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Fantasy

A Beastly Tarot Deck

Victoria Gannon is a self-taught artist who creates works under the name of Leptailurus. For a long time she has toyed with the idea of creating her very own Tarot deck, and now she has begun work on that very project. Savage Divination is its name, and it’s “a full 78-card tarot deck inspired by myth, lore, and legend focusing on the profound spiritual connection between man and beast”. For a little more than one week from now, Leptailurus is running a Kickstarter campaign to finance the creation of the final product, including the rendering of the art and the printing of the cards — with lots of perks for contributors, including original sketches and prints of the various cards themselves. There’s a video at the Kickstarter page explaining it all, and showing many more examples in completed and work-in-progress form.

image c. 2013 Leptailurus

There Was a Woman and Her Dog…

… on an alien planet. That’s the basic concept behind B + F, a full-color illustrated book for adults that’s coming in hardcover from Adhouse Books this October. “B+F, Gregory Benton’s MoCCA Award of Excellence-winning fable, explores an otherworldly forest with a woman and a dog as they encounter its denizens, both benevolent and malicious. A wordless meditation on goodwill, hostility, and isolation.” Order it at the Adhouse web site, and check out Gregory Benton’s web site while you’re at it.

image c. 2013 Adhouse Books

To Protect the Forest

RedSilver: Nature’s Evolutions is a new anthropomorphic fantasy novel written by Steve Alford. It’s available now at Lulu.com. “When Red Sunset, an ordinary vixen from Devon, is chosen by Mother Gaia to defend the Heart Forest from attack, she can hardly believe what is happening to her. As one of the legendary Animentals, she can command powers she could only ever have dreamed of. But this is a far from idyllic situation. The Heart Forest is under attack by strange creatures unlike anything she has ever seen before. And if the Animentals fail, the consequences run far further than she could ever imagine…” The book is illustrated in black & white by the artist known as Silent Ravyn, who has also uploaded a collage of illustrations to their Fur Affinity page.

image c. 2013 by Silent Ravyn

New Furry Adventurers

We just caught wind of True-Tail, a new flash animation furry fantasy series in pre-production from the folks at Skynamic Studios. Can’t tell you much about it yet, other than the fact it takes place in Splitpaw, “… a land of magic, adventure, and fantastical creatures… where six unruly mercenaries must learn to work together or succumb to an ancient dark magic”. You can see their first preview video on YouTube, or find out more about them at their Facebook Page. Also, their main True-Tail page has sign-ups for a newsletter to keep up with progress on the production.

image c. 2013 Skynamic Studios

Sword in his Hand, Swords in his Mouth

“When his village is enslaved and his wife kidnapped by the malevolent Mastodon Mathematician, a simple farmer must find his inner warrior! Granted the form of the Sabertooth Swordsman by the Cloud God of Sasquatch Mountain, our hero embarks on a treacherous journey to the Mastodon’s fortress, along the way getting beaten to a pulp by ogres, plague mutants, the king’s army, and goats!” We can’t make this stuff up folks. That’s why we just present it to you! It’s called Sabertooth Swordsman, and it’s coming in hardcover from Dark Horse Press this November. This black & white fantasy graphic novel was written by Damon Gentry (Eerie) and illustrated by Aaron Conley (Prophet). In addition to the story it features guest pin-up art by the likes of Mike Allred, Brandon Graham, David Lafuente, and others. For a first look, check out the preview article at Invade My Privacy.

image c. 2013 Dark Horse Press

Help the Fighting Monkey

Jed Henry of Provo, Utah is a big fan of Japanese wood block artwork — so much so that he’s joined up with on-line efforts to preserve and encourage the craft, which has suffered in Japan of late. Now he’s taken things up a notch or two and created Edo Superstar, a new animated game that incorporates the wood block style. In it we meet Masaru, a headstrong young Japanese monkey who quits the shadowy world of ninja warriors to become a fighting hero in the light of day, working his way toward the capital city in his quest for glory. Edo Superstar is being developed both as a computer game and as a smart phone app. Jed Henry and artist Dave Bull have set up a Kickstarter campaign to finance the project, and the perks for various levels of contribution include various t-shirts and art print sets. The Kickstarter page also includes several animated video previews of the game.

image c. 2013 by Dave Bull

Werewolves in the Big Easy

We can’t put this any better than they do at Dark Horse: “Cassian Steele is the boss of the werewolf mafia in the Big Easy, and he’s got a problem. The old witch Verona knows his secret and has gone into hiding. Cassian wants her dead. So he sends out the word: An open contract. The first monster to dust Verona gets a big payday. What no one realizes is that Barnabus Black, a demon desperately trying to regain his halo, is her protection.” Kiss Me, Satan! is a new full-color miniseries written by Victor Gischler (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike—A Dark Place) and illustrated by Juan Ferreyra (Colder). Find out a lot more at Comic Book Resources. Then look for the premier this September.

image c. 2013 Dark Horse Press

 

Be Careful Playing with Magick

Lee and Paul are two buddies at a mid-sized university. When the school receives a large collection of ancient artifacts, mysterious and dangerous events begin to happen — events which lead our heroes into entirely new lives and forms as mystical protectors! That’s the premise of Loop & Hoodie, a weekly web comic written by Adron Buske and illustrated by Dan Cassity and Travis Nuckolls. Why mention it here? Well it turns out that Lee — in his form known as “Loop” — transforms into a large anthropomorphic foo-dog. He just looks like a big werewolf — hence his name! Check it out at www.loopandhoodie.com.

image c. 2013 Cassity and Nuckolls

Dragons Help You Learn

Jump Start is a creative company best known for designing and developing games that help to teach young children the basics of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Since 1991 they’ve released several lines of teaching games under the banners of Jump Start and Math Blaster.  More recently though, Jump Start has hitched up with Dreamworks Animation to create a new line of teaching software and on-line games based on the Madagascar series of animated movies. Yes, kids even learn from the penguins! The first release is called Madagascar Preschool Surf n Slide. Even more recently, there’s a new line of on-line games based on How to Train Your Dragon called School of Dragons. Check it all out at the Jump Start web site.

image c. 2013 Jump Start, Dreamworks Animation