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The Evolution of The Mouse

Needless to say there have been many, many books over the years (official and otherwise) showing you how to draw your favorite characters from Disney Animation. This latest book from the famous Walter Foster art how-to series takes a little different tack: How the look of Mickey Mouse and some of the most well-known Disney characters has evolved over time since they were first created. “A collection of vintage artwork from the Disney archives reveals early designs, sketches, and poses of Mickey Mouse as well as other classic characters such as Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck. Learn to Draw Mickey Mouse & Friends Through the Decades creates the opportunity for an artistic celebration of the world’s most beloved mouse, by bringing together a collection of step-by-step projects and inspirational illustrations for rendering these timeless characters as they originally appeared. Featuring 128 pages of art instruction material, this title makes a covetable collector’s item for any loyal Disney enthusiast or aspiring artists interested in learning to draw in classic cartoon style.” Learn to Draw Mickey Mouse & Friends Through the Decades (whew, long title!) is coming next year to Amazon and other sellers.

image c. 2014 Walter Foster Publishing

image c. 2014 Walter Foster Publishing

Just Give Him Your Socks And Everything’s Fine

Ndbag is a boogeyman, but not the scary people-eating kind. No, he’d much rather eat one of your dirty socks — usually the left one. Ndbag the Boogeyman lives in the closet clothes hamper of a little girl named Mylene. He’s made friends with her favorite plushie: A panda named Pandaman. They get along so well that Ndbag created his very own panda costume which he calls Pandabag. The little blue boogeyman is also “frenemies” with ZK, a fluffy dryer goblin who much prefers clean socks and munching on lint. Are you getting all of this? It all comes from the mind of Austrian artist E.F. Gludovacz, and you can find out more in the first Ndbag the Boogeyman book as well as the regularly-updated web comic… all at the official web site.

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

Nine Lives, Many Adventures

Sometimes it’s best to just let the thing speak for itself: “Allison Breaking is a talented journalist with her own blog and a lot of bills to pay, so when she receives an offer from a mysterious stranger named Burma to write his memoirs, it’s an offer she can’t refuse, not even with all the red flags popping up. But Burma is quite literally unlike any man Allison’s ever known – because he’s a cat. And this cat has stories to tell about how he (over the course of a few lifetimes) has shaped the world – and another, darker story that Allison must risk all to uncover… a story of what this particular cat has been doing with the last of his nine lives.” That’s the story of I Was The Cat, written by Paul Tobin and illustrated in full color by Benjamin Dewey. The hardcover graphic novel is coming this August from Oni Press.

Image c. 2014 Oni Press

Image c. 2014 Oni Press

The Lion Blocks

Perhaps it was inevitable that someone would turn Lego toys’ popular anthropomorphic fantasy series Legends of Chima into a comic book — and Papercutz were the ones to do it. No less than three volumes of Lego: Legends of Chima have hit the stands now, in both hardcover and trade paperback editions. They’re written by Yannick Grotholt with full-color art by Comicon (yes, that’s the name). “Chima— a world reigned by animal tribes, divided by the battle of the noble lions against the evil crocodiles. In High Risk [Volume 1] Laval, prince of the Lions and his friend Eris, a warrior of the Eagle Tribe, engage in a training race on their Speedorz. As the two speed through the jungle, they stumble upon a Gorilla convoy transporting CHI that is being attacked by the Crocodiles. Will Laval and Eris save their Gorilla friends? Or will they become Crocodile Meat?” Papercutz has a web site dedicated to the series.

image c. 2014 Papercutz

image c. 2014 Papercutz

Dragons Call Her Mom

Andrews McMeel publishing presents Dragon Girl: The Secret Valley, a new trade paperback graphic novel written and illustrated by Jeff Weigel. “Eleven-year-old Alanna and her older brother Hamel are orphans and doing their best to take care of each other until one day Alanna stumbles upon a cave full of dragon eggs. When the eggs hatch with no mother dragon in sight, Alanna decides to take care of the babies herself, even creating a clever costume so that the babies think she, too, is a dragon. With their large appetites and accidental fire burps, Alanna learns that dragon babies are hard work! And when a mama dragon finally comes to claim the babies, Alanna’s costume is so convincing that she is swept along for the ride as they journey to Dragon Rock, a mysterious magnetic force that draws dragons of all shapes and sizes to a magical, untouched valley.” It’s available now, and over at Comic Book Resources they have more of the story.

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

And One More Little Bear

Robert Aragon is a fine arts painter employed in Hollywood. But in his free time he created his first book, A Tiny Teddy Named Cuds. This little bear is not only a childhood friend, he’s a dreamer: He dreams of a world bigger than his room, and he dreams of being bigger than a little bear. And we follow along with his full-color adventures in his imagination. All of which you can see in the book, which is available at Tiny Teddy Press.

image c. 2014 Robert Aragon

image c. 2014 Robert Aragon

Speaking of Bears… *Ahem*

What features the likes of Prozac Bear, Crack Bear, Lech Bear, and Death Bear, among others? Why it’s Bear Nuts, a full-color on-line comic strip by Canadian artist Alison Acton. Surprisingly nice for their many… quirks, these odd bears live in a magical realm where they all learn to get along… and not disgust the neighbors.  It’s all part of Studio Dooomcat, an on-line art collective (with prints, t-shirts, and more) started by Alison and Jim Charalampidis. Check out their web site, and follow the links to find the first two volumes of the collected Bear Nuts, available from DMF Comics.

image c. 2014 by Alison Acton

image c. 2014 by Alison Acton

Bear Be Pirates Here

Earlier this year the artist known as Travis Hanson (creator of fantasy comic The Bean) ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign for his new project, Tanner Jones and the Quest for the Monkey Stone. ” Turns out, he more than doubled what he was asking for! So, the new full-color 60-page book will be shipping this June, according to his web site. So what’s it about? “It’s about a boy named Tanner Jones and his adventure to find the Monkey Stone. Something he just can’t do alone, so he enlists the help of the greatest treasure hunters around: The pirate bears of the Scrawny Duck. It’s a journey to an uncharted isle, full of mystery and danger, but most of all just pure fun and the importance of following one’s dreams.”

image c. 2014 by Travis Hanson

image c. 2014 by Travis Hanson

Cats… In… SPACE!

Galacticat is a regularly-updated black & white on-line comic story about a cat in space named Wallace… with a little bird named Elpy. It’s written by Gene Goldstein and illustrated by Kasey Williams — and the pair make regular appearances at various comic book and anime conventions. What’s more, the first 10 chapters of Galacticat have been collected in a pair of books, Volume 1 and Volume 2, available on both Amazon and Createspace. There’s information about ordering each of them on the Galacticat web site, as well as the latest pages of the story.

image c. 2014 by Kasey Williams

image c. 2014 by Kasey Williams