Jason Brubaker works by day as a visual design artist at Dreamworks Animation, and by night as a self-published comic book creator. His story reMIND… well, here, we better let him describe it: “Sonja, the lighthouse keeper at a seaside oil drilling town, loses her cat, Victuals. Everyone blames the Lizard Man, the local boogeyman, which Sonja knows is a myth created by her late father to generate interest in the town. But when Victuals unexpectedly returns and has the brain of a strange intelligent creature; it seems someone is doing experimental transplants. With the brain of a lizard and the body of a cat, Victuals must now fight to recover his original lizard body and confront what he thought was the all-powerful god.” So, you got that? Good. reMIND has been collected into one hardcover graphic novel previously, and Volume 2 has just been released. And of course, you can visit the reMIND web site to keep up with the latest adventures.
Dreamworks
Dreamworks-Land?
Interesting news making the rounds yesterday: Dreamworks Animation have inked a deal with the developer Triple Five to bring a 14-plus acre indoor theme park to Meadowlands, New Jersey. Here’s the scoop: Triple Five (who built the successful Mall of America entertainment complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota) took over the development of a large 5-story shopping and entertainment center complex built near the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Originally called Xanadu, the project has remained vacant and un-used since 2009 after having gone way over budget. Now re-named American Dream, the plan is for the new property to include an indoor theme park featuring thrill rides, dark rides, walk-about characters, and shows all based on Dreamworks animated films. The New York Times has the story on-line. The governor of New Jersey was hoping that the project would be complete by early 2014, when Met Life Stadium will be hosting the Superbowl, but for now it’s looking like American Dream won’t open until later that year.
And with that, we’ll see you again after San Diego Comic Con!
Ursa Major Winners for 2011
Hey there, we’re back among the living. Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter has been down with a very, very nasty sinus infection for no less than two weeks, and is only just now getting back to his feet. So it’s time to play some major catch-up with In-Fur-Nation, yes?
The winners of the Ursa Major Awards were recently announced at a Saturday afternoon ceremony at CaliFur in Irvine, California. The June 2nd show was emcee’d by CaliFur’s own Gary Whalen. Greenreaper was on hand to accept Flayrah’s award for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine. The full list of winners for 2011 looks like this:
Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture: Kung Fu Panda 2 (Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series or Short Work: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Produced by Studio DHX)
Best Anthropomorphic Novel: Isolation Play, by Kyell Gold
Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction: “How to Get Through the Day”, by Kyell Gold
Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work: Nordguard, Book One, by Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet
Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story: Furthia High, by QuetzaDrake
Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip: Housepets!, by Rick Griffin
Best Anthropomorphic Magazine: Flayrah
Best Anthropomorphic Website: Equestria Daily
Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration: Blotch, for the cover of Nordguard, Book One
Best Anthropomorphic Game: Pokemon: Black and White
In addition, the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), which administers the Ursa Major Awards, announced a new “ALAA’s Choice” award for a nominee which the committee felt deserved special mention for its merit. This year that award went to the graphic story Red Lantern by Rukis and Alectorfencer.
The Ursa Major Awards are the “People’s Choice Awards” for anthropomorphic fandom, nominated and awarded every year by votes from regular fans like you. Want to get involved? Make suggestions? Visit www.ursamajorawards.org to find out more. And start thinking about what to nominate for 2012!
Po’s New Comic Book Series
There’s just no getting around the Kung Fu Panda. (Of course not! He takes up too much room!). First off Ape Entertainment’s’ Kizoic imprint is releasing the popular Kung Fu Panda comic-book miniseries from last year as a collected trade paperback called Kung Fu Panda: Kung Fu Fighting. And then this July, Po and the Furious Five (and Master Shifu, of course!) return in a brand-new full-color monthly series, Kung Fu Panda: Tales of the Dragon Warrior (written by Quinn Johnson and illustrated by Massimo Asaro). Find out more about all of these at Things From Another World.
Dragons on your i-Phone
Dreamworks Animation have announced the release of a new video game for the iPad and iPhone called Dragons: Tap Dragon Drop (get it?). Players take on the role of Hiccup and Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon movie series. As a terrible storm approaches the village of Berk, the vikings hurry to move their sheep to safety. But the sheep are scattered all over the island! Hiccup needs to train his dragon Toothless to herd (and in many cases, air-lift) the sheep away from danger while losing as few of them as possible. Dreamworks has a YouTube video preview of the game up now.
Life Before the Internet
Yes there was. And Gabe Swarr wants to tell you about it. Who is he? According to his web site, “Gabe Swarr is a 15 year veteran of the animation industry. Working many shows you’ve surely seen or heard of; most recently directing The Penguins of Madagascar and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. He is currently the Supervising Producer of Kung Fu Panda: The Legends of Awesomeness tv show for Nickelodeon. ” Wow. What’s more, in his copious spare time (!!) Gabe has created Life in the Analog Age, an on-line blog and comic strip where he takes a fond look back at his younger days before the Internet: Days of reading comic books, playing games, and listening to cool music. Equally cool? He portrays himself as an anthro chipmunk critter thing. Check out his store as well, as several of his comics have been collected into mini-book form. We won’t spill the beans, but if you look carefully around the site you can find an Easter egg: An animated short about Gabe’s dad and a box of old comic books…
It’s Spring! Here Come the Rabbits!
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve just gotten word that the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic live-action feature film has been green-lighted! We’re also pleased to announce that today is April 1st…
Speaking of April, our thoughts turn to … the Easter Bunny!
Dreamworks Animation have just released the first official trailer for Rise of the Guardians, which is coming to movie theaters this November. Based on the novel by William Joyce (who also helped to create the script), this 3D CGI movie tells what happens when The Boogieman — known as “Pitch” — threatens to cover the world in a veil of fear. The guardians of children everywhere — Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, Jack Frost, and (yes!) the Easter Bunny — join up to defeat him. The Easter Bunny — here known as “Bunnymund” — is voiced by none other than Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman (whom, you might recall, was also the voice of the hero’s father in the original Happy Feet). Other voices on hand include Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, Isla Fisher, and Jude Law. Rise of the Guardians is directed by Peter Ramsey, who previously served as head of story on Dreamworks’ Monsters vs. Aliens.
Madagascar 3 — The Comic
Speaking of Ape Entertainment, this May they’ll also be anticipating the latest film in Dreamworks’ Madagascar franchise with a new digest-sized full-color graphic novel. Entitled Madagascar 3: Long Live the King, it’s a prequel to the film itself (Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted) which is coming out on June 8th. Here’s what Ape has to say: “Follow the adventures of ‘The King of Versailles’ in Monte Carlo, the misadventures of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman, and plenty of spy-jinx from everyone’s favorite feathered foursome, The Penguins Of Madagascar! It’s all-ages fun from David Server and Jackson Lanzing (Penguins Of Madagascar) and artist Bob Renzas!” By the way, you can find out more about this and many other new and upcoming releases at Ape Entertainment’s official blog.
It’s A Racing Snail!
No, it’s not another addition to the Neverending Story series… it’s Dreamworks Animation’s newest project, Turbo. The folks over at Cartoon Brew gave us a preview of the sneak-peak poster and some background on the story. [Though the write-up quotes 2012, it’s actually due in 2013 — ye ed-otter.] “Set for release in summer 2012, DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo is described as ‘a garden snail with dreams of becoming the fast snail in the world experiences a freak accident that might just allow him to realize his goal.’ Three actors have been attached to do voices: Ryan Reynolds, Marvin Duerkholz and Lil’ Mizerkk.” Dreamworks has also released higher-res versions of the main posters for the films Rise of the Guardians (coming this November) and The Croods (the new project from director Chris Sanders).