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Book

Man of Many Cartoons

Lou Scheimer was co-founder and president of Filmation Animation. Before he passed away last year, he completed his autobiography with the help of comic book writer and historian Andy Mangels. Now it’s been released in trade paperback by TwoMorrows Publishing as Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Best known for Saturday morning staples like The Archies and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Filmation was also responsible for the animated Star Trek series in the 1970’s, as well as for taking us back down the Yellow Brick Road with 1974’s Journey Back to Oz. For better or for worse (depending largely on your opinion of limited animation) there were a lot of anthropomorphic characters who made their way through various Filmation productions. Some of them, like Star Trek’s Lt. Mress, have become Furry icons. Check out Lou’s story — and the story of Filmation and Saturday morning cartoons — at Amazon.

image c. 2014 TwoMorrows Publishing

When Fox Lost Her Heart

New in hardcover this month from Toon Books is a full-color graphic story for younger readers called simply Hearts — written and illustrated by Thereza Rowe.  “When Penelope the Fox drops her heart into the sea, she’s swept off on a perilous journey, dodging sharks and royal cat-guards until a cartwheeling chicken leads her to the land of lost things.” It’s available at Amazon, or you can visit Thereza’s web site to see more of her modernistic anthro designs.

image c. 2014 by Thereza Rowe

Putting the ART in Furry Art

Lisa Hanawalt is a New York-based artist whose illustrations feature humans and anthropomorphic animals in a variety of artistic styles, all in the service of the creator’s wry observations of pop culture and human foibles. Her works have been seen in a variety of publications and on a variety of web sites, as you can see if you visit her home page or her shop on Tumblr. Well now, her works have been gathered together on dead trees in a new hardcover collection, My Dirty Dumb Eyes from Drawn & Quarterly. Check it out at Amazon. It’s also available as a trade paperback.

image c. 2013 by Lisa Hanawalt

Spellsinger: The Movie?

Here’s another one that somehow slipped through the cracks: A group of fans have been working on their own to try and create a movie adaptation of the Spellsinger series of fantasy novels, having secured the rights from writer Alan Dean Foster in 2011. Live action? Animation? Their web site isn’t very clear on that. It also hasn’t been updated since June of 2012, but they do have some interesting development artwork to show. What, you haven’t heard of Spellsinger? Go check it out — and its numerous sequels — right away! It’s one of the most influential furry-themed fantasy series ever created. Trust us.

image c. 2012 by Chris Wahl

And with that, we wish you all a happy and safe New Year. Stay Furry!

Their Friendship is a Little Rusty

“Richly endearing and full of surprises, Robot Dreams follows an ill-fated friendship between a dog and robot. After a Labor Day jaunt to the beach leaves Robot rusty and immobilized in the sand, Dog, unsure what to do, abandons him. As the seasons pass, Dog tries to replace his friend, making and losing a series of new ones, from a melting snowman to epicurean anteaters. Meanwhile, Robot passes his time daydreaming, escaping to better places…Through interwoven journeys, the two characters long to recover from their day at the beach.” Thanks to :01 First Second, this classic full-color graphic novel by Sara Varon is in print once again. It’s available in softcover on Amazon and elsewhere.

image c. 2013 :01 First Second

Cat of the Living Dead

This probably would have made more sense back around Halloween, but… Pick your own horror adventure: On four paws! “Inspired by the gamebook fad of the 80’s, You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! is the much-anticipated sequel to the first book in the Pick-a-Plot series, You Are a Cat! Lavishly illustrated from the first-person feline floor purrspective, the furightening and appawling You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! is a horror tail that will stalk you, surround you and eat you alive.” This very strange black & white paperback graphic novel — where you choose on each page which horrible experience you have next — is available now on Amazon. It’s written and illustrated by Sherwin Tija, and published by Conundrum Press.

image c. 2013 Conundrum Press

It’s Time to Light the Lights

Since 2009, artist and writer Roger Langridge has been playing in Jim Henson’s world by creating various comic book series featuring the Muppets for Boom! Studios. Titles like The Muppets, The Muppet Show, and The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson. Now, over at Marvel Comics, they’ve announced that all of these titles have been brought together to be released in march in a new hardcover collection, The Muppets Omnibus.  The Comic Book Resources page has a more complete preview of this full-color collection, coming next year on the Disney Comics imprint.

image c. 2013 Disney Comics

Righty-O!

Felix the Cat, the creation of Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer, is perhaps one of the most famous and long-lived cartoon animals ever — pre-dating even Mickey Mouse. In the 1950’s, Joe Oriolo created a well-known series of cartoon shorts for Trans Lux Productions, which helped to bring Felix and his friends (and enemies!) to a new generation. Since the 1980’s, control of the “Felix Empire” has belonged to Joe’s son, Don Oriolo. Don has overseen the creation and distribution of Felix’s image on numerous products and in numerous media. Many of the images of Felix used for these were drawn and painted by Don himself.  Now, IDW Publishing have collected Don Oriolo’s works together in a new full-color hardcover book, Felix the Cat Paintings. Check it out at Amazon, before it hits the shelves early next year. The book features a forward by comic book historian Craig Yoe, as well as essays from cartoon aficionados like Jerry Beck, Mark Evanier, David Gerstein, and Paul Castiglia.

image c. 2013 Don Oriolo

Cats Are Weird

As if that were news to anyone! Well, just in case  you weren’t sure, comic strip artist Jeffrey Brown is here to tell  you about it in his collection called, appropriately enough, Cats Are Weird and More Observations. Published back in 2010 (somehow we missed it!), this hardcover collection brings together both black & white and color observations of a pair of felines as they learn about the worlds both inside and out. Earlier, back in 2009, Jeffrey had success with his first cat-themed collection, Cat Getting Out of a Bag.  You can see both of these books at Jeffrey’s Amazon page. More recently, he’s made a name for himself with the popular Darth Vader and Son comic strip series.

image c. 2013 Jeffrey Brown