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.
Comic Books
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.
Stoners and their Cats… or vice versa
Fat Freddy’s Cat began his life as an extra the that popular underground comic book, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Soon, though, his popularity grew until he had his own comic title, also written and drawn by FFFB-creator Gilbert Shelton. Now Knockabout Comics brings us the Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus in trade paperback. Watch as the big stoner boy’s cat fights the never-ending army of roaches bent on world domination, travels through Mexico, saves the Earth from an alien invasion, and works as a government agent to save the world from the “Hee Hee Hee” drug. Nearly all of the Fat Freddy’s Cat adventures are collected in this softcover book that’s nearly 400 pages.
Return to The Pound!
Antarctic Press presents the return of writer/artist Richard Moore’s The Pound, now graduated from a black & white one-shot to a full-color one-shot! Here’s the press release: “The fur flies in FULL COLOR for Antarctic’s latest release by fan favorite Richard Moore! Chimeras: Genetically-engineered creatures, part human, part animal; faster, stronger and deadlier than both. Kat and Caleb are ‘chims’ scraping out a living in the prison-city known as The Pound, where survival of the fittest is the only law. Created for combat in off-world environments, they are now thieves — the best in the city. There’s no score they won’t take down. But being the best means making enemies, and Kat and Caleb have more than their share. When one of the biggest, Darius Blackeye, hires them to hijack a shipment of high-tech arms, the pair has to wonder what he wants more — the weapons, or to eliminate the competition?” The Pound comes to comic book stores at the end of September.
Sweet Tooth
This September, Vertico Comics premiers Sweet Tooth, a brand new full-color comic series written and illustrated by Jeff Lemire. Gus is a young boy with deer-like features and ears… and antlers growing out of his head. It seems that Gus is one of a number of hybrid children who have appeared in the wake of a devastating plague that swept the world. Mysteriously, Gus and the other “hybrids” are immune to the effects of the disease. Gus lives out in the wilderness with his father, nervous but happy — until the day his father dies. Now Gus is alone and frightened in the big world… until he meets Jeppard. A ruthless, violent drifter, Jeppard nonetheless offers to take Gus to “The Preserve”, a hidden sanctuary for hybrid children. Can Jeppard be trusted? Can anyone in this strange new world?
Werewolves Out West
Zuda Comics has been holding a monthly contest where creators submit on-line comics, and readers vote on the ones they consider most worthy of being made into print comics. (Visit the Zuda web site to find out more about the contest.) Now, with the help of WildStorm Comics, Zuda has released the first winner, High Moon, as a full-color trade paperback coming to stores this October (appropriate, no?). Created by David Gallaher (story) and Steve Ellis (art), High Moon Volume 1 tells the story of cowboys and werewolves in the old west… lives are lost, secrets are revealed, and the future of the whole frontier is at stake.
Beasts of Burden
We can’t top this, so we’ll just reprint it (from the official Dark Horse Comics press release): “When supernatural occurrences sweep the community of Burden Hill, it’s up to a heroic gang of cats and dogs to keep the residents safe from harm. A bizarre disturbance leads these four-legged neighbors on a wild goose chase into the depths of the nearby forest, where loyalties are tested and lives come to an abrupt end”. Beasts of Burden is a new full-color four-issue comic book miniseries brought to us by the award-winning creators Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) and released, of course, by Dark Horse this September.
From Gargoyles Fans to Comic Creators
Twilight Detective Agency is a new comic created by two very active fans of Disney’s Gargoyles TV series and comic. They must be: McAdam and Rieger call their publishing company “Two Gargoyles Graphics”. Twilight follows the adventures of a pair of “gargoyle gumshoes” working in a town that has much more magic afoot than most of the inhabitants are aware of. You can find out more about this and the team’s other comic titles, at the Two Gargs web site.
