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Fantasy

Beware the Bunnies!

Mary Bellamy is an illustrator and comic-book creator known for her manga-style works like Faux Facts and Aw Heck! In the latter, a young girl finds herself mistakenly trapped in Hell — and she wrecks holy, um, heck as she fights her way back to world of the living. Facing horrible dangers along the way of course — among them, killer demon rabbits! Ms. Bellamy rather likes rabbits it seems, because they play an even bigger roll in her new comic series Zorilita Guardians. In fact she even sells plushie versions of the three fuzzy guardians who protect Zorilita and her friends. Take a look at Ms. Bellamy’s web site where you can find out more about all of this.

image c. 2015 by Mary Bellamy

image c. 2015 by Mary Bellamy

Monsters at Play. Literally.

It’s time we checked in again with the artist Chet Phillips. Known for his fanciful anthro-primates (he even did a whole collector-card game based on evil monkeys!), now cats and even kaiju are turning up more and more in his works.  (Kaiju are giant monsters stomping all over Japan, in case you forgot!) Recently he created a collectible card set based on kaiju baseball players, as well as the usual prints and other artistic stuff. Go visit his Etsy store to see what we’re talking about, and hopefully this will all make a lot more sense!

image c. 2015 by Chet Phillips

image c. 2015 by Chet Phillips

Sounds of the Forest, Getting in Tune

Three entertainment veterans have teamed up to create a new music-oriented funny animal book series for kids called The Musicritters. The first full-color book is called The New House. “Ten year old Lizzie’s world was turning upside down. Dad’s new job was taking Lizzie, her mother, and her brother Jamie far from the only home and friends that she had ever known. Little did Lizzie realize that some of the most unusual, fun and lovable new friends a kid could ever have were waiting to be discovered at her new house, right in her own backyard. Lizzie was about to meet the MusiCritters!” Namely, creatures that combine animals with musical instruments! Writer Steve Sperry is known for his songwriting work on TV shows like Fame. Illustrator Willie Ito has spent years developing characters and animation for Disney, Hanna Barbera, and Warner Brothers cartoons. And colorist Iraj Paran has worked at Hanna Barbera too — he designed their world-famous logo. The book is available at Amazon, but it’s also available as a .pdf download at several sites, including OkayBooks.org.

image c. 2015 CreateSpace

image c. 2015 CreateSpace

Heal the Planet

Recently discovered at San Diego Comic Con: Awake, a new full-color science fiction/fantasy comic series written by Susan Beneville, with art by Brian Hess. “Twelve year-old Regn has the power to wake and heal planets.  But, on her first mission, she lands on Gremon where she discovers an angry planet tearing itself apart, an irresponsible big brother, and a greedy baron who stokes the chaos for his own benefit.  Her power may not be enough when she comes face-to-face with the planet’s consciousness.” That description doesn’t mention that young Regn is helped on her quest by a large talking dog-like “tor” named Operi, as well as a local fox. Awake #1 is due this September from Action Lab.

image c. 2015 Action Lab Comics

image c. 2015 Action Lab Comics

Everybody Knows That the Dog is the Word!

The Wave Houndz is a brand new all-ages comic book series by Kerry Kirksmith and Kevin VanHook, with full-color art by Tina Francisco and Mae Hao (whew! Quite a team!). “WaveHoundz are three lovable dogs who live in a world filled with fun and excitement. What makes it all that exciting, you ask? Good Question! Let me tell you!! They can talk! They can surf! They’ve got psychic powers that link them to the kids! And you know what makes them even MORE special? They’ve got a pretty good idea about what’s right and wrong. They stand up for the little guy and make sure that they do their part to keep the beaches, water–and the whole WORLD for that matter– clean and safe.” Oh is that all? Well no, there’s a lot more, as you can see by visiting the official Wave Hounds web site. The “awesome first issue” is out now from Pup Comics (!).

image c. 2015 Pup Comics

image c. 2015 Pup Comics

Back Over the Wall

During the initial run of Cartoon Network’s highly-rated fantasy miniseries Over the Garden Wall, Kaboom! Studios ran a single-issue comic-book tie-in. Now series creator Pat McHale (who also worked on Adventure Time, of course) has announced that Kaboom! will be publishing a new 4-issue comic book mini-series, coming in August. Once again it’s written by Mr. McHale and illustrated by Jim Campbell. That means not only more adventures with the human kids Wirt and Greg, but also their talking animal friends Beatrice the bird and Fred the horse — and a dancing frog or two, likely. “The new story is set between the third and fourth episodes of the animated series, with the synopsis explaining, “Wirt and Greg are trying to hitch a ride out of schooltown but end up having to walk. Soon, they come upon two girls playing, and wind up having to keep them entertained so that they don’t wake their giant of a father!'” Check out the interview with Pat McHale over at Hero Complex.

image c. 2015 Kaboom! Studios

image c. 2015 Kaboom! Studios

Little Mice, Big Swords

This July look for an interesting new hardcover book from Boom! Studios: The Art of Mouse Guard, 2005 – 2015. “Celebrate the first 10 years of a comics classic from the very first sketch. For the first time since the series debut, David Petersen’s process for creating the world of Mouse Guard and bringing it to life in stunning illustration is documented in exquisite detail. With never-before-seen sketches; 100 pages of full-color, oversized artwork; and commentary from colleagues, collaborators, and Petersen himself, readers and fans get an unprecedented look behind-the-pages at how their favorite characters and adventures were born.” Those colleagues and collaborators include folks like Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, Geof Darrow, and many others. You can find out more over at the Simon & Schuster Digital Catalog site.

image c. 2015 Boom! Studios

image c. 2015 Boom! Studios

Return of the Royal Purple Dragon

Recent announcement from D23, the officially-sanctioned Disney fan club: Following the success of the first 5-issue miniseries (and the subsequent graphic novel compilation), Figment will return this fall in a brand-new full-color series from Marvel. “Figment 2 will be written by Jim Zubkavich (aka “Jim Zub”) and penciled by Ramon Bachs, and it’ll pick up where the first series left off—but in a totally different time period. When last we left our intrepid hero Figment and his pal Dreamfinder, they’d saved the world and were awarded for their good deeds by being stuck out of time for a century. As Jim Zub explained to our pals at the Disney Parks Blog, ‘[The pair is] now in the modern world, and they’re going to discover that a lot of things have changed in their absence… Couple that with a young dreamer inspired by the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and a dark threat from an unexpected source, and we’ve got all the ingredients for high adventure’.” Check out D23 for more information.

image c. 2015 Disney/Marvel

image c. 2015 Disney/Marvel

Men and … NOT Men

The things we stumble across on the Internet… There’s an author who goes by the name of Chuck Tingle, who specializes in gay… make that very gay erotica for Kindle readers. Interestingly, almost all of his works involve hunky young human men getting together with… hunky guys who are decidedly not human. Dinosaurs are a favorite, and so are unicorns, it seems. We’d tell you more but even the titles of most of his stories are Not Safe For Work — though all of them tell you pretty much straight forward (ha ha) what they’re about.  The closest we can get to a safe example is Pounded by the Gay Unicorn Football Squad. See what we mean? Check out the author on Amazon if you’re feeling adventurous — but remember, you have been warned. This is not by any means for kids.

image c. 2015 Amazon Digital Services

image c. 2015 Amazon Digital Services