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Funny Animal

Puss in Boots vs. Giant Chicken

A prequel to a prequel! Can you feel the synergy? Ape Entertainment (through their Kizoic imprint) present the Puss in Boots Movie Prequel graphic novel, coming this November. Written by Troy Dye and Tom Kelesides, it features full-color art by the Kizoic crew. This is from Comics Continuum: “The exciting prequel to the Puss In Boots movie is here in this exclusive original graphic novel! Puss enters a secret sword fighting competition to determine who’s the best with a blade. Will he defeat the rabid rooster known as ‘El Pollo Mas Rapido’? Or will Chuey, the Chihuahua cat burglar, take top prize? And in a Bonus story, Puss unravels the mystery of the Maltese Gato!” Remember, the feline furry comes to theaters from Dreamworks on October 28th.

 

image c. 2011 Ape Entertainment

The Wonderful, Wonderful Cat

Comic historians differ as to who exactly created the iconic character Felix the Cat: Joe Sullivan or his employee, Otto Messmer. To further complicate things, after his world-wide fame as a star of animated shorts (and being the first cartoon character ever represented by a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade), Felix appeared in a series of comic strip and comic book adventures in the 1940’s and 1950’s — some of which were drawn by Otto Messmer, and some by Joe Oriolo, but which were usually credited to Joe Sullivan. Got all that? It’s just one of the many facts presented in the introduction to Felix the Cat’s Greatest Comic Book Tails, in paperback now from IDW Publishing. After the opening essay by Craig Yoe and Don Oriolo (Joe’s son), be prepared for more than 200 of black & white and full-color comics. Righty-oh! More information is available at Amazon.

image c. 2011 IDW Publishing

Stay Furry, My Friends

We don’t need to tell you much about Puss in Boots from Dreamworks. “The Most Interesting Cat in the World”, his mini-trailers have gone viral all over YouTube and elsewhere already. So we’ll just clue you in on a few interesting factoids. The movie stars Antonio Banderas (of course!) as Puss and Salma Hayek as the curvaceous Kitty Softpaws, as well as the voices of Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris, Constance Marie, and Guillermo del Toro. It’s directed by Chris Miller, who’s an old hand at Dreamworks by now: Besides having directed Shrek the 3rd, he’s also known as the voice of Kowalski the penguin in the Madagascar movies. (Popular voice actor Jeff Bennett voices Kowalski in the Penguins of Madagascar TV series though. Back in the day, Chris Miller was also very well known for an animated short he created, Lea Press-On Limbs.) And of course, the most important news: It’s coming to theaters on Friday, October 28th. Right after seeing the movie, you might want to check out The Art of Puss in Boots, edited by Ramin Zahed and available in hardcover this November from Insight Editions.

image c. 2011 Dreamworks Animation

Behind the Maus

Considered by many critics and fans to be one of the most significant (as in, socially relevant) anthropomorphic works of the 20th Century, Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale brought us the story of a Jewish family struggling to stay alive and together in the horror of Nazi Germany during World War II. And it did so through the medium of funny animal comics — but oh, were funny animals ever so not funny… In the years since the publication of Maus (and after numerous awards), Art Spiegelman has been hounded by questions: Why the Holocaust? Why mice? And why a comic book?  Now, he attempts to take those questions head-on in his new hardcover book, Metamaus: A Look Inside A Modern Classic, Maus, which is available now from Pantheon Books. The book and accompanying DVD not only include an on-screen version of The Complete Maus, but also interviews with the creator’s father, memories of his mother (both his parents were held prisoner in concentration camps) by folks who knew her, scholarly essays on Maus, loads of background sketches, and much more.

image c. 2011 Art Spiegelman

A Boy and his Dog: They are the Law

“In the wild future, where weird science and natural wonders walk hand in hand, a boy and his dog decide to take a stand as the last, self-appointed supercops…” That’s the tag-line of Patrick & Theo, a new animated TV series in development, created by Ervin B. Nagy, Marci Nagy, and Marton Kovacs (all from Budapest, Hungary). It tells the story of Patrick, a 10-year-old boy with a crime TV show obsession, and Theo, Patrick’s mutant anthropomorphic dog and guardian. The creators have an extensive web site, which includes links to various YouTube videos (like this one and this one) that introduce you to the characters and their wild world.

image c. 2011 Nagy, Nagy, Kovacs

The Dog Who Fixes Cars

NBM Publishing is releasing two brand-new paperback volumes of Salvatore, a full-color graphic novel series by Nicholas De Crecy (translated into English). In an anthropomorphic world, a small dog named Salvatore is a mechanical genius, famed for his abilities to fix cars and construct all sorts of machines from car parts. And he longs to use his talents to construct an all-terrain vehicle which will take him around the world — or through it if need be — to reach South America, where his lady-love Julie has moved. That’s the plot of Volume 1, Transports of Love, which was released in January. In Volume 2, An Eventful Crossing (which arrives this December), our canine hero embarks on his journey, crossing up through Russia toward the pole — avoiding the seas, of which he’s deathly afraid — and meeting new friends and new adventures on the way. Check the whole thing out on Amazon.

image c. 2011 Nicholas de Crecy

Sonic Goes Big

Archie Comics have announced the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog Legacy, Volume 1 trade paperback this coming October. It’s part of a whole series of new Sonic the Hedgehog graphic novels that Archie will be releasing soon in a larger format to try and appeal to older readers. Publisher’s Weekly has the skinny on all of that. Meanwhile, Legacy features over 500 pages of Sonic and the Freedom Fighter’s early adventures, collecting together issues #0 – #3 of the original Sonic mini-series and issues #1 – #16 of the ongoing series.

image c. 2011 Archie Comics

Usagi Turns 200

Issue #141 of the multi-award-winning black & white comic book Usagi Yojimbo marks a special milestone: It’s the 200th issue over-all of the series created, as always, by Stan Sakai. And to celebrate, Stan has created a special self-contained story for this historic issue, 200 Buddhas. “With a ruthless gang terrorizing his small town, a humble stonecutter receives a vision and sets out to carve two hundred stone figures. Just as he has finished the 199th, a long-eared stranger comes to his door seeking shelter from the rain!” That long-eared stranger, of course, is the warrior rabbit that furry fans love. Usagi Yojimbo #141 hits the stands from Dark Horse Press this October.

image c. 2011 Stan Sakai

An Elephant in a Fedora

You can’t get much more straight-forward than this description of Big City Otto: Elephants Never Forget. “Otto is a lumbering, sweet-natured elephant who can’t forget his childhood chum Georgie, a smiley-faced chimpanzee who was abducted and shipped away from their forest home by the mysterious and sinister Man with the Wooden Nose. Accompanied by a wisecracking but protective parrot named Crackers, Otto decides to hop a plane and look for Georgie in America. But once they hit the wild streets of the concrete jungle, Otto and Crackers court trouble at every turn — even becoming unwittingly involved in the seedy alligator underworld dominating the city sewers. And little do these out-of-place out-of-towners realize that they, too, are being doggedly pursued across the city — by the local police! Will the authorities catch Otto and Crackers? Will Otto and Crackers find Georgie? Who is the Man with the Wooden Nose? And what’s an elephant doing sporting a trench-coat and fedora?” It’s a brand-new softcover graphic novel written and illustrated by Bill Slavin, and recently published by Kids Can Press.

image c. 2011 Bill Slavin