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Cats

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

9 Lives Again

“Caught in a mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong, an ordinary house cat named Scratch gains the extraordinary ability to summon any of his nine lives to get out of a fix.” That’s the story behind Scratch 9, a well-known comic book series for young readers created by writer Rob M. Worley. Now Hermes Press have released the latest adventures of Scratch as a 176-page full-color graphic novel, Scratch 9: Cat of Nine Worlds. It’s illustrated by Joshua Buchanan and features a cover by Herobear creator Mike Kunkel. Find out more at the Scratch 9 web site and look for the book on shelves this month.

image c. 2015 Hermes Press

image c. 2015 Hermes Press

A Furry Renaissance

More pet art, of a different creative sort. Jennifer Miller specializes in portraits of various canine, feline, and equine species illustrated in the black & white style of Leonardo Da Vinci — and other early European painters. Each of her creations (on posters, plaques, pillows, and other printed objects) features interesting facts about the illustrated breed in appropriate hand-written script. She has a lot of designs already and she’s constantly putting up more, so go take a look at her web site, Leonardo’s Dogs.

image c. 2015 Jennifer Miller

image c. 2015 by Jennifer Miller

Painted Pets

Laura Seeley is a classical fine artist… one who specializes in animal paintings. What’s more she’s even illustrated several books for children — Originally for various authors, but more recently for works she’s written herself. With galleries on her web site having names like “The Magic Cats”, “The Whimsy Cats”, and “A Cat Never Tells”, you can see where she’s coming from… though she does draw plenty of dogs and even whales, too! According to her web site, Best Friends Art Gallery, she plans on having pictures from her book projects up very soon.

image c. 2015 by Laura Seeley

image c. 2015 by Laura Seeley

Only for the Baddest Cats

Bad Katz is “… a San Diego-based company that sells premium 100% organic, pesticide-free catnip cat toys. We launched the Bad Katz brand in the late summer of 2014 and we are going to take that boring cat toy aisle by storm!” All well and good, but what caught our eye is their toony advertising art! Bad Katz have hooked up with a local San Diego artist to create a whole line of original cartoon cats (and a dog) to decorate their hand-crafted catnip bags. According to them they just might produce some original comic strips with the characters on their web site, and maybe even some character clothing for humans in the future. But for the moment, only your pet kitty gets in on the fun. Literally!

image c. 2015 Bad Katz

image c. 2015 Bad Katz