TV episodes, this comic (starting up in April) will present brand-new adventures of Gobo, Red, Mokey, Boober, Wembly, and all their friends in their underground world. In the future, Archaia will be teaming up with Jim Henson Studios to produce new comic books based on The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, also. Meanwhile, closer to home, we have the preview comic for Berona’s Hundred Year War. The full-color graphic novel by Jesse Labbe and Anthony Coffey is forthcoming, but for now we have this 40-page preview. The Ele-Alta and the Cropones are two races of cute, furry, cuddly creatures… locked in an ages-old war of death and destruction with each other. Can anything break them out of the cycle of war?