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Funny Animal

Hopping Around the Issue

Things do get strange in the world of politics, and likely many people would agree that things have gotten even more strange than usual of late. And now, we can add furries to the mix! Follow us here: Vice President Mike Pence and his family wrote a book, Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President, which details that very thing — from the point of view of the Pence family’s new pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo. (The text is actually by daughter Charlotte Pence, with illustrations by Second Lady Karen Pence, who is a watercolor artist.) Not to be outdone, upon hearing news of this political comedian John Oliver and his crew at Last Week Tonight created A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, written by Jill Twiss and illustrated by E.G. Keller. Marlon Bundo is bored with his life as a vice-presidential pet, until one day he falls in love with another male rabbit named Wesley. Marlon offers Wesley his paw in marriage, but their same-sex union is loudly opposed by a stink bug — with a suspiciously familiar crop of white hair. Upon its release, the Marlon Bundo book instantly became a #1 best-seller on Amazon. It’s available now from Chronicle Books.

image c. 2018 Chronicle Books

Crawling Into Your Heart

Hey, remember Tentacle Kitty?  The little plushie feline with 10 wiggly things?  Well she’s been growing in popularity, enough that now Dark Horse Press bring us the Tentacle Kitty Coloring Book. “Tentacle Kitty, or ‘Pink One’ as she was called in her tribe, is a kitty from another dimension, that happens to have tentacles. After a series of unfortunate event, she is trapped on Earth trying to find a way home. Armed with ten tentacles, an adventurous spirit, and new friends, what could go wrong?” Featuring 96 pages of art by the likes of John Merritt, Amy King, Yishan Li, Brittney Williams, Aubrey Aiese, and Rootis Tabootus, it wiggles its way onto book shelves this coming May.

image c. 2018 Dark Horse Press

This Lion is Kuku

We have Fred Patten to thank for this: He pointed us in the direction of Kuku and Mey Mey, a new 2D animated comedy series of shorts created by Anish Patel and realized by HopMotion Animation. Here’s how they describe the show: “On the edge of the wildlife sanctuary that is Kuku’s home, is a famous Jungle Inn. This is Kuku’s hunting ground and the comforts of the Jungle Inn are big game. All Kuku wants to do is sneak into the inn and steal the modern day comforts it has to offer. Meanwhile, the territorial Mey Mey will go to any lengths to stop Kuku from trespassing. Her notorious booby traps are set at every corner to do the trick and embarrass the beast out of Kuku. The result is a chaos laden chase comedy that turns the tables on predator and prey.” Now, about distribution: “The first season of the show has 78 episodes of seven minutes each and is available on North America’s OTT platform Toon Goggles and VOD platform Amazon Prime US, under the title Kuku and the Goat.” Got it? The article over at Animation Xpress has more details and a preview video too.

image c. 2018 HopMotion Animation

She Knows Her Cute

Katie Cook is best known among Furry Fans for her work as a writer and artist on both My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comics and for her own creation, Gronk. Being something of an expert on drawing adorable things, now she’s written and illustrated an instructional book called Drawing Cute (from Impact Books). “Master of cute Katie Cook teaches you how to draw everything adorable in her first tutorial book with quick and easy-to-follow step-by-step lessons. All you need is a pencil and paper…or a napkin or a wall, depending on how confident you are in your drawing ability. Learn how to turn curvy blobs, shapes and squiggles into more than 200 different things, including fuzzy animals, cute food and inanimate objects like yarns balls, luggage and a toaster. Add nubbins, swishy bits, and little smiley faces to anything and everything to transform it into something really, really cute.” It’s available now from Amazon.

image c. 2018 Impact Books

 

But the Cat Came Back

Screen Daily has an article about 10 Lives, a new CGI feature film created by some familiar names. “The film is the second to be produced as part of a joint venture between Chinese animation outfit Original Force and GFM Animation. The first, Duck Duck Goose, will be distributed in China by Wanda Pictures and in the UK by Entertainment Film Distributors… 10 Lives is produced by Penney Finkelman Cox (Shrek) and Adam Zhang, senior vice president of Original Force. The story follows a once scrawny shelter kitten that now leads a pampered life after being adopted. Everything changes when he loses his ninth life. In the afterlife, he escapes and cheats his way into another cycle of nine lives, but he doesn’t realise that each of the nine lives will see him return as a different animal.” As you can see from the article, the film has already set up distribution throughout much of the world — but no word yet about North America. You can just bet, though, that a US or Canada deal is going to hinge on how well Duck Duck Goose does at the box office later this year.

image c. 2018 GFM Animation

Robo-Cop? No, Robo-Dog!

Two talented and award-winning creators who have worked on The Simpsons comics now turn their eyes to a funny animal science fiction adventure with Sparks!, a new full-color graphic novel. Written by Ian Boothby and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto, Sparks! goes like this: “August is a brilliant inventor who is afraid of the outside. Charlie is a crack pilot who isn’t afraid of anything. Together these pals save lives every day. They also happen to be cats who pilot a powerful, mechanical dog suit! Always eager to leap into danger, this feline duo have their work cut out for them as they try to thwart Princess, an evil alien bent on enslaving mankind. Don’t let the fact that Princess looks like a cute, diaper-wearing baby fool you. She’s clever, determined, and totally ruthless. So when Princess and the browbeaten fools she calls servants enact a brilliant and dastardly plan to conquer Earth, August and Charlie pull out all the stops to save the day.” Check out the preview video over on YouTube. The book is available now in hardcover and softcover from Graphix.

image c. 2018 Graphix

Life Imitates Art Imitates…

Ethan Young is an artist and comic-creator who has made a name for himself at Dark Horse Press with titles like Nanjing: The Burning City and The Battles of Bridget Lee. Before all that though, there was his semi-autobiographical comic Tails, based on his time working at an animal shelter — while trying to kick-start his comic career. Now Dark Horse have brought it all together in a new collection, Life Between Panels: The Complete Tails Omnibus. “Ethan’s life as one of the many cartoonists living in NYC might look mundane at first glance—living with his parents, working a day job, playing with cats. But things get crazy when he starts to draw his comic strip Crusader Cat! Soon, Ethan can’t tell the difference between real life and the comic panel!” Look for it in trade paperback this April.

image c. 2018 Dark Horse Press

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

Two Birdies on the Town

We actually heard about this from several sources: Tuca & Bertie is a new 2D animated series coming soon to Netflix. It stars comedian Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) as Tuca, “a cocky, care-free toucan who’s friends with a 30-something and anxious songbird (the titular Bertie)”. Ms. Haddish is also executive producer on the show, which was created by BoJack Horseman producer and designer Lisa Hanawalt. AV Club has more information about it, but no premier date yet.

image c. 2018 Netflix