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Fantasy

30 Years of Famous Games Too

Crash Bandicoot. Jak and Daxter. Those names alone would make furry fans lift their ears and take notice. But Naughty Dog Studios (even their name is furry!) have created other well-known games over their 30 year history too, including Uncharted and The Last of Us. Now Dark Horse Press have put together The Art of Naughty Dog as part of Naughty Dog’s 30 year multimedia event. From Gametrailers.com: “‘It will span the history of Naughty Dog and feature hand-picked and never before released artwork depicting our past, present, and future,’ Naughty Dog’s Eric Monacelli said. ‘Being around for thirty years has bestowed upon us all kinds of incredible art from our amazing fans. Select fan art will be a chapter of the book as well. To mark the occasion properly we’re having a book launch event later in the year.'” More precisely, this hardcover book will be on sale the 1st of October.

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

image c. 2014 Dark Horse

30 Years of Bunny and Blade

You might have heard that Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai is turning 30, yes? The word is getting around. Well in celebration of this milestone Dark Horse Press will release The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, a collection of more than 600 pages coming this October. It brings together Usagi Yojimbo Volume 2 issues 1 thru 16 and Volume 3 issues 1 thru 6, as well as a full-color cover gallery. Check out the Dark Horse web page to find out more. Saga will be available as a (very thick!) trade paperback, and also in a limited-edition hardcover version (only 900 will be made!) signed by Stan Sakai himself.

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

The Unkindest Cut of All

Another one of those “How did we miss this?” things. We’ll just put up the official description of Dog & Scissors for starters: “Harumi Kazuhito was the ultimate bookworm, spending days at a time with his head buried in his beloved books, and little could make him happier than perusing the pages of his favorite author, Kirihime Natsuno. Unfortunately, Harumi’s life goes to the dogs – literally – when he gets himself killed while trying to stop a robber!  Thanks to the power of a true bookworm, however, Harumi inexplicably finds himself reincarnated as a dog… which might not be so bad if dogs could read. Or if the woman who adopts him didn’t have twin predilections for playing with scissors and tormenting her new pet! But what truly makes this strange reincarnation the worst of all possible worlds is that she’s also his favorite author!” Based on the light novel series written by Shunsuke Sarai and illustrated by Tetsuhiro Nabeshima, all 12 episodes of Dog & Scissors the anime series have been released to DVD by Crunchroll. They’re also streaming the episodes on line at their web site.

image c. 2014 Crunchyroll

image c. 2014 Crunchyroll

One Little Cat and a Whole Lotta Magic

We found this recently, over at Animation Scoop: “Shout Factory is mounting a theatrical release of Thunder and The House of Magic, directed by Ben Stassen (Fly Me to the Moon, Sammy’s Adventures: Escape from Paradise) and Jeremie Degruson (A Turtles Tale: Sammy’s Adventure), in select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco and Washington, DC., beginning September 5th. The 85-minute film, budgeted at $34 million, was produced by Brussels (Belgium) based nWave Pictures in association with StudioCanal and media fund Anton Capital Entertainment. The story concerns Thunder, an abandoned young cat, who seeks shelter from a storm, stumbles into a house owned by an old magician and inhabited by a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos. But when the magician lands in the hospital and his scheming nephew puts the mansion up for sale, our young hero and his new friends join forces to save their magical home.” The Scoop article also has a first look at the film’s trailer.

image c. 2014 nWave

image c. 2014 nWave Pictures

Usagi on the Big Screen?

At this year’s San Diego Comic Con there was a 30 year celebration of Usagi Yojimbo — created by Stan Sakai, of course. One of the items featured during the event was a screening of Usagi Yojimbo: The Last Request, an animated short film created by Lintika Films (using both 2D and stop motion techniques) and directed by Roel Robles. The big news is that Mr. Sakai was impressed enough with the project that he has allowed the studio to use Last Request as a proof-of-concept film for a possible Usagi feature. Now they’re out seeking funds to work on that project. Over at Cartoon Brew they have an article about the project that also includes a link to the short.

image c. 2014 Lintika Films

image c. 2014 Lintika Films

Speaking of For The Birds…

Last year we talked about these guys seeking funding. Looks like they found it! According to this year’s San Diego Comic Con, the folks at Four Horsemen Studios are set to premier a brand new collection of toy figures in their Gothitropolis series this autumn. Featuring characters like The Raven, The Eagle, The Griffon, and Minotaur the Duck (and more!), these are simple names for highly detailed collectible figures. What more can we say? Check out their web site and click on Gothitropolis in the Gallery Section to see these guys close up. Then look for them to be on sale in the fall.

image c. 2014 Four Horsemen Studios

image c. 2014 Four Horsemen Studios

Support Your Local Griffin!

“On an alternate Earth, a griffin officer searches for his missing daughter, and uncovers a secret so terrible it could end his world.” That’s the author’s basic description of Griffin Ranger, a new fantasy novel project by writer and artist Roz Gibson (creator of Jack Salem). She further goes on to describe it this way: “Griffins, parrots, anthro wolves and little raccoon/lemur creatures! Lots of action and fighting! A bird-of-paradise griffin who hates getting his feathers mussed, but they end up very mussed by the end of the book!” There’s a Kickstarter campaign now to finance completing and publishing the project. The book will feature illustrations by Roz Gibson and a cover by Wolf-Nymph.

image c. 2014 by Roz Gibson

image c. 2014 by Roz Gibson

Monsters Make All The Best Stuff

From the Booklist write-up on Amazon, here’s a quick introduction to The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston: “Elliot is overjoyed the morning his uncle, professor Archie Von Doppler, invites him to tour the supersecret invention lab at DENKi-3000, a company famous for its unusual, logic-defying products. But the secrets are more super than Elliot had hoped. The professor’s lab is staffed entirely by fantastical creatures—a French-speaking, bird-size fairy-bat; a giant dreadlocked salamander; and a librarian with three dragon heads atop octopus legs; etc.—whose otherworldly technology gives DENKi-3000’s inventions their astonishing appeal.” But all is not well, of course, and Elliot soon finds himself charged with protecting his new monster friends and their invention lab from an evil corporate takeover. It’s all in this new illustrated book published by Razorbill. It even has its own web site, complete with monster animation.

image c. 2014 Razorbill

image c. 2014 Razorbill

Like Punnies in the Spring

Well okay, the middle of summer, but hey… Llyn Hunter is an Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, also known for her humorous illustrations and poetry. Many of those have been collected over the years in her Little Book series (like A Little Book of Monsters, reviewed here previously) put out by her own Bobcat Publishing. Her latest work is called Punnies — a collection of pun illustrations (cat fish, duck tape, cow bell…) each accompanied by a verse. She’s started up a Kickstarter campaign to help her fund publishing the book in a large-size coffee table format. The campaign is up from now until the end of September. Also make sure to visit her home page to see samples of the many other projects that she’s worked on over the years.

image c. 2014 by Llyn Hunter

image c. 2014 by Llyn Hunter