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Cats

It Always Comes Back to the Cat…

Rachel Dukes is a busy comic book illustrator who works for Boom! Studios on titles like Garfield. But in her “free time” she’s also busy being the best human friend of her own cat named Frankie. She’s spun off Frankie’s adventures around the house into her award-winning on-line comic strip, Frankie Comics. You can see the latest at her web site.  There you’ll also find a link to her publishing company, MixTape Comics, where she sells not only paper collections of Frankie Comics but also posters, buttons, stickers, and other Frankie goodies.

image c. 2015 by Rachel Duke

image c. 2015 by Rachel Dukes

So Kyoot It Hurts

How could you not notice a web site with a name like bekyoot.com? And it’s newly redesigned to boot. “BeKyoot is inspired by life, laughter, and the pursuit of cuteness. There is a story behind every character – a life of whimsy and simplicity sure to set a smile on your face. Many of the characters are based off of real life animals and experiences. The first BeKyoot artbook and webcomic compilation are currently in production along with the first of many children’s books.” Right now though there’s a collection of t-shirts and other clothes, plushy critters, art prints, and other products available.

image c. 2015 bekyoot.com

image c. 2015 bekyoot.com

Monsters at Play. Literally.

It’s time we checked in again with the artist Chet Phillips. Known for his fanciful anthro-primates (he even did a whole collector-card game based on evil monkeys!), now cats and even kaiju are turning up more and more in his works.  (Kaiju are giant monsters stomping all over Japan, in case you forgot!) Recently he created a collectible card set based on kaiju baseball players, as well as the usual prints and other artistic stuff. Go visit his Etsy store to see what we’re talking about, and hopefully this will all make a lot more sense!

image c. 2015 by Chet Phillips

image c. 2015 by Chet Phillips

Castle By Design, Animals On Your Stuff

Ed Roeder and Ruth Castillo-Roeder are two artists living in Southern California who happen to be married. They sell their works together at a web site called Castle By Design. He works mostly in paintings, she works mostly in photography. Most likely his works are going to be the ones that furry fans will take note of — as you can see by the t-shirt design below! He also has a collection of illustrated postcards and even i-phone cases for sale.

image c. 2015 by Ed Roeder

image c. 2015 by Ed Roeder

A Feline Detective. In Space.

Leon is the creation of author Pati Nagle, first appearing in her science fiction novel Pet Noir from Book View Cafe (check it out over at Amazon). Now Kymera Press have adapted Pet Noir as a full-color comic book series with art by by Anna G, Laurie Foster, and Liezl Buenaventura. “Feline investigator Leon has opposable thumbs, the ability to talk, and is possibly the most dangerous cat in the galaxy. Indentured to the Security department of Gamma Station until he’s worked off the cost of his ‘creation’, Leon alternates between harassing his human partner and roommate Devin and fighting sleazy criminals, yet he still finds time to flirt with the lovely Leila, an exotic Burmese. Will he win her heart, and more importantly, will he win his freedom?” The first issue is available now.

image c. 2015 Book View Cafe

image c. 2015 Book View Cafe

Animals Along for the Ride

When anthropomorphic characters aren’t the star of the show, the most common place to find them is as a human character’s sidekick. Such is the case with two more pre-school animated TV series on their way to Netflix in the near future. First up there’s Kazoops (from Cheeky Little studio) in 2016, which “…follows the inquisitive young boy Monty and his best friend, a pig named Jimmy Jones, as they seek answers to the questions children routinely ask about everyday life.” There’s a teaser trailer over at Cartoon Brew. Then in 2017 look for True & the Rainbow Kingdom from Guru Studio: It stars a young girl who “…with the help of her best friend Bartleby the cat navigates the magical Rainbow Kingdom using her creativity and ingenuity in search of harmony and love for all.”

image c. Cheeky Little

image c. Cheeky Little

The Nordguard Expanding

And more from Tempe O’Kun: The author and designer has been hard at work on a new expansion set for the card game based on Nordguard — the award-winning graphic novel created by the artist collective known as Blotch. “Developed directly with Blotch, Nordguard: Tribes of the White Land is an all-new fully-canon expansion for Nordguard: The Card Game. The entire original ThinkTank Games development team came back to work on this set. Includes exclusive new Blotch and Chromamancer art, as well as art from the upcoming Nordguard: Under Dark Skies. This 36-card set will be for sale at Sofawolf Press’s table at Anthrocon and later on their site for $12. With Nordguard: Tribes, we throw players into a new side of the Nordguard setting. Caught between savage strays and strange settlers, the wolf, lynx, and caribou tribes have a thousand-year head start on both. Friend or foe, they’re the unequaled masters of that lethal environment. We brought in an archaeologist specializing in the real-life equivalents of these cultures—advising our artists on everything from the carvings on their Items to the structures on the Locations. If you’re looking to spice up your Nordguard game, don’t miss this expansion.”

image c. 2015 ThinkTank Games

image c. 2015 ThinkTank Games

Award-Winning Art and Stories

Ursa Major Award winner Rukis recently announced a new set of books coming out from FurPlanet. Following the award-winning novel Off the Beaten Path and its sequel, Lost on Dark Trails, the third book in the trilogy comes out this July. In The Long Road Home, “Shivah’s journey continues, taking her not only across a country she never truly knew, but soon the oceans, as well.  She finds herself journeying to a distant land, but even so far from home, she can’t hide from her grief, or the anger eating away at her heart.” Also this July comes a collection of full-color mature-themed art that Rukis and Myenia created for their popular Menagerie series.  Check out over at FurPlanet’s web site to find out more.

image c. 2015 by Rukis

image c. 2015 by Rukis

The Cat Will Be A Knight

Caterwall is a fantasy comic series created, written, and illustrated by Spain Fischer. It’s had a convoluted creation and release history, on line and on paper, but now Sofawolf Press is offering the first of three planned full-color graphic novels. It’s called Caterwall: The Isle of Manx and it’s available in both hard and soft-cover editions starting this July. The story? Pax is a young cat in the peaceable Kingdom of Katia. He’s determined to become a noble, heroic knight like his famous father — but his antics and attitude mostly get him in trouble, and eventually get him banished. But he and his rag-tag band of friends are still determined to help the nearby dog kingdom in their war against the wolves of the north. Find out more over at the Sofawolf Press web site.

image c. 2015 Sofawolf Press

image c. 2015 Sofawolf Press