Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Jen Ena is another artist we met at WonderCon (it’s good for those!) As you’ll see on her web site she specializes in highly-stylized fantasy portraits of fairy folk and magical women. But, if you follow the links to her “Miniatures”, you’ll see her other skill: Creating really, really small paintings of kittens, little dogs, and other fuzzy things. Many of which you can purchase at her Big Cartel store.
Image c. 2018 by Jel Ena
Braden Duncan is an illustrator who creates watercolor-style works under the name Clockwork Art. According to her web site, her main artistic muse is a black kitten named Diesel. The kitten certainly turns up in much of her artwork! (There are a pair of grey kittens who just joined the household, and they’ve been making appearances too.) She also has an affinity for birds — and, as you can probably guess from her moniker, a thing for steampunk. Much of her work is available as prints or ‘fridge magnets from her Etsy Store.
image c. 2018 by Braden Duncan
That’s the official slogan of Joan Marie, a fine artist we met at WonderCon. She works in a pastel watercolor style, creating works of many animal species (mammals, birds, and more) and fantasy creatures as well. And, as you can see at her web shop, she offers those works on a variety of items — not only the standard t-shirts , tote bags, and mugs but dresses and pant-suits as well.
image c. 2018 by Joan Marie
Bored Inc. is the interesting name chosen by an art collective we met at WonderCon. Here’s how they describe themselves on their web site: “We are a mother & daughter design team creating super cute characters on lots of different products. We hope our characters make you happy and encourage you to explore your creativity and imagination!” They are especially adept at fantasy enamel pins, featuring their character “Afro-Cat” and others. Not to mention magnets, buttons, stickers, and other goodies.
image c. 2018 Bored Inc
You just know that anything from a publisher called Plotless Comics is going to be interesting, right? Well that’s the home of Walrus-Rabbit, created by Matt Marchetti (the actual title is much much longer but we’ll leave it at that), and SadoCat, created by Cory Patten. Needless to say things are not very serious but are very very strange in these funny animal superhero comics. Read all about these characters and more at their Plotless web site.
image c. 2018 Plotless Comics
Hey, remember Tentacle Kitty? The little plushie feline with 10 wiggly things? Well she’s been growing in popularity, enough that now Dark Horse Press bring us the Tentacle Kitty Coloring Book. “Tentacle Kitty, or ‘Pink One’ as she was called in her tribe, is a kitty from another dimension, that happens to have tentacles. After a series of unfortunate event, she is trapped on Earth trying to find a way home. Armed with ten tentacles, an adventurous spirit, and new friends, what could go wrong?” Featuring 96 pages of art by the likes of John Merritt, Amy King, Yishan Li, Brittney Williams, Aubrey Aiese, and Rootis Tabootus, it wiggles its way onto book shelves this coming May.
image c. 2018 Dark Horse Press
Check out this bio: “Matt Laney is an ordained minister with a lifelong interest in world religion, wisdom traditions, martial arts, big cats and middle grade literature”. That might explain the spiritual slant behind Reverend Laney’s first fantasy series for young readers, Pride Wars. The first book, The Spinner Prince, is out now in hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “In the scientific realm of Singara, where feline humanoids rule, fiction is forbidden. Those caught telling stories lose their tongues before being exiled. Heir to the throne, thirteen-year-old Prince Leo, is cursed with the “fiction affliction,” the unpredictable, uncontrollable habit of telling stories. Worse, the stories carry a dangerous power, leaving creatures behind who cause trouble and threaten to expose Leo’s affliction. Meanwhile, Leo’s elder cousin is making his move to seize the throne and the enemy beyond the Great Wall, another feline race called Maguar, are rising up. Will Leo claim the throne from his rival (and keep his tongue) before his curse is revealed? Or will he embrace his ability as a gift and discover a far greater destiny among the Maguar?” Check it out over at Kirkus Reviews.
image c. 2018 Houghton Mifflin
Screen Daily has an article about 10 Lives, a new CGI feature film created by some familiar names. “The film is the second to be produced as part of a joint venture between Chinese animation outfit Original Force and GFM Animation. The first, Duck Duck Goose, will be distributed in China by Wanda Pictures and in the UK by Entertainment Film Distributors… 10 Lives is produced by Penney Finkelman Cox (Shrek) and Adam Zhang, senior vice president of Original Force. The story follows a once scrawny shelter kitten that now leads a pampered life after being adopted. Everything changes when he loses his ninth life. In the afterlife, he escapes and cheats his way into another cycle of nine lives, but he doesn’t realise that each of the nine lives will see him return as a different animal.” As you can see from the article, the film has already set up distribution throughout much of the world — but no word yet about North America. You can just bet, though, that a US or Canada deal is going to hinge on how well Duck Duck Goose does at the box office later this year.
image c. 2018 GFM Animation
Two talented and award-winning creators who have worked on The Simpsons comics now turn their eyes to a funny animal science fiction adventure with Sparks!, a new full-color graphic novel. Written by Ian Boothby and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto, Sparks! goes like this: “August is a brilliant inventor who is afraid of the outside. Charlie is a crack pilot who isn’t afraid of anything. Together these pals save lives every day. They also happen to be cats who pilot a powerful, mechanical dog suit! Always eager to leap into danger, this feline duo have their work cut out for them as they try to thwart Princess, an evil alien bent on enslaving mankind. Don’t let the fact that Princess looks like a cute, diaper-wearing baby fool you. She’s clever, determined, and totally ruthless. So when Princess and the browbeaten fools she calls servants enact a brilliant and dastardly plan to conquer Earth, August and Charlie pull out all the stops to save the day.” Check out the preview video over on YouTube. The book is available now in hardcover and softcover from Graphix.
image c. 2018 Graphix
