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Dragons

Spyro And His Cohorts Come To Comics

Celebrating the release of the new game Skylanders Trap Team, IDW have brought Spyro the Dragon and his friends to comic books for the first time ever. Skylanders #1 will premier this October. It’s written by Ron Marz and David A. Rodriguez, with full-color art by Mike Bowden, David Baldeon, and others. At the same time IDW will release Skylanders: The Kaos Trap, which will collect the first three issues of the comic together with the special issue #0 that was only available at San Diego Comic Con — all in a single hardcover collection. Take a look at the IDW web site for more.

image c. 2014 IDW

image c. 2014 IDW Publishing

Help Start a New Fantasy Graphic Novel

The artist known as Alector Fencer has begun a new full-color graphic novel series called Myre (pronounced ME-reh). And she’s actively seeking some crowd-funding help to bring it into being. In the artist’s own words, “Since the beginning of this year I have been working tirelessly on writing and drawing out the story and the characters, resulting in a big collection of stories, scripts and tons of paintings/sketches and drawings. Over the past years I have collected many paintings of characters of the storyline, including Myre and her dragon mount Varug. Despite all the planning, there were many things coming in between and dragging me away from this very big and heartfelt dream of mine. The dream of sharing a world with you which had been captured in my head for so long.” To find out more about the story and the world it takes place in, visit Alector Fencer’s Indiegogo campaign page. In addition to a lot of the usual swag for helping out, some contributors will be treated to a special audio play created by the famous 2 the Ranting Gryphon, set in the Myre universe.

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

Dragons Call Her Mom

Andrews McMeel publishing presents Dragon Girl: The Secret Valley, a new trade paperback graphic novel written and illustrated by Jeff Weigel. “Eleven-year-old Alanna and her older brother Hamel are orphans and doing their best to take care of each other until one day Alanna stumbles upon a cave full of dragon eggs. When the eggs hatch with no mother dragon in sight, Alanna decides to take care of the babies herself, even creating a clever costume so that the babies think she, too, is a dragon. With their large appetites and accidental fire burps, Alanna learns that dragon babies are hard work! And when a mama dragon finally comes to claim the babies, Alanna’s costume is so convincing that she is swept along for the ride as they journey to Dragon Rock, a mysterious magnetic force that draws dragons of all shapes and sizes to a magical, untouched valley.” It’s available now, and over at Comic Book Resources they have more of the story.

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

Of Bears and Pots and Deep Deep Thoughts

Psycologist, hypnotist, and philosopher, A.B. Curtiss is also and accomplished author with several award-winning books to her name.  And several of her fiction books just happen to be of interest to furry fans. Legend of the Giant Panda (illustrated by Mirto Golino) is exactly what it sounds like: A mythic telling of how pandas got their distinctive black and white markings.  Hallelujah, A Cat Comes Back is a “cat book of virtues”, where a young tom gives us the feline wisdom brought down to him from his wise granny-cat. Illustrated with a collection of Victorian feline prints. Dragons Guard The Zoo is a collection of poems on many subjects, including animals real and fanciful. And In the Company of Bears (illustrated by Barbara Stone) has been described as a “children’s philosophy book”, in which bears are used to illustrate soothing rhymes about accepting people for what they are. All of these and more are available on Amazon and at Ms. Curtiss’ web site.

image c. 2014 A.B. Curtiss

image c. 2014 A.B. Curtiss

Hamsters and Dragons. All Right!

James Cartwright is a comic creator and writer who has recently started releasing his material on the Internet. Hamsters (illustrated in full-color by Mike Ratliff) is described simply as “Two hamsters venture outside their cage to escape from the clutches of their evil owner, a nine-year-old girl.” Gotcha! Then there’s Rocky Mountain Fire Lizard (also in full color by Pellegri), which goes like this: “As railway tracks are laid across Colorado’s rocky terrain, a dragon awakes from its slumber. A farm boy and privileged girl chase after the monster to be the first to collect the bounty on the creature’s head.” You can find out more about Cartwright Comics, including links to buy them, at the Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society (whew!).

image c. 2014 by Cartwright Comics

image c. 2014 by Cartwright Comics

 

Art from Oregon

Here’s how this artist describes himself: Matt Doering is an Illustrator/Concept Artist based in Eugene, Oregon currently working as a Production Artist and UI Designer at Disney Interactive for mobile and social games.  Matt also works as a freelance illustrator, most recently completing his first children’s book The Story of Magic Kringle, written and created by Alice Cosgrove.” His web site also has numerous examples of his character design work, as well as some of the animation he’s worked on. Of note: Matt did color design and visual development on The Girl and the Fox, an award-winner short animated film written and directed by Tyler J. Kupferer.

image c. 2014 by Matt Doering

image c. 2014 by Matt Doering

The Ladies and Their Dragons

The Art Lair is the official web site of writer and artist Jessica C. Feinberg, “a quirky writer and illustrator who is best known for mixing mundane and magic in her paintings of trees, dragons, faeries, and clockwork creatures” (her own words). Dragons seem to be the primary motif here — that is, dragons and the pretty human ladies they seem to hang around with a lot. Jessica has created both illustrations (many available as prints) as well as illustrated books like Dragon Scale: A Guide to Dragons and Dragons in the Library.

 

image c. 2014 by Jessica C. Feinberg

image c. 2014 by Jessica C. Feinberg

 

Spyro and His Friends Come to Comics

This arrived in our in-box from the folks at IDW: “In conjunction with Activision, IDW Publishing is proud to announce the first-ever Skylanders comic-book series, penned by renowned comic-book writer Ron Marz with Mike Bowden and David Baldeon as lead artists. In the world of video games, Skylanders is a global phenomenon and the best-selling kids’ game franchise since its launch in 2011. Now fans have the opportunity to follow the adventures of all their favorite characters from Skylands through the magic of comic books. The first issue, a prequel to the Skylanders Trap Team™ storyline, actually provides fans an inside look at where some of their favorite Skylanders came from, and even gives them a first look at a few all-new characters from the upcoming game.” There’s lots more background information at Comic Book Resources.

image c. 2014 Activision

image c. 2014 Activision

 

Add a Dash of Childish Delight

With the help of Marvel Comics, Disney is bringing a fan-favorite character back — in his own steam-punk comic book adventure! “This summer, journey into the exciting depths of your own imagination in Figment #1, the new Disney Kingdoms series created by the unique collaboration between Marvel and Walt Disney Imagineering. This five-issue series, created by rising star writer Jim Zub (Skullkickers), fan-favorite artist Filipe Andrade (Captain Marvel) and blockbuster cover artist John Tyler Christopher, weaves an all-new steam-punk fantasy adventure that reveals the never-before-told origin of the inventor known as Dreamfinder and his trusty dragon companion!” Said dragon is Figment, if you didn’t know! Find out more at Inside the Magic, and look for this full-color miniseries starting in June.

image c. 2014 Marvel Comics

image c. 2014 Marvel Comics