Voting has closed for the 2011 Ursa Major Awards, celebrating all your favorite furry stuff from 2010. Can’t tell you who won yet — that’ll be announced at a special awards ceremony at Morphicon, taking place May 12th through 15th in Columbus, Ohio. Definitely looks as if there will be some surprises though! We can tell you that this year over 1,300 fur fans from around the world took part in voting for their favorite furry-themed movies, TV series, comic strips, games, and more. That’s a growth of more than 200 voters from last year! As usual, visit the Ursa Major Awards web site to find out more about the award winners and nominees, past and present.
Comic Books
Battle of the Superhero Sidekicks
Four would-be super-pets battle for supremacy in Sidekicks, a new full-color graphic novel written and illustrated by Southern California artist Dan Santat. From Amazon.com: “Captain Amazing, superhero and savior of Metro City, is getting old. He’s out all hours battling arch-villains, catching thieves, and helping little old ladies cross the street. He doesn’t even have time for his house full of pets. He needs – a sidekick! Captain Amazing’s four pets agree. But each one of them thinks he should get the sidekick spot – and a chance for one-on-one time with the Captain. Get ready for sibling rivalry royale as pets with superpowers duke it out for the one thing they all want: A super family.” Sidekicks is coming your way in early July, from Graphix and Arthur A. Levine Books.
image c. 2011 Dan Santat
Goblins are Coming
The latest from the endlessly creative mind (and pen, and pencil) of Richard Moore: Gobs. “Gobs are the worst. Just the worst. Don’t think goblins’ll ever move into your neighborhood? Don’t be too sure. After getting kicked out of their favorite pub, this typically vile group builds their own pub…in the hollowed-out body of a dead giant. Lovely, eh? So beware…Gobs are coming.” And they’re coming your way, bi-monthly and in black & white — starting this June, from Antarctic Press.
image c. 2011 Richard Moore, Image Comics
Retired Werewolf for Hire
There’s no way on earth we can top the publisher’s description of the second story arc of Screamland. So here it is: “‘Death Of The Party,’ Part One — In a world where movie monsters are real, most of them are just looking for work in an industry dominated by 3D, CGI and other scary acronyms. Forced to hustle their past glory on the convention circuit, Wolfman Carl London and Space Path star Travis Walters put their scheduled appearances aside to stop the screening of a legendary monster porn film that threatens to ruin the careers of feature creatures everywhere.” Got that? This new full-color comic book series is written by Harold Sipe and Christopher Sebela, and illustrated by Lee Leslie and Hector Casanova. It’s coming this June from Image Comics.
image c. 2011 by Image Comics
The Bear-Riding Cowboy in Color
We’ve talked around here before about Reed Gunther, the weird and wacky wild west comic book independently published by brothers Shane Houghton and Chris Houghton. Now, the comic book returns, this time in full-color and published by Image. Why should furry fans care about a cowboy comic? Perhaps because wildman Reed Gunther’s noble steed is a full-grown grizzly bear named Sterling. The bear doesn’t speak — but he has his own ways of commenting on the action all around him. Which is a lot, as Reed has a habit of meeting (and often battling) all kinds of strange and deadly critters throughout the badlands. In their first adventure from Image (coming this June), Reed and Sterling face off against a giant, cow-eating snake!
Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths
Ya gotta love Kaiju fans sometimes. The come up with things like: Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths. (“Kaiju”, if you didn’t know, is Japanese for “giant monster”.) This new five-issue full-color comic book miniseries comes to us this June from IDW. It’s written by John Layman (Chew) and illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli (Unknown Soldier). Here’s the story: Tokyo detective Makoto Sato is on a never-ending quest to bring down the Takahashi crime syndicate. Soon, his efforts win him a one-way ticket to a tropical paradise… known as Monster Island! Before long Sato is battling for his life against behemoths and bad guys… and to survive, he must enlist the aid of some “bizarre friends”. We’ll find out what that means this summer.
Kids Do Comics
Now this is something different: A comic book written by a 6-year-old boy, professionally published. That boy would be young Malachai Nicolle, and the comic would be Axe Cop, currently available from Dark Horse Press — illustrated, no less, by Malachai’s 30-year-0ld brother Ethan Nicolle. Axe Cop has been a hit on line since its premier in January of 2010, and now Dark Horse is releasing it as a three-issue full-color miniseries. Fur fans should note: Several interesting anthro characters make their way in and out of the story, including Axe Cop’s reptilian partner, Dinosaur Soldier.
The Man-Bat Collectible
This coming May, DC Comics and Eaglemoss Publications will be offering a brand new collectible figure of the other winged haunter of Gotham City nights, Dr. Kirk Langstrom — or, as he is known in his transformed state, the Man-Bat. What’s more, when you purchase this new figurine you also get a 20-page full-color mini-comic collection featuring some of Man-Bat’s best-known appearances in Batman and other DC titles.
image c. DC Comics
The Fat Cat is Back
Well this sort of came out of nowhere… A brand new CGI show featuring Jim Davis’ inescapable cat Garfield was made in France in 2008. Then, in 2009, episodes of The Garfield Show began airing in North America on Cartoon Network, with all-around voice actor Frank Welker voicing Garfield in place of the late Lorenzo Music. One of the main writers and voice directors for the series is Mark Evanier, who was also lead writer for the original 2D series Garfield and Friends in the 1980’s. Now it seems that Papercutz (home of the Geronimo Stilton series) is creating a series of hardcover full-color comic collections based on The Garfield Show. The collections are titled Garfield & Co., and they come to stores this May.
