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Cats

Little Kitty Gets Bigger

In case it slipped beneath your radar, Chi’s Sweet Home is a manga series created by Kanata Konami in 2004. “Chi is a mischievous newborn kitten who, while on a leisurely stroll with her family, finds herself lost. Overcome with loneliness she breaks into tears in a large park meadow, where she is rescued by a young boy named Yohei and his mother. The little kitty is then quickly and quietly whisked away into the warm and inviting Yamada apartment…where pets are strictly not permitted.” Vertical Comics licensed the manga for translation and distribution in the west. Now, they’ve released the first large-format collection in trade paperback. “Vertical’s most popular comic of all time, Chi’s Sweet Home, is now available in a larger format with brand new content! Hot on the heels of a new DVD release and the summer 2015 conclusion of its thirteen-year serialization, Chi’s Sweet Home gets a new deluxe release for new readers to dive into. The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home collects three volumes of this full-color all-ages adventure of Japan’s favorite kitten heroine – Chi! This new edition also features a brand new comic from Konami Kanata’s latest series in Japan – FukuFuku: Kitty Tales! This new release will feature new craft extras and a new story from the author.” Check it out over at Comic Book Realm.

image c. 2015 Vertical Comics

image c. 2015 Vertical Comics

Dogs and Cats, Living Together — In the Old West

Dog Town is a new black & white science fiction/western comic written and illustrated by Brent Otey. “Our story starts when the town rabbit gets kidnapped in the middle of a cat raid. Then an overly positive pig gets involved, not to mention a big, bad wolf. Before long there is a whole heap of trouble for the sheriff of this dog town to sort out. But then again, no one ever said it would be easy to keep the law in a world devastated by a cataclysm that has left the earth charred, mankind dead, and a group of tree-worshiping woodland creatures in charge.” Got all that? Published by K.O. Comix, Dog Town is available at Lulu.com. You can check out their update blog too.

image c. 2015 K.O. Comix

image c. 2015 K.O. Comix

My Dad is a Dog and a Snake is my Friend

The new black & white graphic novel Family Pets (published by Zenescope Entertainment) was recently reviewed at the University of Washington’s daily newspaper web site, of all places. “After her parents’ death, 16-year-old Thomasina has been wishing for something exciting to happen in her ordinary, lonely life. One morning, she wakes up to find her foster family has turned into pet animals, and her pet snake Sebastian has transformed into a man. With the help of her wizard friend Smitty, Thomasina and Sebastian embark on a magical journey to the wizard world to find a way to reverse the spell placed on the family.Family Pets was written by Pat Shand, with illustration by Sarah Dill.

image c. 2015 Zenescope

image c. 2015 Zenescope

A New Dawn for the SWAT Kats?

If you haven’t caught the word, creators Yvon and Christian Tremblay have been running a Kickstarter campaign with the intent of creating the first new SWAT Kats animated TV episodes to be seen in 20 years. Also if you didn’t know: SWAT Kats — The Radical Squadron was one of the most iconic and popular anthropomorphic animated TV series from the early days of organized Furry Fandom. “The series takes place in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated entirely by anthropomorphic felines, known as ‘kats’. The titular SWAT Kats are two vigilante pilots who possess a state-of-the-art fighter jet with an array of weaponry. Throughout the series, they face various villains as well as Megakat City’s militarized police force, the Enforcers.” The good news is that with only a few days left for the campaign, the brothers Tremblay have more than surpassed their original goal. They’ve reached enough to animate a 2-minute animation teaser for the new series (SWAT Kats — Revolution), and they’re hoping to make enough to animate a full 22-minute episode. The campaign web site has a video interview with the brothers.

image c. 2015 Tremblay Bros. Studios

image c. 2015 Tremblay Bros. Studios

Planet of the Big Cats

Flesk Publications have a novel way of taking pre-orders for the newly-completed graphic novel Tribes of Kai: A Kickstarter campaign. Here’s what they say: “The Tribes of Kai is a multi-layered graphic novel about honor, integrity and the trappings of war in which extreme circumstances call for unbridled decisions and finding the strength to cope with them. This is a barbaric and primitive world where the survival of the fittest is put to the test. Artist Daren Bader and writer Lance HaunRogue bring this world to life with lush detail and an incredible sense of pace, color and lighting. They introduce the Mantakai (Man of Kai), a race of six-limbed, feline/humanoid, anthropomorphic creatures. The dominance of the five individual tribes of Mantakai are threatened by a highly evolved race of reptilian creatures called the Tobognai. Tribes of Kai is an oversized, full-color hardbound book boasting sixty exciting pages of story and pinups by top creators.” Since the goal of printing the book has long since been met, now they’re adding more goodies as each new goal-level is reached.

image c. 2015 Flesk Publications

image c. 2015 Flesk Publications

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