Comic strip creator Dana Simpson (best known for the Ursa Major Award-winning Ozy & Millie) has a new on-line black & white comic, Heavenly Nostrils. (It’s up and running on Go Comics.) One day a little girl named Phoebe is out skipping stones on a pond — and she accidentally bonks a unicorn on the nose. By freeing that unicorn, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, from her reflection-induced staring spell Phoebe is granted one wish… and she wishes for herself and Marigold to be best friends. From there, things get complicated. Well now Andrews McMeel Publishing have released the first paperback collection of Heavenly Nostrils strips, appropriately enough entitled Phoebe and Her Unicorn. Check it out at Barnes & Noble.
Fantasy
Kids Can Find Their Inner Beast
Taking a multi-media approach, Scholastic Inc bring us Spirit Animals — a series of fantasy novels for young readers that tie into an on-line interactive game. “In the world of Erdas, every child who comes of age must discover if they have a spirit animal. This rare bond can unlock incredible power. A dark force has risen from the past, and now the fate of Erdas depends on four brave kids . . . and on you.” So far they have released four books in the series (by a variety of authors), with another one coming later this year and two more slated for early in 2015. The Spirit Animals web site has more details of course. “Read the books, then join the adventure!”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.








