Lou Scheimer was co-founder and president of Filmation Animation. Before he passed away last year, he completed his autobiography with the help of comic book writer and historian Andy Mangels. Now it’s been released in trade paperback by TwoMorrows Publishing as Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Best known for Saturday morning staples like The Archies and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Filmation was also responsible for the animated Star Trek series in the 1970’s, as well as for taking us back down the Yellow Brick Road with 1974’s Journey Back to Oz. For better or for worse (depending largely on your opinion of limited animation) there were a lot of anthropomorphic characters who made their way through various Filmation productions. Some of them, like Star Trek’s Lt. Mress, have become Furry icons. Check out Lou’s story — and the story of Filmation and Saturday morning cartoons — at Amazon.
Fantasy
What a Pretty Dragon
Dragonar Academy is a Japanese fantasy novel series by Shiki Mizuchi. Started in 2010, the series was illustrated by Kohada Shimesaba. Later it was adapted into a manga series by the artist Ran, and more recently it has begun production as an anime series from C-Station (scheduled for release later this year). Well now Seven Seas Entertainment have announced that the manga series will be released in English for the North American market this month. According to Wikipedia, the plot goes like this: “Learning to ride and tame dragons comes easy to most students at Ansarivan Dragonar Academy—except for first-year student Ash Blake, who is known by his classmates as the ‘number one problem child.’ Poor Ash is the laughing stock at school because, despite his unfashionably large star-shaped brand that marks him as a future dragon master, he has nothing to show for it. His dragon has never appeared. Until now, that is. One fateful day, Ash’s dragon awakes in full glory, but appears different than any dragon ever seen before—in the form of a beautiful girl! What’s worse, Ash soon discovers that this new dragon has attitude to spare, as she promptly informs him that she is the master, and he, the servant.” Got that?
Putting the ART in Furry Art
Lisa Hanawalt is a New York-based artist whose illustrations feature humans and anthropomorphic animals in a variety of artistic styles, all in the service of the creator’s wry observations of pop culture and human foibles. Her works have been seen in a variety of publications and on a variety of web sites, as you can see if you visit her home page or her shop on Tumblr. Well now, her works have been gathered together on dead trees in a new hardcover collection, My Dirty Dumb Eyes from Drawn & Quarterly. Check it out at Amazon. It’s also available as a trade paperback.
Spellsinger: The Movie?
Here’s another one that somehow slipped through the cracks: A group of fans have been working on their own to try and create a movie adaptation of the Spellsinger series of fantasy novels, having secured the rights from writer Alan Dean Foster in 2011. Live action? Animation? Their web site isn’t very clear on that. It also hasn’t been updated since June of 2012, but they do have some interesting development artwork to show. What, you haven’t heard of Spellsinger? Go check it out — and its numerous sequels — right away! It’s one of the most influential furry-themed fantasy series ever created. Trust us.
And with that, we wish you all a happy and safe New Year. Stay Furry!
Friendship in Pairs
IDW just keeps expanding their own little corner of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe — and fandom. Now in January we have a new on-going series, My Little Pony: Friends Forever. “This collection, based on the animated hit series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, airing on the Hub Network, will be made up of one-shot stories that focus on different pairs of ponies getting into various hijinx and will feature a mix of new creators as well as old favorites.” Sorry folks, no “shipping” allowed! Find out more at IDW’s web site. The first full-color issue of My Little Pony: Friends Forever (featuring none other than Applejack and Pinkie Pie) is written by Alex De Campi and illustrated by Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) with a cover by Amy Mebberson.
Merry Christmas and a Blessed Solstice to you all, from InFurNation.com ^^
Forra — A World Like No Other
Antilia is described by its creators as “an MMORPG featuring a beautiful world, original races, unique gameplay, and an innovative storytelling system!” Brought about by Jeff Leigh and the crew at Right Brain Games, this new multi-player game is currently in the testing and programming stage — and has a Kickstarter campaign up to get things brought to the next level. According to Jeff, “With Antilia, we are creating a unique and beautiful science-fiction/fantasy world, populated by distinctive anthropomorphic races. If you’ve heard of Antilia before, it’s because we have spent several years refining our process and building the game’s foundation. Antilia has had public alpha tests for the past two years as we developed, and we are confident we can deliver a quality game.” Find out more by visiting Antilia’s web site, or by checking out the preview trailer up on YouTube.
Stan Sakai’s Other Rabbit Warrior
This coming March, fans of Usagi Yojimbo will once again be able to check out one of creator Stan Sakai’s other well-known funny animal creations, Nilson Groundthumper (and his assistant Hermy) in a new full-color hardcover collection from Dark Horse Press. “Experience the rabbit action epic that might have been! More than just a precursor to Stan Sakai’s beloved Usagi Yojimbo, his tales of medieval un-wits Nilson and Hermy are every bit as funny, exciting, and beautifully illustrated as the saga of the familiar rabbit ronin!” Collecting Nilson and Hermy’s complete exploits, the artwork is scanned from Stan Sakai’s original black & white artwork and newly colored by Usagi colorist Tom Luth. Check out The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy (an pre-order it) at the Dark Horse web site.
Friendship is in The Cards
The first My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic collectible card game officially sanctioned by Hasbro is being released very soon by Enterplay. The Two-Player Starter Set is available now for ordering, and it’ll be shipping in January. “Build your decks around one of the Mane characters and build a separate problem deck. Race to solve (yours and your opponent’s) problems to earn points. First person to 15 points wins.” According to the publicity we’ve read, that makes it sound a lot simpler to master than it actually is! (Kind of like… friendship.) Check out the Enterplay site for more information.








