This January, Boom! Studios brings us the new Disney’s Hero Squad full-color comic, from the minds of writer Riccardo Secchi and artist Stefano Turconi. From the pages of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories: Super Goof! The Duck Avenger! Eega Beeva! The Red Bat! And more — see Disney’s mightiest heroes in their own comic book title. Wonder where all this came from? Then make sure to check out the Disney’s Hero Squad Volume 1: Save The World hardcover collection. The greatest superheroes in the Disney universe come together when the world’s greatest super-villain sets his sights on Scrooge McDuck’s entire fortune!
Comic Books
Hairy Things
Ape Entertainment is taking the unusual step of releasing all three issues of a three-issue mini-series at once, this coming January. The item in question is the new full-color comic mini-series Hairy Things, written by Jay Carvajal and illustrated by Marc Borstel. In the days of the Wild West, four companions stumble across a remote town hidden deep in the Colorado Rockies… a town that is under attack by a tribe of tall, furry sasquatch! What they don’t know is, the sasquatch are the least of their concerns — because the town is populated by hungry cannibals! This is not your grandparents’ western people…
Dark Horse brings back Blacksad!
This is from The Beat at PublishersWeekly.com:
“One of the most excellent comics announcements to come out of you-know-what [I think that means San Diego Comic Con — ye Ed-Otter ]was the news that Dark Horse will be reprinting all three volumes of Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido in a deluxe oversized volume. The first two Blacksad books were published here by iBooks a while back, but with iBooks having gone into bankruptcy, these became highly sought after. Getting the full series reprinted was in limbo, but now Dark Horse has ridden in to fix that right up. Blacksad is best described as hardboiled detective tales with an anthropomorphic cast, but with a darker side and social criticism mixed in. The real star is Guarnido’s art, which is some of the best stuff out there (the series has won over a dozen European awards). He worked extensively on several Disney films, and his art has the best qualities of that brand: Indelible character designs, flawless storytelling and the attention to mood and place that is the hallmark of the great European comics. The series is hugely popular in France and Spain, and we can’t wait to read the whole thing in English.” This is especially good news since Blacksad Volume 3 was never published in English before iBooks went belly-up. No word yet on if Dark Horse will also be reprinting the Blacksad Sketchbook.
Blacksad, and a cat lady with lipstick...
How Did We Miss This?
An older item, which we recently stumbled across: DC Goes Ape is a full-color trade paperback collection released in 2008 by — who else? — DC Comics. It features nearly a dozen excerpts from DC Comics over the decades involving monkey and ape characters in the worlds of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and more. Simian heroes, simian villains, and they’re not even all Gorilla Grond! With writers ranging from Otto Binder to Elliot S! Maggin and E. Nelson Bridwell (and more), and art by the likes of Carmine Infantino, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell — and more. With a great front cover by Art Adams, too. Like we said, this is older now, so take a look around for it.
More Celebrations for the Turtles’ 25th
More items keep turning up in celebration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th anniversary. First up, Mirage Studios present a special re-release of the original TMNT first issue by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, now rendered in full color by long-time Mirage Studios colorist Steve Lavigne.
And then, there’s this… Turtles Forever is a new direct-to-DVD animated feature film, directed by Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine and produced by 4Kids Entertainment. It features a novel concept: What if the ‘new’, gritty, 2000’s animated Turtles (from the 2D animated series, not the 3D theatrical feature) met up with the more cartoony, silly 1980’s animated Turtles (from the original 2D animated TV series, not the live action feature films — stay with us here!). That’s what happens here, thanks to a handy dimensional rift. Not only that, but various other characters from both series show up in the tangle. (Two Aprils! Two Caseys! One each Rocksteady and Bebop!) Turtles Forever was originally scheduled to be released in late October, but as of this writing contractual disputes between Mirage and 4Kids have forced the release to be postponed. Keep your eyes on InFurNation to find out when they work things out. Or, you could follow the film’s story and updates here.
More News From Boom! Studios
First up: It seems that the fans’ reaction to the various Farscape mini-series (plural!) put out by Boom! has been so positive that now it’s going to be an on-going full-color series. What’s more, it’s a series written by the original creator of Farscape, Rockne S. O’Bannon. With art by Keith DeCandido and Will Sliney.
For something completely different, Boom! lets us return to Radiator Springs. The World of Cars: Radiator Springs is a new full-color trade paperback written by Alan J. Porter and illustrated by Magic Eye Studios. It takes place after the events of the Pixar movie. When he returns to Radiator Springs for good, racer Lightning McQueen realizes that everyone knows his story, but he doesn’t know anyone else’s! Tune in while he learns why his fellow anthropomorphic cars came to this little town — and why they stayed.
The Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular
Also known as “The Return of every-one’s favorite heroic chupacabra”. The Perhapanauts comic book series, you may recall, told the story of an elite investigative team, human and non-human (including said chupacabra and a sasquatch) battling against supernatural forces trying to invade our world. Now Todd Dezago (writer), Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall, Fred Hembeck (artists), and of course Image Comics brings us this new full-color one-shot Perhapanauts special the Halloween Spooktacular. Featuring three chilling and thrilling tales and no less than four full-color interior poster-pages.
Geronimo Stilton — The Graphic Novels
Since 2004, Scholastic has been publishing the Geronimo Stilton series of books by Elisabetta Dami for the English-speaking world. Now word has come out that the world-travelling mouse-journalist has become a time traveller as well… and that his new adventures will be released soon as hardcover graphic novels from Paperkutz Publishing. In case you’ve been missing it: Geronimo Stilton is the editor-in-chief of The Rodent’s Gazette, the largest newspaper in New Mouse City. That’s his day-job. But, facing the threat of evil cats from far-off Catatonia, Geronimo and his family have found themselves travelling through many adventures around the globe. Now comes word that the cats have actually developed time-travel… and they plan to alter the past to destroy Mouselands’s future! Now our heroic editor has no choice but to follow the cats through time, trying to stop their evil schemes! The first book in the series is Geronimo Stilton: The Discovery of America, to be followed soon by The Secret of the Sphynx and The Coliseum Con. Papercutz has an introductory video for the series that can be found here. No big surprise: A Geronimo Stilton animated TV series is in the works in his home county of Italy.
Are You Freaky?
“Freaky Creatures is a cross-platform, massively multiplayer online game that allows players to build the ultimate, customizable creatures and battle them against friends.” That’s the word from areyoufreaky.com, the home-page of this new game. “In the distant future, battles are fought not by humans, but by genetically enhanced creatures. These powerful creatures engage in tremendous battles in search of victory, often with great risks on the line. There are eleven known types of Freaky Creatures in the universe, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.” They include creatures with names like Hawkan, Rexar, Dracon, Goroc, and Merasha. Eleven basic creatures can be customized by players into literally thousands of unique creations, ready for battle and interaction on-line. The Freaky Creatures Starter Pack includes two action figures and a 1-gigabyte reuseable flash drive that is the key to joining the Freaky Creatures universe. But it’s not all about battles, either. There are social areas and even interactive story activities as well. There’s even a full-color comic book published by Abandon. For a series of videos about the game and the universe, check out this web site.
