InFurNation Rotating Header Image

Fantasy

Teenage Girls and Their Friends

Over at Cartoon Brew there’s an article about two new animated TV series coming to The Disney Channel in 2019. They have some interesting things in common: Both feature teenage human females transported to an unearthly other realm, and both have been created by storyboard artists who worked on the wildly-popular series Gravity Falls. One is a bit anthro, and one is very anthro! The former would be Owl House, created by Dana Terrace. “The show follows Luz, a self-assured teenager who accidentally enters a portal to the Demon Realm where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and a tiny warrrior, King. Though she lacks any magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by apprenticing with Eda, and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.” On the other paw (flipper?) there’s Amphibia, from Matt Braly. “The show tells the story of Anne Boonchuy, a self-centered teenager who is magically transported to the world of Amphibia, a rural marshland populated by frog-people. There she meets a young frog named Sprig, who will become Anne’s first true friend and help transform her into a hero.” Keep your ear-holes open for some more precise debut dates when we get them.

image c. 2018 Disney TV Animation

Talk About Your Dogs of War…

Atlas & Axis is a well-known and award-nominated funny-animal adventure graphic novel from Europe, written and illustrated by Pau. Now Titan Comics have brought us the first English-language edition, and they’re releasing it as a 4-issue comic miniseries through their Statix imprint. The publishers describe it like this: “In the fantastical world of Pangea, all the animals talk and walk on two paws. Warriors Atlas and Axis are mutts of very different pedigrees: Atlas is intelligent and rational, a calculating hero, while Axis is more likely to take a wild swing when his blood runs hot. When our roaming adventurers return home to find Viking raiders – brutes from the North who pillage and kill all who fall under their claws – have destroyed their village, they set off on a perilous quest across land and sea to save what remains of their friends and family!” Comicon.com have a more detailed look that includes several preview pages. And don’t be fooled: This is not a cute all-ages comic book!

image c. 2018 Statix Press

Two Brothers Make Comics

Bobby Timony (art) and his twin brother Peter Timony (writing) are the creators of Night Owls, an award-winning series from DC Comics that’s been available in print and on line since 2009. This Roaring-20’s-style adventure tells the story of two humans and a gargoyle who team up to solve supernatural mysteries. It features more than its fair share of non-human characters too, mind you. If you visit their web site (called, appropriately enough, Twin Comics) you’ll see much more of Bobby’s art and the brothers’ work on other comic series they offer on-line now. Among them Goblin Hood, Widdershins Wilderness Scouts, and (furriest of them all) McCool: Sheriff of Dogwood.

image c. 2018 twincomics.com

Stand By the Five

Jessica Reilly and Patrick Reilly have both served in the U.S. military — she’s still in, while he recently left after nearly a decade of service. In their free time, they formed a company called Zonks Illustration as an outlet for their creative endeavors. Among other things they’ve been working on Five Realms, a multi-species fantasy comic adventure reminiscent of Mouse Guard. He writes it, she illustrates it. You can see examples of her works over at their Zonks Etsy store. They also have a Patreon to try and get Five Realms out to the world.

image c. 2018 by Jessica Reilly

Beware of Bunnies with Sharp Things

We found this in a recent Previews magalog: Stabbity Bunny, written by Richard Rivera, illustrated by Dwayne Biddix, and published by Scout Comics. “Seven-year-old Grace, still clutching her adorable plush bunny, is kidnapped by supernatural forces that have been hunting her family for generations. She awakens in a shack on the outskirts of town, and for the first time in her life, the little girl can’t sense her mother’s presence. Her captor knows the family’s secrets, and that link has been severed. When her escape attempt fails, it seems there will be deadly consequences, but an unlikely protector intervenes. It’s a big mistake to kidnap a child with a plush toy named Stabbity Bunny!” Oh you just know someone is working on a movie adaptation of this, don’t you?

image c. 2018 Scout Comics

Son of Dragon: Save the World

New from Humanoids we have Dragonseed, a full-color fantasy graphic novel written by Kurt McClung (Might & Magic) and illustrated by the team of Jimenez and Mateo Guerrero (Warlands). “For centuries the men and creatures of Krath have prepared for a conflict that many hoped would never happen. A half-blood, Adam Serre Shadow, now has just two moons to find the thief of the teardrop stone, stolen from his fire-breathing father, before the Council of Elders trigger all-out war. The son of a Dragon will stop at nothing to find the magical relic and preserve the fragile peace that still exists between the two species.” It’s available now as a digital comic and as a deluxe hardcover.

image c. 2018 Humanoids

Korean Strangeness Comes To America

You may recall that a few years ago Fred Patten wrote an article for Flayrah.com about a very, very strange Korean animated film called Satellite Girl and Milk Cow. Here, we’ll let Fred summarize the plot: It’s about “… a pianist (male), transformed into a cow (female) by Merlin the Magician in the form of an anthropomorphic roll of toilet paper, and pursued by a villainous incinerator that wants to incinerate him/her; while a communication satellite falls from space, becomes an Astro Boy-like robot girl, and saves the cow from the incinerator and its secret agents.” Got all that? No? It’s okay, we don’t either. So why bring this up now? Well thanks to Animation World Network we’ve learned that GKIDS has finally picked up the rights for the film, and they will be releasing a subtitled version to theaters and DVD later this summer.

image c. 2018 GKIDS

The World of Dragons — Now a Comic

Tui T. Sutherland is one of the authors who created the Warriors and Seekers series of cat-fantasy novels under the collective pseudonym of Erin Hunter. You may recall we reviewed her novel series Wings of Fire previously. Well recently Scholastic requested the author to help in adapting that series into a graphic novel, which has been released by Graphix. “Not every dragonet wants a destiny . . . Clay has grown up under the mountain, chosen along with four other dragonets to fulfill a mysterious prophecy and end the war between the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia. He’s not so sure about the prophecy part, but Clay can’t imagine not living with the other dragonets; they’re his best friends. So when one of the dragonets is threatened, all five spring into action. Together, they will choose freedom over fate — on their own terms.” With full-color art by Mike Holmes, Wings of Fire: The Graphic Novel is available now.

image c. 2018 Graphix

Again, Rabbits Meet Foxes… Over Eggs

Here’s a European animated film from last year that we missed somehow: Rabbit School — Guardians of the Golden Egg. According to an article at Animation magazine’s site from last March, “Following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, family animated feature Rabbit School – Guardians of the Golden Egg has had a strong debut in cinemas… Directed by Ute von Münchow‐Pohl, Rabbit School centers on a young urban rabbit named Max who gets stuck in an old-fashioned Easter Rabbit school when it is surrounded by a clan of clever foxes who want to take over the holiday. With the help of cute bunny Emmy and the instruction of the mysterious Madame Hermione, Max learns not only the secret magic of Easter bunnies, but also where he truly belongs.” As you can see from the trailer, the film was dubbed with a British cast for distribution in the UK. No word yet if anyone plans to release it on DVD for North America.

image c. 2018 Akkord Film