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.
Funny Animal
Arms to Bear
Would you believe a full-color funny-animal comic book series coming out of St. Petersburg in Russia? Welcome to the new world, friends! It’s Bo: Plushy Gangsta, heading our way this month (translated into English!) from Action Lab Comics’ Danger Zone imprint. “Are the legends of Bo, the teddy bear gangsta, true? You’re about to find out. When Bo’s girls get nabbed by a rival gang boss, the mysterious and fearsome plushy gangsta is forced into action! It’s Scarface meets Ted in this over-the-top video game style urban epic.” Makes sense, since it was created by video game designers Pavel Balabanov and Vasily Terentiev. Head on over to Action Labs’ Bo web site and check out their new trailer for the series. And trust us: This is not for young readers!
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!
Rootin’ Tootin’ Little Feline
Sheriff Callie’s Wild West is a new CGI animated TV series for preschool kids, coming soon to Disney Junior. Starring the voice of Mandy Moore (Tangled), it tells the story of Callie — a calico cat, the loyal and heroic sheriff of a little western town called Nice and Friendly Corners — and her friends and associates as they learn important little life lessons. There’s an article at Entertainment Weekly that includes a preview video of the show. Sheriff Callie’s Wild West is available now at WATCHDisneyJunior.com and the WATCH Disney Junior smartphone and tablet app. It debuts on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior in early 2014.
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 ^^
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.
Their Friendship is a Little Rusty
“Richly endearing and full of surprises, Robot Dreams follows an ill-fated friendship between a dog and robot. After a Labor Day jaunt to the beach leaves Robot rusty and immobilized in the sand, Dog, unsure what to do, abandons him. As the seasons pass, Dog tries to replace his friend, making and losing a series of new ones, from a melting snowman to epicurean anteaters. Meanwhile, Robot passes his time daydreaming, escaping to better places…Through interwoven journeys, the two characters long to recover from their day at the beach.” Thanks to :01 First Second, this classic full-color graphic novel by Sara Varon is in print once again. It’s available in softcover on Amazon and elsewhere.
A Dandy in Space!
Lots of fandom folks (anime, furry, science fiction and otherwise) got excited this fall with the news that the team behind Cowboy BeBop had created a new, openly-silly science fiction anime called Space Dandy. The teaser trailer started making the rounds on YouTube. Well now comes even better news: Thanks to the efforts of Funimation, Space Dandy will be the first ever anime to premier in Japan and dubbed on American TV, simultaneously. It’ll be part of Adult Swim’s Toonami collection. Here’s what the producers say: “Space Dandy is a dandy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come – first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety of aliens.” According to the folks at Cartoon Brew, “Anime auteur Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) heads up the direction of Space Dandy which is produced by Japanese animation studio Bones and written by Keiko Nobumoto (Wolf’s Rain, Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus), Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eureka 7, Ergo Proxy) and Kimiko Ueno (Crayon Shin-chan).” Check out the new trailer on YouTube now!