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Beasts From A Master

We’ll admit it: We don’t recall this artist. But maybe we should learn more! And now we can, thanks to The Sergio Toppi Gallery: Bestiary. “This collection of artwork from European comics master Sergio Toppi focuses on illustrations of beasts both real and imaginary, presented in Toppi’s inimitable pen-and-ink style. Sergio Toppi’s work has been hailed as an influence by such artistic masters as Sean Gordon Murphy and Walter Simonson.” Magnetic Press has preview pages for this hardcover edition. [And with that, we wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Blessed Solstice Season!]

image c. 2022 Magnetic Press

A Dog is Forever

The enduring bond of pets and humans is showcased in this new one-shot comic from It’s Alive. “Writer John Holland, along with artist Hernan Gonzalez, delivers a moving love letter to dogs in A Girl and Her Dog. Evie is ‘the girl’ and Max is ‘her dog’. In time-tossed bits and pieces, we see her life from age 15 to 84. Max is there for all the important moments of her life, even after his life has ended. Don’t miss this life-affirming tale, which speaks to the power of love, even in the face of death.” It’s available now in stores.

image c. 2022 It’s Alive

Psychedelic Pfurries

Another artist we met at MidWest FurFest was Mal Hodgkin. They describe themselves and their work like this: “I like to create work of mostly animals and creatures and make them all the wrong colors! I’m inspired by psychedelic/70’s art, animation, old world illustration, and tattoo design.” You can definitely see those influences on their web site! What’s more, you can take home the results on t-shirts, hats, patches, and other goodies available through their Etsy store.

image c. 2022 by Mal Hodgkin

A School for Dragons?

At a recent convention we met self-published fantasy author Amy Wolf. We’ll let her describe A School For Dragons, the first book in her Cavernis series: “Mattie Sharp was never special–except when it came to getting in trouble. Then, she was exceptional. So when she falls into a portal and winds up in dragon-filled Cavernis, imagine her surprise when she discovers she’s the heir to a magical prophesy and must train to be the hero she never thought she could be. Though Mattie has always been a top student, studying at a school for dragons puts even her to the test! Join Mattie and her crew of new friends as they learn not just how to survive in the world of dragons, but to save it as well.” Ms. Wolf has many other fantasy titles for sale as well, and not all of them feature talking dragons. But some of them sure do!

image c. 2022 Lone Wolf Press

They Do Anything. Really.

We stumbled across an ad for Lee’s Detective Agency, a new anime mini-series that’s a spinoff of the popular Arknights smart-phone game and anime series. Set in the same multi-species dystopian world, if follows the exploits of “…an odd jobs business in guise of a private investigation firm based in [the city of] Lungmen that is run by the namesake Mr. Lee and his personal, close-knit ‘family’.” We’re not sure how it works either, but it’s coming soon (December 23rd) on Crunchyroll, and they’ve got the trailer up for you to see.

image c. 2022 Yostar Pictures

Darkness in the City of Fur… and Scales

At Midwest FurFest we met Stacy Bender. She’s a science fiction and fantasy author based in Cincinnati, Ohio. As you can see from her Amazon page, many of her works have a degree of anthropomorphism to them… But what she’s especially known for is the Poached Parody series of furry noir novels (written under the name P.C. Hatter), featuring hard-boiled detectives Lucius Anoraq (wolf), Kaiser Wrench (tiger), and Lizard Fifth (guess!). Most of her works are available in paperback, kindle, and even audio book form, from Byrnas Books.

image c. 2022 Byrnas Books

It’s A Lost Art

There’s no stopping the Transformers movie series, it seems, but now something new has definitely been added — Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, due next year, is based on none other than the 90’s animated series Transformers: Beast Wars, where the whole series went severely furry for a time. Nerdist has the teaser trailer. Good old Optimus Primal is prominently featured (voiced this time by Ron Perlman), but look swiftly and you’ll see Cheetor, Rinox, Dinobot, and Airazor. No sign of Rat Trap yet, but who knows? The film is due in theaters in June of 2023.

image c. 2022 Paramount Pictures

The Internet Is For… Cats

Recently got this from Animation World Network: “Disney Branded Television and Emmy Award-winning Baobab Studios have begun development, with award-winning screenwriter Pamela Ribon, on Intercats, an animated sitcom set in a cat workplace… Baobab’s co-founder and chief creative officer, Eric Darnell (Baba Yaga, Madagascar, Antz), is the creator and executive producer on Intercats…  Jony Chandra (Nimona, Spies in Disguise) will direct… Told through the big reflective eyes of cats, Intercats is a four-quadrant animated workplace comedy about the cats who produce the hysterical cat videos that go viral on the Internet. It features a ragtag team of cats aspiring to get what all cats want: their independence. But, to do so, they must first learn to navigate their own internal relationships and build upon their success as the premier studio for viral cat videos.” Interestingly, Pamela Ribon is also the writer of My Boyfriend Is A Bear, which we’ve talked about previously here.

image c. 2022 YouTube

Creatures, Piece by Piece

Judith Peterson describes her background as coming from education and library science. But along the way she’s found an interesting hobby: Carving original 3D puzzles out of wood. Lucky for us, most of her designs are animals: Current, prehistoric, or mythical. The puzzles range in complexity from 3 pieces to 57 pieces (!). She and her husband have even written books on how to create wooden puzzles using scroll saws. We found them vending at Midwest FurFest, but you can check out FanTaminals’ web site to see the latest designs.

image c. 2022 FanTaminals